Enchanted party

TURNER — A lot of people made fun of Roger Tofte, calling his plans to build a theme park along Interstate 5 just south of Salem a hare-brained idea.

After Tofte got a loan to buy 20 acres, and set about building his first creation, Peter Pumpkin Eater, his co-workers at the state Highway Department would ask him how things were going on “the funny farm.”

Some even called it “Idiot Hill.”

But who was laughing Monday, 40 years to the day since the Enchanted Forest theme park opened for business?

The kids, that’s who.

And they were screaming, too.

“We’re going on the Log Ride! We get to go on the Log Ride!” hollered a little girl and her brother.

Now 81, Tofte and his family celebrated the theme park’s 40th anniversary on Monday, with the still-red-haired Tofte blowing out the candles on a birthday cake at precisely 1 p.m. — 40 years to the minute since he hung a piece of butcher paper on a metal fence that said “Open” in big red letters.

“A lot of people made fun of him and didn’t believe in him,” recalled Susan Vaslev, 55, the eldest of Tofte’s four children and the park’s business manager. She was 15 when the park opened on Aug. 8, 1971, working as the cashier that day when about 75 people showed up. She was only 8 when her father bought the land in 1964, 20 acres for $4,000, and she remembers that, too.

“At that age, I totally believed he could do it,” Vaslev said. “I thought it was awesome.”

And he did do it. From the time he bought the land, with $500 down and the rest paid off in $50-a-month installments, Tofte built most of the nursery rhyme-themed creations along the park’s Storybook Lane by himself, buying one bag of cement at a time with the extra money he made repairing his co-workers’ wristwatches at the Highway Department.

“They all thought I was kind of nuts,” Tofte recalled Monday.

A lifelong painter who aspired to be the second coming of Norman Rockwell, Tofte said his pride extends to all the teenagers and college students who have held summer jobs at the park over the years. “We’ve put a lot of kids through college,” he said.

Over the years, many attractions have been added to the park, from Tofteville, the Old West town built in 1972, to the Haunted House in 1974, to the Ice Mountain Bobsleds in 1983, to what is perhaps the most popular attraction today: the Big Timber Log Ride that takes visitors down a steep slide in cars meant to look like logs, ending with a fantastic splash that’s sure to elicit screams.

“I’ve been coming here my whole life,” said Jill Fuge, 45, of Oregon City, who brought her boys, Riley, 6, and Brody, 4, on Monday.

Fuge estimated she’s been to the park about 40 times over the years, ever since her parents first brought her when she was a little girl.

“I love it. There’s no place like it,” said Fuge, standing on the Log Ride’s observation deck, waiting for her sons to come plunging down the slide along with their cousin, 12-year-old Sydney Kempker, who was taking her sixth ride of the day.

Despite overcast skies, the parking lot off I-5 was packed, and Vaslev said nearly 1,000 showed up before closing time. Not a record day, by any means, but impressive nonetheless for a cloudy Monday.

“It’s a very unique place,” said Sarah Annotti of Lodi, Calif., who grew up in Salem and brought her 2-year-old daughter, Fiona, on her first trip to the park. Fiona was busy entering the large head of the Wicked Old Witch with her grandma, Kelly Annotti.

“I’ve never really seen anything like it,” Sarah Annotti said of the Enchanted Forest. “It really is like a storybook.”

Besides Vaslev, two more of Roger Tofte’s children followed him into the business. Mary Tofte, 49, is co-operations manager and chief financial officer. And son Ken Tofte, 52, works on attractions development and maintenance.

Tofte’s youngest daughter, Lori Stephens, 45, is an architect in Corvallis. But she, too, was there Monday for the celebration.

Tofte’s wife, Mavis, 80, ran the business until she was diagnosed with breast cancer in the 1980s and handed over the daily operations to her daughters. She’s also written a book about the family’s legacy that’s available in the gift shop.

Three of Roger Tofte’s grandchildren now work full time at the park, too. Vaslev’s sons include Tyler, 30, a computer technician, and Derek, 23, who assists his mother on the business side.

Mary Tofte’s son, Tim, works full time in finance, while younger sons Austin, 19, and Garrett, 16, work part time. Ken Tofte’s son, Jayden, 15, is also a part-time worker at the park.

The business has done well over the decades, Vaslev said. Today, the park has about 180 full- and part-time employees on the payroll, compared to just three or four when the park opened in 1971, she said.

Even the Great Recession of recent years hasn’t seemed to stop people from coming, many of them regulars who come every summer from all over the country.

High gas prices can slow traffic, as can bad weather, Vaslev said. But all in all, the whole experience has been like, well, a fairy tale.

“I wouldn’t say we’re rich,” Vaslev said. “But we do what we love, and we pay the bills.”