THE UFO HOME OF PEI, CANADA
Rainbow Valley, Photo Courtesy of Matthew Jelley |
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Rainbow Valley, Photo Courtesy of Matthew Jelley |
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In 2005 the federal government [of Canada] bought the land where Rainbow Valley Park was located so as to add it to the National Park system. The saucer was left on the property with the suggestion that it could become an interpretative center depicting the history of the land and the former Rainbow Valley Amusement Park. In actuality they turned around and sold it to a new park which opened up in the area in 2006, Shining Waters Family Fun Park. Shining Waters plans to "repaint the UFO this year [2007] and have already redone all the caulking in the seams of the fuselage. We have also converted it into a children's disco, complete with talking alien dj" [Source: Matthew Jelley, General Manager [Jan. 2007]] Our saucer is not a futurohome unfortunately, but I will give you a little history on it as it may be of interest to know its story. In 1966, Earl Davison owned a construction company with two partners. One had a dream of creating a leisure park and I guess it seemed like a good idea as they purchased the land that year that would become Rainbow Valley. When equipment was free from road construction and such jobs, work took place shaping the land with ponds and rolling hills, trees were planted in the thousands and a park like setting emerged. In the next few years, the partners started a small wholesale company. They planned to supply a new business in Charlottetown, PE, with gifts, nick knacks and souvenirs. The night before the shop was to open, it burned to the ground. In the spring of1969 they now had a large stock of items and nowhere to sell them. They had a park location but nothing there. It was suggested they put up a building on the site and try to get something started. Earl Davison was dabbling in fibreglass at the time as well, and figuring they needed something unique to create an attraction, built the flying saucer. He said with the talk about the USA hoping to put a man on the moon everyone was talking about little green men and UFOs. On August 2, 1969 Rainbow Valley opened to the public with little more than the flying saucer gift shop, some canoes and row boats, and a few picnic tables. The park ran for 37 seasons and grew a little every year. In 1974 they began manufacturing 42’ fibreglass fishing boats and sold them all over the world. The name was Provincial Construction until Earl sold it in 1998 and it became Provincial Boat & Marine. Regarding the construction of the saucer: as I can see from the photos on your web page the Futuros were assembled with two molds, one top, and one bottom. In our case there was one mold for top and bottom with a second mold for the window sections in the middle row. The mold was also used for the roof of one of our canteen buildings in the park. There was a second saucer built which landed in Moncton, New Brunswick. Over the years it was a pizza parlor, a real estate office, and when last seen it had been converted to a curling stone in front of a rink. I’ve attached a few pictures of the RV saucer and the canteen, maybe they’ll be useful to you and you’re welcome to use them on your site if they are. As I recall, Earl Davison did mention at one time about being sued by the company that had the Futuro franchise in Quebec, I think… He said the case never really took off, that the company fell on hard times before they could continue. [Quoted Source: John Davison, Rainbow Valley Ltd. [Jan. 2007]] |
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