The public will be able to take train rides at the park from noon to 5 p.m. each day, with tickets going on sale at 11 a.m. The rides will cost $2 each, according to Janet Keefer, Eden Springs Park Preservationist.

“Of course, if someone wanted to buy the first ticket for $500, I wouldn’t object,” Keefer said. There will also be a donation box, she said.

The tickets are reproductions of the actual train tickets sold by the House of David, with some of the wording changed, Keefer said.

Mike Lagness, lead train engineer at the park, said the funds will go toward restoration of the east trestle. Those repairs will cost about $30,000, he said,

A group of miniature railroad enthusiasts bought the amusement park grounds from the Israelite House of David and has been working to re-establish it is a miniature train park. Volunteers have restored much of the old South Depot, got the railroad roundhouse in order again, cleaned up the park grounds, and installed a 1,200-foot demonstration loop of track.

The trains have actually been running for several months, and a number of astonished residents have heard the train whistles coming from the park – but many thought they must be hearing things. The once-beloved House of David Amusement Park closed in the 1970s, and no one ever thought they’d hear train whistles there again, much less be able to take a train ride.

The rides that will be available Oct. 29 and 30 are much shorter than the old-time rides. Those rides took passengers from the North to the South Depot and back, across two high trestles over the deep ravine that holds the center of the old park grounds.

Those trestles have to be repaired. Lagness said just getting the east trestle repaired will open up a lot of new ground for the trains.

“We’ll make our track four to five times longer,” Lagness aid. “We might even go to that base ball field where people hang out.”

The plans include the possible extension of a spur to Eastman Field at the adjacent grounds of Mary’s City of David.

Those who want to come should enter the Eden Springs Park at the House of David drive off M-139, then turn left toward the South Depot to park. The campgrounds there are built on the grounds of the original House of David baseball field.

Benjamin and Mary Purnell founded the Israelite House of David in Benton Harbor in 1903. The colony opened the amusement park in 1908, and it proved hugely successful.

At its peak, the park had the train rides, ornately landscaped grounds, a hotel, a vegetarian restaurant, a zoo and aviary, pony rides and miniature racing cars for kids, a beer garden, a large stage for shows, an arcade complete with bowling alleys, lots of souvenir stands, and stands selling the colony’s famed ice cream.

The House of David had a significant influence on agriculture, food preservation, tourism and amusement parks.

While there is no evidence to support the popular belief that Walt Disney visited the park, the Disney organization before opening Disneyland did buy one of the park’s trains for study.

wast@TheH-P.com