Foster will buy Onancock carnival rides, move them to Cape Charles

As seen in Eastern Shore News — 03-25-2006

By Ceri Larson Danes

When Dickie Foster's pilot landed the Bay Creek helicopter smack dab in the middle of the carnival grounds here last Thursday, it fueled speculation that the Cape Charles developer may be looking north, to Onancock. The volunteer fire company, which owns the carnival grounds and adjacent ball fields, announced last month their intention to sell it all, discontinuing the annual summer attraction and Fourth of July fireworks. But Foster, whose Bay Creek Resort sits on nearly 2,000 acres surrounding Cape Charles, was not looking for more real estate.

It was the historic carnival and its role in the history of Onancock and the lives of residents and visitors over the years that captured his imagination and brought him to town to see the rides. After taking it all in, Foster said he wanted to buy all the rides and the buildings, too. He plans to relocate the business to Cape Charles. Foster said the new site would be near the "hump," the vehicle overpass he hopes to make a pedestrian-only crossing. "If I buy it, I want to buy it all, so I can get what I need. I want to know the history of the whole place," he said in an interview this week.

As the new operator of the Shore's short line railroad, now called Bay Coast Railroad, Foster has control over more land in and around the town harbor and plans several stops for excursion train rides that will bring people into Cape Charles from a station center at the corner of U.S. Route 13 and Stone Road. The carnival will be one of many new attractions at stops along the way. "It was one more piece of the Shore that was going to be leaving," he said, adding that when he read a story about the fire company's plans to sell it due to rising insurance costs and other issues, he decided to see it for himself. The news of the fire company's impending sale and that it had ceased operation of the Onancock institution came as a sad surprise to many.

Fire Chief Mike Truitt said he's probably been involved with the carnival for 35 years. His father, he said, has been associated with it for more than 50 years. Nonetheless, Truitt was there with an attentive crowd to meet with Foster last week when he arrived on the scene. He confirmed this week that the equipment would have been auctioned off and probably split up and moved to different locations had Foster not stepped in.

"We're excited about the carnival being kept intact and on the Shore and its history being preserved," Truitt said. Foster, a diehard history buff of all things Shore-related, has pursued many projects to preserve and celebrate the stories of the region - from creating an historically accurate replica of the Old Plantation Flats Lighthouse, to preserving cemeteries and other sites and revitalizing and the railroad and its history. That enthusiasm has now reached the boarded up carnival that had heard its last shriek from the Scrambler, one of its popular rides. Foster and Truitt each confirmed that a gentleman's agreement had been struck and said attorneys are currently drawing up paperwork on both sides of the deal. Foster declined to say what he had agreed to pay.

"I rode that when I was a kid," Foster said of the Scrambler. It came to Onancock from Norfolk's Ocean View Amusement Park, where he spent time in his youth. "Some of those things are older than me, the 62-year-old carnie said. A couple other rides came from Buckroe Beach in Hampton, another of Foster's childhood haunts. In addition to the Scrambler, the other rides, familiar to many, include the Black Spider, Tilt-a-Whirl, swinging boats, the pony carts, Ferris wheel, Space Chaser, Kiddie Roto Whip and the Merry-Go-Round.

Foster also has a well-known attraction to carousels. Local artist Thelma Peterson has created colorful renderings of the one-of-a-kind horses and other rides that will be featured in a custom-made carousel currently in the works. Peterson also will have a hand in the Onancock merry-go-round. She will create painted scenes of historic Onancock places for the rounding board that encircles the top of the ride, memorializing its place in the town's history. As a further nod to that history, Foster plans historic markers at each ride, telling the stories of each one.

The buildings -- he may not use them all -- carry their own history and some of them will be used to house a museum at the new site. He said he walked into one of the buildings and saw numbers scratched all over the walls. "That is how they kept their daily receipts," he said. "They wrote them on the wall." To Foster, that is worth preserving. Along with about 70 years of photographs archived by the fire department. Truitt said they are in the process of organizing those.

Foster said the first thing he'll do is get a picture of the entire fire company. It will be enshrined along with all the other photos in the relocated buildings in Cape Charles. He wants to show "this is where it started, and this is where it ended," he said. "Whatever history they kept, this will be the end of it. Then we'll start it all over."

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