VOTE HERE FOR THE MOST DISTURBING DARK RIDE: forms.gle/j4GwFyhVKURQSABH8

Well, I am largely responsible for the design of this remarkably weird dark ride. In fact, it was one of our first design/rebuilds and I am very proud of its 30 year anniversary! Jim Lynch , now deceased, was my lead designer at the time. We rebuilt it over two seasons and, as many have suggested, threw the kitchen sink at it… if we had a mold, were used it.

1) never, EVER skip the dark ride 2) the Grim Reaper popping up behind the bars is one of the most effective jump scares I've ever seen in person Supposedly the grim reaper, the flooded room, mummy, and the headless guy are tributes to Canobie's original dark ride, The Swamp, which was a 50s era Pretzel installation redone by Bill Tracy in the 60s. The flooded room, collapsing beams, and waterfall gag are typical of Tracy, as are grim reapers and gory displays. Sally's challenge was to somehow combine all of this with the "Policy Mine Co" theme of the south side of the park. How they did is, um, evident? Memorable? My favorite part you don't mention, which is when the pepper's ghost effects of the Holland boys end, they lay down and the video screens turn off, revealing their decayed bodies! It's badass.

6:25 *Wolf:* "That's really bright, what kind of candles are those?" *Twitchy:* "'Dee-nah-mii-tey'. Must be Italian."

Somewhere out there is an Egyptian curse themed dark ride with two scenes in it featuring an abandoned mine.

The miner that blows himself up does it by accident, according to the dialogue - Unseen miner: it’s dark in here, got a candle? Visible miner: let’s see, here’s one! Unseen miner: THAT’S NOT A CANDLE!!! **explosion** I learned so much from this video that I previously didn’t know about the Mine of Lost Souls, like the handprints on the falling boulder. There’s also some more details I noticed that I want to point out. Jake the skeleton is on the side of the chess board closer to the waterfall of no return, which to me symbolizes death is on that side. Past the skeleton with glowing eyes is an illuminated sign reading “go back.” Underneath it is a derailed mine cart, which could be the remains of some people who ventured too far. There is a goof in the pepper ghost effect: the miner and reaper each have slightly different backdrops (the stones on each on are positioned differently). Also once you’re past the reaper, ominous music fills the tunnel, adding to the change in tone. At first I thought the miner in the mausoleum scene was stealing a coffin (with the skeletal arms trying to pull it back) instead of lowering one in. Overall this ride flies under the radar. For one that has some crude animatronics, it makes up for in its ominous backstory, clever effects, and especially tone. The first half is silly mining shenanigans, and the second half has you running for your life past these disturbing and unusual sights. As for why there’s an Egyptian tomb in the mine, it could just be that Egyptian culture has a supernatural aspect with mummies and tombs, and you often see those motifs in Halloween decorations. Maybe the designers thought that would fit in with the ride’s spooky theme idk. But it does make the ride all the more mysterious.

Honestly it's not even the scariest attraction at Canobie in my experience. That award goes to the Kiddie Canoes, because the fake cave the kiddie boats sent you through were ALWAYS filled with hornets' nests. Great video as always, btw! Just found your channel recently and have been binging your content the last several nights, haha.

Dude, you need to listen to the dialog of the animatronic miner on the outside, he explains everything! Except for the Egypt stuff. I adore this ride!

I'm from NH and have ridden this many times, the egyptian whiplash theme switch always confused me but I think it adds to the charm of this ride.

I worked at canobie like two years ago. I usually worked the extreme frisbee and canobie 500, but one day I had to fill in for someone on the mine of lost souls. It was pretty fun, being ghoulish and all. At the end of the night, we have to do the final walk-around of the layout to make sure the interior is all clear. My coworker SPEEDWALKS off into the mine, telling me to stay close, and I’m like… trying to avoid tripping over the center rail and falling into the water in the first part, and trying not to hit my head on the doors, meanwhile, all the jumpscares and effects are still going. It sure gave me an exclusive brand of anxiety. As for the random Egyptian stuff, the only pyramids in NH that I know of are in Splash Battle at storyland. Also, Stephen King seems to like New Hampshire. Wendy Torrance’s mom is from NH if I remember correctly, and he mentions UNH by name in The Shining too.

I grew up with this ride! I remember going on it every summer at Canobie from four years old.. and I’m now 31! While the ride does not make sense, it is a classic for us New Englanders. It definitely could use some updates but it’s nostalgic to the core. Thank you for featuring our little New Hampshire park!

