In 1863, German woodworker Michael Dentzel sent his 17-year-old son, Gustav, to open a cabinet store the United States. Gustav began crafting carousels, including one that was installed in Rocky Springs Park in Lancaster in 1899. As improvements were made to the park over the years, the carousel was enhanced as well; a building was constructed around the carousel, and it was upgraded with mechanisms that run on electricity instead of steam. The attraction remained at the park until 1982, but few Lancaster County residents know what became of Gustav's famous carousel since then.

The longer it remained at Rocky Springs Park, the more the carousel became intertwined with Lancaster's history. In 1963, local residents began protesting at the park due to its segregated pool, and the attractions were closed to the public in 1968. Rocky Springs Park reopened more than a decade later, but attendance was heavily impacted by the nuclear accident at Three-Mile Island and a local polio outbreak. To ensure its safety, the carousel was removed from Rocky Springs in 1982. It was placed in Lake Lansing Park in Michigan the following year, where the carousel was active until the park's closure in 1986. In 1989, the carousel was moved to Dollywood, an amusement park in Tennessee owned by country singer Dolly Parton. The carousel was rebranded as the Dollywood Dentzel Carousel, and it remained at Dollywood for nearly a decade. Finally, after being purchased by a group known as the Friends of the Rocky Springs Carousel in 1998, the historic ride returned to Lancaster, where it has hidden in storage ever since.

Despite the historical significance and rarity of the Rocky Springs Carousel, every attempt at restoring the Rocky Springs Carousel to its former glory and finding a new home for it has been unsuccessful. According to a 2020 census conducted by the National Carousel Association, the ride is one of 208 classic wood carousels in North America. Of these 208 antiques, only 18 were manufactured by the Dentzel Carousel Company.

In 2021, Willow Street resident Eileen Gregg published a book to chronicle the story of the famous attraction titled "Lancaster's Hidden Treasure: The Rocky Springs Dentzel Carousel." The book includes the history of the Dentzel family and photos of the ride that have never been published before. On Jan. 29, 2024, Gregg organized the screening of the first half of a film at Willow Valley Communities that includes videos of the carousel in use during the '90s. The footage was taken by Robert Scuorzo of Henderson, N.C., who sent it to Gregg for safekeeping. Gregg plans to hold a viewing of the film's second half in the near future.

"I am very fortunate to have the film," Gregg said. "The first half of the film shows the carousel in operation, and some of the scenes are of the carousel's final day of operation that took place at the end of the 1998 Christmas season."

For more information or to find out when the next film screening will take place, search for "Lancaster's Hidden Treasure - The Rocky Springs Dentzel Carousel" on Facebook.