North Bay filmmaker’s documentary on historic amusement park airs on KRCB Sunday

A special effects wizard and longtime North Bay filmmaker who’s worked on every “Star Wars“ film for the past 40 years has made a documentary about one of the country’s oldest amusement destinations.

Peter Daulton’s latest film, “Trolley Park: Midway Memories,” about Midway Park in western New York, is currently available from PBS for streaming and will be broadcast on Sonoma County’s PBS station KRCB channel 22, Sunday at 7 p.m.

Daulton grew up going to Midway Park every summer in the 1960s.

“It’s one of my happiest childhood memories,” he said.

As a child, Daulton says he also loved movie special effects, and he moved to Sonoma County in 1978 to study film at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park.

Once in Sonoma County, he began working in a video production training course through local nonprofit Circuit Rider Productions, which provides mentoring and vocational training for at-risk youth.

From there, Daulton worked for more than 30 years at Industrial Light & Magic in Marin County as a camera operator and computer effects master on more than 60 films.

In the mid-1990s, Daulton accidentally discovered during a trip back home to western Pennsylvania that Midway Park not only still existed but remained largely the same as he remembered it.

“I was driving in the area and I thought I’d stay on a back road for a little bit. Darn if I didn’t drive right by the park," he said. ”I was amazed that a small amusement park like that could still be around and unchanged. In the back of my mind I had the idea that it would be a nice documentary film to make.“

Yet, it wasn't until he read a 2021 New York Times article about trolley parks that he says he decided to document Midway Park’s preserved attractions and the families who still visit the park to enjoy retro rides and games.

“I didn’t know what (trolley parks) were and I didn’t know Midway Park was a trolley park,” Daulton said.

Trolley parks came into fashion in the early 1900s as a way for railroad companies to increase ridership on the weekends and evenings by setting up a family destination at the end of the trolley line.

Daulton estimates there were over 1,000 of these parks a century ago, though now fewer than a dozen remain, and even fewer of those parks remain as they were in their hey day.

Midway Park, established in 1898 by JW & NW Railroad, and located south of Buffalo in the small town of Bemus Point, New York, has kept its classic charm and simple attractions including a vintage carousel and Tilt-A-Whirl through the efforts of the residents there who campaigned to turn it into a state park in 2007.

“Trolley Park: Midway Memories” tells the story of the 125-year-old park’s history and enduring popularity in the small town.

“When I was filming it, everybody I ran into on the street could tell me a story about Midway Park,” Daulton said. “People love that park and they’re glad it was preserved.”

After making the film, Daulton partnered with NorCal Public Media, which operates KRCB, to distribute the film.

Following the 7 p.m. airing of “Trolley Park: Midway Memories” on Sunday, KRCB will also air one of Daulton’s earlier documentaries, “Ride,“ about a town in Oregon that hand-built a carousel from scratch, at 7:30 p.m.

Daulton expects KQED to air “Trolley Park: Midway Memories” sometime around the July 4th holiday, though details are pending.

Daulton also says that he is planning to make a documentary about a different trolley park each summer, and will be traveling to Portland, Oregon, to document Oaks Park, which has been in operation since 1905.

“Trolley Park: Midway Memories” is available to stream on PBS now. For more information, go to pbs.org.