My dear TPC, I was literally just checking on your channel to rewatch some of your old dark ride videos. Feels like you've read my mind. Btw today here in Brazil a new 400 million dollars theme park was announced by the country's biggest chocolate brand, and it will have an elaborate log flume dark ride on opening day. The owners are very confident and their inspiration is Hersheypark, I am very anxious to see the result. As always thanks for providing us with top tier content!

I was a scaredy cat growing up going to Canobie every summer and always avoided riding it until my last trip there some years ago. I was totally thrown off by the bizarro turns it takes (especially the Egypt stuff) but also kind of impressed by the theming. Would love to hear someone who worked on it chime in talk about it!

I'm not sure if you have ever covered this Dark Ride, but "Monster Mansion" aka "Monster Plantation" or "Haunted Plantation" at Six Flags over Georgia is an interesting, unique and weird Dark Ride. Noteworthy because it was designed by legendary TV show and pupper producers Sig & Marty Kroft.

Looks like a coaster I’d make on roller coaster tycoon after a night out with the bois

I appreciate all the animatronics; it's always fun seeing a classic dark ride without a plethora of screens. I personally dig how surreal it is; it makes it extra memorable.

My boyfriend never stops talking about this ride it’s been an inside joke between us for years awesome video made me laugh

Ugh I love old mine themed dark rides. Top tier.

I loved this ride growing up and thought the effects and animatronics were so cool. I think as I got a little older, I kind of assumed that the Egyptian stuff was from a different cancelled ride or something. Haha. Loved it, but it felt out of place. It also made it extra fun to take someone new on it and see how they reacted to it.

Also, your bit about being the grim reaper and going to a theme park instead of a cave totally reminded me of that one bumper car installation at Dismaland. 😂

Dude I am SO here for this! This ride was my bete noir growing up. Perhaps some day I shall go back and conquer it once and for all (aka ride it without shutting my eyes and freaking out). Also never noticed the hand prints on the boulder, so thanks for that little Easter egg!

I love these little asides from your other videos!! So fun

Hey! Great video! Very enjoyable and funny. A few moments made me laugh out loud. There's a few things that I wanted to point out. 1. The hands on the falling boulder are definitely intentional, and they were a fairly recent addition. I want to say they were added sometime around 2015-ish. 2. The line in the song is actually, "Are demons lurking after all?", but that's a miniscule difference. 3. That is definitely a coal powered furnace; likely to keep the miners warm while working down there. 4. The miner in the mausoleum scene is not lowering the casket, he is indeed attempting to grave rob. This was discussed during the behind the scenes tour and also by the Sally Corporation on LaffInTheDark. Great video, though! It is definitely one of the most unique and bizarre dark rides, and I'm glad that New England has it!

This is actually the second version of the ride. In the second room with all the miners you used to go past a pirate ship. It was pretty cool. Makes me think of Goonies. Some of the effects are from the original story. Not that it explains the Egyptian stuff. Might explain the swashbuckler at the end. On a behind the scenes walkthrough I tripped the sensor (on purpose) for the grim reaper jump scare and scared some people near the bars.

My home Park! The reason the Grim Reaper is there, is because the gold is cursed and those too greedy will be cursed to join the devil. Kind of like the . And when you go beyond the waterfall, you cross the river stix. This takes you into the underworld. That is the plot. And yes Jake died waiting for Jasper to move. The reason for the Egyptian themeing is that, the original rooms were deemed too creepy and racist so they changed it to Egyptian themeing. The original theming of those 2 rooms were linked to the old America's Stonehedge which is just down the road. It is a so ancient Native American site that may or may not be legitimate. There is a Sacrificial stone in Americas Stonehedge. In those 2 rooms you are presented as the next sacrifices for the native Americans (called Savages then, hence the change) and you come into the room where you look like you are in the Stonhedge, and then in the next room go onto the Sacrificial table with a blood curdiling scream and it turns red to signifing you or your companian dying) The rest of the ride is you being chased by the Grim reaper trying not to be one of the lost souls. also, the headless guy is supposed to be the miner who went in with you that was the first sacrifice Yeah, really dark and problematic which is why it was changed. they did Egyptian as it was cheap and easy to get at the time. Or so the rumor goes...

Damn, I've had Joyland on my bookshelf unread for years. Thanks for giving me new motivation to read it!

I have only about 4 channels that I religiously check for new uploads. Peter, your channel is one of them. I always get hyped whenever a new video is posted, even if I've never been to the place the video is based on. You truly take me out of my small modular home in michigan and place me right into the scene of whatever ride you're talking about. Thank you for all the hard work you do!!! You deserve millions and millions of views.

