As automobile travel became common in the first half of the twentieth century, Sandy A. Tamargo, the owner of Sandy’s Shows, a traveling circus, opened a permanent roadside tourist attraction on Route 7 between Elkton and North East. Known as the Philadelphia Road, it was designated Route 40 before the dual highway opened before World War II.
For years, the family — Sandy, along with brothers Lawrence and Jake – traveled the east coast bringing thrills and entertainment to towns. But Sandy and Jake gave up the demanding life of a traveling showman just before the Great Depression, according to Billboard Magazine.
Sandy opened Circus Park in the early 1930s — it quickly became a popular tourist stop for motorists cruising along Philadelphia Road. Circus animals and performing acts, along with a popular restaurant, tavern, and dance hall, had just about everything a tourist attraction needed. Plus, Sandy offered boxing matches that pulled in large crowds.
To entice more customers, he added an additional attraction in 1936, an Indian village. The “Elk River Reservation” offered daily ceremonial and lifestyle programs, including native musicians, age-old warrior songs, tribal dancing, archery contests, and “other things to enthrall the visitor whether he be a child or adult,” reported The Cecil County Star that year.
As his plan to deliver “the Wild West’s most mysterious and captivating element – full-blooded American Indians – to the East Coast,” moved along newspapermen kept eager readers informed of the progress on the “building of authentic wigwams and teepees.” Tamargo reported that his village would only house “full-blooded American Indians.” By July 1936, an Elkton newspaper reported that thousands had visited Circus Park.
A few months after it opened, local papers remarked that Alfred Tamargo, the owner’s son, had been appointed the “superintendent of the reservation, succeeding Col. Rex. M. Ingham, who had been called back to Washington by the Indian Affairs Department.
Mr. Tamargo will reside in a cabin within the reservation and his duties will be to see that the Indians are well cared for in their new home, the paper noted. The Native American performers were brought to the area from reservations in Minnesota, but by June 1940, there was only one resident for the season, Princess Lone Star.
These types of roadside attractions were common on America’s highways before World War II, but they soon fell victim to World War II and changing American interests in the 1950s. Cecil County’s unique roadside attraction, the Elk River Indian Reservation, and Circus Park closed in the early 1940s.
For more photos, see this album —Circus Park, a Roadside Attraction near North East, on Facebook.