Bullwinkle’s Family Fun Center is returning to Upland

Bullwinkle’s — the amusement park, not the amusing cartoon — is readying for a comeback.

Owners of the Upland fun park hope to reopen later this month, some 20 months after the previous operator closed and declared bankruptcy.

The park’s name will be Family Fun Center, and the restaurant will be Bullwinkle’s. Those are two familiar names for longtime residents, and the operator, the Huish family, may also be familiar.

“My dad and my uncle built this park in 1972,” said Scott Huish, the co-owner. “This has been part of the community for 50 years.”

At the risk of sounding like Bullwinkle in his guise as Mr. Know-It-All, the Upland park was first the Family Fun Center, became Bullwinkle’s in 1984 and was leased out by the Huish family in 1998 to Boomers, which put its own name on the center in 2002. Boomers closed at the start of the pandemic and its company filed for bankruptcy in June 2020.

As weeds sprouted and the water in the bumper boat pool turned green, generations of patrons wondered: Was there still a market for miniature golf, arcade games and go-karts, or would the property be turned into something grownup and dull?

Just when all seemed lost, the park’s founders rode to the rescue like Dudley Do-Right.

The Huish family, which operates five other amusement or water parks in the western United States, reassumed control of the 12-acre property in June.

A much-needed overhaul and cleanup of the aging amusement park began, with pressure washing of walls and floors, 500 gallons of paint, fresh asphalt for the parking lot and brand-new kitchen equipment for the restaurant, among other improvements.

After health and building inspectors clear them to operate, a portion of Bullwinkle’s will reopen in the coming weeks, possibly by late November.

Already, motorists are noticing the activity on the grounds, which abut the 10 Freeway. Banners along a freeway-facing wall read “Bullwinkle is Back!” and “Under ‘Old’ Management” — a nod to the higher standards the family intends to reassert.

“We get honks when we’re out here,” Huish told me as we stood near the banners last week, freeway traffic rushing past nearby.

I wrote about the forlorn state of the park after the bankruptcy filing, when Boomers’ signs came down and games were hauled out.

The Huishes had declined to speak publicly while working out internally what to do with the property. Scott Huish recently contacted me to say that the family was finally ready to disclose its plans. I met him on the site for a tour — while hoping super-spies Boris and Natasha weren’t listening in.

The immediate objective is to open the bumper boats, the restaurant and arcade, the go-kart track and the miniature golf courses: two indoors and two outdoors. (The batting cages will not reopen.)

Over the coming months, the two outdoor courses will be rebuilt, a few holes at a time, and plans will be developed for an overhaul of the central building, which will get 16 lanes of bowling, among other uses.

Once the full park is operating, possibly by mid-2023, the restaurant and arcade will move to the main building and the westernmost portion of the park will be available for other uses to be determined, Huish said.

Now, what about Bullwinkle’s?

The clunkier aspects of the restaurant won’t return, like the animatronic characters and water fountain show. Art of Bullwinkle, Rocky the flying squirrel and other characters adorns the restaurant walls, and 1980s wooden chairs with Bullwinkle’s silhouette cut out are back.

“We love him. He’s a great character, a great ambassador for our business,” Huish said. “He’s fun. He’s what we want to represent.”

The family owns the food rights to the name and characters and uses them at parks in Oregon and Washington.

“Every single person in this community knows this as Bullwinkle’s,” Huish said of Upland and environs. When we met he was wearing a polo shirt with the moose logo. When he visits paint stores, hardware stores and contractors in that shirt, eyes light up.

“It’s a $25 million project,” Huish said as we spoke near the bumper boats. “When I hear that out loud, it makes me a little nervous. But when they see this shirt, they’re so excited that I’m not really nervous.”

Twin brothers John and Jim Huish got into miniature golf while serving in the U.S. military in Europe. After their return they built an 18-hole course in Springville, Utah, which put them through college. (Was that Wossamotta U from the Bullwinkle cartoons?)

They eventually opened seven family entertainment centers, with Upland as the third.

“Upland was on the edge of civilization back then,” Scott Huish, who is John’s son, recalled. “They bought 25 acres. It was a strawberry patch. It was just part of their Southern California strategy. They just saw the growth trend.”

Some of that land was later sold. Jim died in 1984 and John decided in the late 1990s to sign long-term leases with Boomers to run the Upland and Fountain Valley parks and concentrate on his remaining parks out of state. He was still interested in Upland but had no leverage as conditions slipped.

“He would still show up and tell them how to run it. They wouldn’t listen to him,” Huish said. “They ran it the next 25 years. Or as I like to say, ran it into the ground.”

Scott and his brother Shane have continued in the family business. Six other siblings did not, and John died in March at age 86. “We were able to buy out our siblings and save this park,” Scott said. A cousin, Dyke Huish, is also a partner.

They’ve already reclaimed their old San Diego park from Boomers and reopened it in September 2020 as a Family Fun Center.

They expect to spend more than $15 million on improving the Upland park.

“I was 5 years old when my Dad built this park,” Scott said. “Now I get to rebuild it for him. And I’m honored to do it.”

brIEfly

A documentary on singer Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour of 1970, “Learning to Live Together,” screens at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Laemmle Claremont 5. A special guest will be in attendance: singer Claudia Lennear, who was on the tour and was interviewed for the documentary. She’ll be part of a Q&A afterward. I’ll be in the audience; how about you?

David “Nice Dog” Allen writes Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on Twitter.