I loved this. The nonchalant way you're trying to make sense of the story made it hilarious. "The reaper possessed him to blow himself up"

This is a favorite between me and my family. I have some many good memories including my grand father (rest in piece) quoting the miner and grim reaper pepper ghost scene. Also funny enough my first time riding this, I hade a nightmare about it that night. keep up the good work man, I have been watching your channel since 2018.

Ah, yes. The old Mine of Lost Souls. Great to see your channel highlighting its randomness! I used to visit Canobie every year growing up, as it was not too far a drive from my home.

My theory on why the Egyptian rooms is they needed to fill 2 more rooms and Sally Dark Rides had those props readily available from their other Egyptian themed rides.

I'm shocked I never received a push notification about this vid. I basically grew up with this attraction, with the first time of me riding said attraction probably being around 2012. There was a time where dark rides used to frighten me quite a bit, with an infamous example of such being the time I basically covered my eyes the whole time on Knoebel's Haunted Mansion, which is an attraction that's basically on my bucketlist of attractions to revisit. Safe to say this oddly charming dark ride is in many ways the reason I've pursued working in the haunt industry, and at times I really wish we had more attractions like The Mine of Lost Souls at more parks

So glad to see you cover this! As a kid it used to scare me but I returned as an adult and went on it because I was reminded how bad I used to get scared as a kid and after I got off the ride, I was wondering what kind of fever dream I had just endured lol. It hits different as an adult and honest, it might be better!

Grew up going to Canobie Lake Park, I never rode this. I saw it all the time when I went to the kiddie canoes and the pirate ship but never thought to ride it.

My hometown park and first ever dark ride :) Never realized how weird it was!

Your break down and analysis of this ride is hysterical. It is a fun ride to go on. We first rode it about 20 years ago and always enjoy it even though the lack of a cohesive story.

In all my 30+ years of living in NH and visiting canobie, I never once questioned the Egyptian part till now 🤣 That ride is a total classic and even though it makes 0 sense, it's still a wicked cool experience!

Love seeing this ride get some love! My parents made me go on this when I was probably 4 or 5 years old, and it scared me so much! I remember I buried my head in my mom's lap crying, then had nightmares for days based on what little I actually saw of it. I refused to go on it again until I was well into my 20's and was shocked at how silly and comical it actually was, it ended up becoming one of my favorites whenever we go to Canobie Lake Park now haha. If you haven't covered it yet, check out the Log Chute ride at the Mall of America in Minnesota. It's based on Paul Bunyan, and is both pretty impressive for being a log ride in a mall, and also inadvertently pretty creepy because of the old animatronics. They decorate it for various holidays like Christmas and Halloween and somehow make it more unsettling than it already is.

Every year for my birthday, my parents would take me and a group of friends to Canobie Lake Park. Thanks for bringing back some major nostalgia for me with this video. I loved the haunted mine (that’s what we called it), absolutely loved it.

Nothing will ever beat Castle Dracula in Wildwood NJ.

hey I think that the Egypt section might be from the earlier dark ride that was fully Egyptian themed. this might be a myth I heard when I was younger but there might have been more of the Egypt theme and they kept it when making it into a mine dark ride, also there are behind the scenes footage of the set pieces being built and the backstory billy and bobby which ties into the Halloween events haunted houses, there's a lot of confusing information but from what I've seen and grown up with its kept me amused that such a small park had such detail and effort put into these small things

When it first opened the island with the weird furnace thing and chess players was a pirate ship and an alligator that jumped up at you, but didn't work half the time. Also the Egyptian part replaced completely dark rooms with blacklight and Construx toys hanging from the ceiling. So if you think its stupid now, you should've seen it before. But it will still always be my favorite ride there. PS "the swamp" was even worse, but great video, you brought back a lot of memories for me

I enjoyed the video. Always interesting to see how ride makers work with what they've got to execute a theme or vision. So actually encountering the falls was like - oh! I like that

Seriously, a very strange ride. It actually seems like a solid ride, with good special effects and better animatronics than most other rides have, but the mixture of theming is bizarre.

Omg! I love this ride so much Canobie is my local park 💜 Thank you for covering this!

It's so cool to see my local park on your channel!

Hey, I'm from Massachusetts and used to go to Canobie Lake Park a lot as a kid. I was super scared of this ride, but it was something you went on with your crush on school trips when we were in middle school/junior high. Not because you had any time or privacy to actually canoodle in there, but because it was an excuse to cuddle up and cling to each other "in fear." Alternatively, if there wasn't a crush in the group you wanted to cuddle up with, you'd get made fun of by your friends for closing your eyes at the scary parts. But everybody reacted to something in there at some point. No point in denying it! I haven't been there since high school. I'd love to go back and look at all this weird stuff I was creeped out by.

no media will ever do justice to how loud and creepy this is in real life. you can barely make out what any of the audio is

This is literally the first dark ride that I’ve ever seen that features its own proper cephalophore! That is so awesome!

