- In the 1960s, a teenage crowd began to congregate on Riverview's midway.

- People would show up, not necessarily looking to ride or have fun, but just to hang out and look for trouble.

- The first time I ever smelled the very distinctive odor of marijuana was at Riverview in the mid sixties.

There was not a lot of adult supervision.

It was a kid's playground.

- For some families, the freewheeling scene signaled danger and they steered clear of Riverview Park It's the perceived danger we're talking about here.

We were going there like once a week, and I never saw any fights break out.

It it, it was always, it seemed very, very safe to be there.

- Riverview's, attendance began to drop.

- People were starting to say that it was seedy or going downhill.

It was never as dangerous as people made it out to be.

- Meanwhile, by the mid 1960s, Chicago land values were soaring.

- Riverview being located at Western and Belmont and 120 acres.

That was very valuable land at the time.

- It was a far cry from the early 1900s.

When Riverview first opened, - You were basically in the boonies.

It was big, basically suburban Chicago, out, anything north of Fullerton Avenue at the time.

Now you're right smack dab in the middle of the city and property values are skyrocketing.

- The land the park occupied was worth much more than the revenue it generated, - And that's when they started looking for people to purchase the property.

But they kept it quiet.

Nobody knew about it.

The employees didn't know about it.

The patrons didn't know about it.

This was all kind of behind the scenes.

- After the 1967 summer season, a real estate investor bought Riverview Park for $6 million.

Some say third generation owner, Bill Schmidt, had reservations about selling, but eventually eager partners won out.

- I think it broke his heart.

I think that he tried everything he could within his own power to try to save the park, but he had under 15% stock, so he was being overwhelmed by all these people that had gotten shares of the property, and there really wasn't a whole heck of a lot he could do.

I just opened up the newspaper and it just was totally shocked.

Riverview closes - Throughout its 64 year history, a staggering.

200 million people visited Riverview Park.

For many who loved it.

The news came like a punch in the gut.

Sudden and painful.

- Riverview was gone.

It was gone, and it was just quiet.

- The reason a park shutdown is always gonna be a great, to my mind, a great mystery.

- It's like somebody took a light switch and just turned it off, and that was the end.