The man with the bandana over his face pointed a gun at me. “Do you have any gold teeth?”

I recognized him as an arch-villain like the kind on TV, where cowboys in big hats ran around shooting each other. I had no idea when adults were only play-acting in a costume, or what “gold teeth” were, but was pretty sure I’d never noticed any while brushing in the mirror before bedtime. I shook my head.

   “Open your mouth!” he demanded.

That was a familiar command from trips to the dentist, so I did. Then I held very very still, staring up at him. Is he going to kill me? The grownups here are insane. I’m all on my own here.

   “Aright then.” He holstered the gun, jumped off the stage coach, and waved the driver to start the horses again. The passengers gave him a round of applause. Another day of family fun at Frontier Town. Now for a preschooler, the perfect punch line would have been seeing this arch-villain take off the bandana and say “Surprise! I was only kidding! I’m a local high school kid at a tiring summertime resort job. The gun’s not loaded. It’s made of licorice.” I would have really laughed and then dogged his footsteps for the rest of the day, peppering him with questions.

The Great Stage Robbery came to mind today in a waking moment before dawn, just one more vignette in a warm loving childhood set in the utter cirque-du-bizarro called the 1950s. I lay in my blankie roll thinking “Wait, what? Did that happen? Did some historic re-enacter really point a gun at a little girl? Was it called ‘Frontier Town’? Was that a real place?”

By golly yes it was. Who knew? I just looked it up. The park opened in 1952 at Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks, upstate New York. According to the website Atlas Obscura, it had “trick riders, bucking broncos, horses and buggies and stagecoach bandits…. Founded by Arthur Bensen, an enterprising phone technician from Staten Island, the park had a Pioneer Village (with lots of calico dresses and butter churning), Prairie Junction (modeled after a Wild West main street), an Indian Village, a rodeo arena, and even a narrow gauge railroad.”

And according to this article by Michael Maciag,

https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-north-hudson-new-york-frontier-town.html

“Frontier Town, a Wild West theme park, once attracted families from all across the country. In its heyday, more than 3,000 cars may have filled the parking lot on a weekend. Patrons filled up the town’s motel rooms. When the day ended, they dined at one of several restaurants or taverns. If thrillseekers wanted to make their own food, the town even had a grocery store — a luxury not many other places in the Adirondacks enjoyed.” Article photographs include this appealing abandoned church, looking like some Volga German construction in a Russian village.

I was too young to remember any of those attractions, or the rest of our trip. But it’s heartwarming to think of my thrifty serious overworked parents driving all day for a cultural holiday. I wish I could thank them for it, especially for the chance to meet a live horse that wasn’t just in a movie or a book. That is my main memory of Frontier Town. It happened at our cute little overnight motel, white with yellow shutters and a covered porch, run by a friendly motherly innkeeper. She had a small fenced pen outside with a pony. I think their names were Betty and Tony. Someone picked me up and put me on Tony, and led him around the pen. He was very gentle and very soft to the touch, with a shining black & white pinto coat. Up on his back, I was over the moon with astonishment and happiness. That made it a little sad to click through various websites and read about a family resort shuttered down with only a few animatronic cowboys looming around. But now that story might have a new ending, according to this website:

https://www.frontiertowngateway.com/our_story

Apparently new American Mr. Mohammad Ahmad and his family have made an enthusiastic home here, and have been hard at work setting up a gas station and a local restaurant as a rest stop for tourists. The website advertises cuisine from Pakistan at “Taste of Lahore at Frontier Town (Halal).” If I were near the Adirondacks, I’d hurry on down to say Salaam aleykum and have lunch and talk to the family.

Frontier Halal. That says it all. God bless America!