Walks in the enchanted forest, villages destroyed by trees that fall covered with ice. ‘Humpty Dumpty is fine’

Enchanted Forest, Oregon’s fairytale theme park near Salem, was scheduled to reopen on March 19 after a GoFundMe campaign raised more than $ 400,000 to help the family business recover from the devastating tourism financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

But the beloved amusement park suffered another setback: the weight of an inch of ice accumulating on tree branches on Friday night knocked over a dozen Douglas pines and broke branches that crashed into toys and structures.

The children’s train was destroyed, the tower was pulled out of the castle and other miniature structures were destroyed in the villages made by hand by park founder Roger Tofte, a former Oregon State Highway Division designer who bought the land and started building the Enchanted Forest in the mid 1960s.

Huge trees blocked paths and trails and “put a sick feeling in our stomachs when we saw the damage,” said Susan Vaslev, a second generation of the Tofte family. “We have a lot of work to do to get back to where we were the day before. It is dangerous here, a helmet area. It looks like a war zone. “

On Monday, the family found the roofs and a construction crew to talk about starting repairs, while the park was still without power.

“Fortunately, we had a lot of big trees,” said Vaslev of the forest scene, “so we are not a parking lot.”

She wants to assure fans that the entire park has not been destroyed. “Humpty Dumpty is fine,” she said.

Vaslev said they were lucky because the GoFundMe campaign allowed them to maintain their insurance coverage. But they will have to finance the considerable deductible and the removal of debris.

The September forest fires were an even more tragic period for the family.

Roger Tofte’s 13-year-old grandson, Wyatt Tofte, died in the Beachie Creek fire. His grandmother, Peggy Mosso, 71, was killed and Wyatt’s mother Angela Mosso was seriously injured.

Vaslev said the family will soon know if it can still reopen on March 19.

– Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072

[email protected] | @janeteastman