I’ve ridden this ride once a year almost every year since 1995 and I never noticed the mining song or the Hollander name on the boy’s crypt. Amazing video, thank you!

The animatronic minor welcoming riders into the mine looks a lot like Kurt Russell in Tombstone! 😂🪦🫐

I grew up with this ride, having gone every summer since I was six. Still at age 25, I am gleefully terrified of it. The nostalgically creepy animatronics and bizarre tone is what makes it so much fun every single time

It's the ultimate thrill and scare ride ,I'd love this , great video ,thanks for your awesome narration.👍

I think the out of place aspects like the Egyptian scenery and the pirate are meant to be a collective concept of the afterlife in other cultures, since the Grim Reaper has a lot of places to be. But it’s understandably put together in a confusing way if that was the goal. But that’s what I suspect.

This ride use to scare the crap out of me as a kid in the late 90's n early 2000s

The grim reaper jumpscare at the end scared me so much

The amount of times I've been on this ride and I never noticed the handprints on the falling boulder at the beginning. That's so cool. I wanna go back soon!

The mine was WAY different when it first opened. It was creepier and less random. I still love this thing though. Remember being excited about it when it was announced. Great video man.

Hi. I’m new to the channel and I have to say this is a very well made video. In my experience, the most bizarre dark ride I’ve ever been on was called Voyage to the Moon from Storyland, also in New Hampshire. It shut down around the year 2000 so I was only about six years old at the time. From what I remember, the ride was like a story told by a wizard or something and the cart went through a bunch of random areas without any sort of connecting theme. One room had robots mining crystals in a cave and another featuring Mr Peanut dancing on an ice cream cone. Following that was a large and scary looking cloud called Mr Blowhard who blew a hard gust of air at the riders. The ride later became a more entertaining playground with foam balls, but I have no idea what happened to it now.

YEEEESS! I rode this as a kid and me and my sister cracked up at how bizarre and stupid the theming was. Even as children we knew this was a goofy ride!

I just randomly came across this video. I'm from New Hampshire and been to Canobie many times. However, I've only been on this particular ride once or twice as I've never really been one for dark rides. I'm gonna have to check it out next time I'm there!

I love that you compared the ride to Stephen King’s works. 😂 That whiplash in some of his stories can be so jarring that it pulls me out of the book.

I rode this when I was a kid, and this was definitely a memory jog because I had only remember an empty cavern with a devil head and waterfalls, but a lot of this is familiar now. Thank you!

I was sold on the idea until the part with the Pharaoh.

A video about Canobie?? Wow, I never thought I'd see someone talk about my hometown park. My dad worked with park in the early 2000s on some voice over stuff. I used to have nightmares about this ride, It's nice to see it covered lol

I love your videos , this was like listening to a monotone professor at 7:25 am in the morning. I basically dozed off in class, waking up dazed & confused. Maybe contact the parks publicist to get some back story and then represent it to the class . Is the ride that bad ?

This is my favorite ride of all time the Egyptian section always makes me laugh. Thank you

I grew up right around the corner from Canobie, I've only been on this ride a few times because it's tucked away at a far edge of the park we didn't explore very much. It's a charming little ride! I think I remember there being mist in the cave which always helps in the summer

I went here back when I was 8 years old and let me tell you, this ride haunted my nightmares for years!

This is an amaqzingly designed dark ride. Maybe I am just warped by decades of seeing deteriorated dark rides in small parks where nobody has done any maintenance since 1980

I was also very confused by this ride. You explained more of it than I understood so in my mind it’s way less strange now. Lol. Imagine how confused I was when we went to Egypt when I didn’t even understand what came before it.

I grew up going to Canobie - when the ride first opened, they used to hire someone to jump out and scare you at the end of the ride. I don't remember when it opened, but I know it happened on a visit in 1994. Not sure when they removed that feature of the ride. I thought for some reason they changed the ending at some point, but I could have a faulty memory on the specifics inside the ride.

I've actually worked at Canobie and was, for a week or so, an attendant for this very ride. As bizarre as the video makes it sound, you really need to see it in person to get the full scope of how unhinged it really is. It's incredible, a must-ride if you ever visit.

I grew up in New England and this was one of my favorite things - either going to Canobie lake park for their dark ride, or the now defunct Rocky Point Park for their dark ride. So fun 💀🖤🎃

Not gonna lie, the wall of lost souls really creeped me out, but now i can't stop thinking of the potato smile things instead 😂

TN has a relationship with ancient Egypt. There is a statue of the mummy named Ramses in a city named after an ancient Egyptian city named Memphis. I live in a city where there's a joint that transports guests to ancient Egypt. It's on the strip just metres away from Allegiant Stadium. I've been to the pyramid before.

The Mine of Lost Souls is easily the best thing in New Hampshire.

I used to ride this EVERY TIME i went to Canobie Lake.

My home park. This ride terrified me as a kid. Looking back, I love it. I can’t wait to go back this year with my nieces and nephews 😂

Not bad. I work on calico mine ride. When Knott's Berry farm becomes Knott's scary farm

My theory is that the ancient Egypt section was born out of an antiquated connection between the ancient Egyptian style and evil forces. The switch is to signify that you’ve fully entered the grim reaper’s domain and are now at his mercy with the rest of the lost souls.

I went there a while ago! The park and this ride. One of my favorites of the whole location! Big fan!

i love your videos but I haven’t seen one about six flags fiesta Texas (my hometown theme park) and I would love to learn more! thanks!

This looks like an interesting theme that got out of hand, the headless guy is probably a reference to Cerberus. The transition from mausoleum to Egypt is probably a reference to Egypt mania, and how at one point it was proposed London build a massive pyramid to store the dead. The trip from mining to death is a reference to being buried alive. overall, a lot of cool ideas where they had a lot of fun. just very difficult to translate to the public who aren’t in on the joke would be my guess.

I live about 20 minutes from Canobie Lake Park and going is a yearly pilgrimage for me and my family , I have a 9-year-old daughter and every year when we do a daddy-daughter day at canobie, we have to ride this ride it's a yearly tradition and yes it is absolute chaos, to the best of my knowledge there's no answer as to why it suddenly turns into an Egyptian tomb I always Justified it in my head as they acquired decorations from a defunct Egyptian ride and during a refurbishment added the Egyptian scene I know there used to be a dark ride in Salisbury Massachusetts that was pirate themed wonder if the Headless sword guy came from that? Pirates Fun Park was the name of the Salisbury Beach attraction Park

I miss getting to work this thing! Such a charming little dark ride.

I was surprised to find out the ride opened in 1992 -- it seems fairly well maintained, with updated lighting/paint (especially the glow paint).

Yeah, we don't have pyramids in NH, but we do have what has been called "America's Stonehenge." This ride came out in the early to mid eighties and from what I understand, this dark ride is meant to be like a bad dream. But I don't know! Lol! All I know for sure is that I have been going on this ride once a year for the better part of my life. I know, pathetic! Ha ha! But it's still a fun and nostalgic experience. Enjoy!

5:48 he kinda looks like randy from south park 😂 i really dig these unscripted videos, it's fun hearing people ramble about weird stuff they wanna share!

this is basically cinemasins for this darkride, but im so fucking here for it

Hey I go here a lot and this is one of my favorite rides in New England and im obsessed with its history and thanks for making a video about it and sharing your thoughts. 👍 you should also look into the history of the parks scream fest and other things from the park

I've lived in New Hampshire for most of my life and have been to Canobie Lake Park a few times (and rode this ride as well), and I can guarantee that there are no pyramids in New Hampshire. There are model pyramids at Story Land's "Splash Battle" attraction themed to ancient Egypt, but that's it. (BTW I'll be going to Canobie tomorrow and will make sure to ride this attraction again.)

Joyland is such a lovely book!!! And that makes 100%sense

SO ADORABLE!! I wish this was my house!!

I rode this with a small child who did not realize how scary it was going to be and it was traumatizing for the rest of the day

Omg when I saw Canobie in the title I freaked! I worked there in entertainment for three years! Fun fact: The barker miner on the top of the ride is wearing a Hawaiian shirt which was our old entertainment shirt before we got new ones! Being a character performer there was WILD 😂

Surprised I had never heard of this! Looks like quite a fun ride - albeit disturbing!

I bet the Grim Reaper character was used so to avoid any trademark or copyright fees for something well known. I live about an hour from Canobie and haven't been in years. Looks like I'll need to go again this summer. Thanks for the inspiration

All right! Canobie represent! This is such a cheesy, weird ride. I love it. Why there are Egyptian mummies in the mine is... well, I never quite got that, but that's part of the charm.

Wow brought back some messed up memories haven’t been there for ages