Monticello's 'magical' playground to go poof

Like Puff the Magic Dragon, the Magic Kingdom in Monticello, Minn., is disappearing, done in by a combination of age and reality chipping away at its wooden existence.

The Magic Kingdom is the name given to a massive, one-of-a-kind wooden playground structure built on school grounds by Monticello residents in May 1990. It features a series of turrets, slides, bridges, walkways and hiding places big enough to appeal to kids who aren't kids anymore.

"We've all had good times there," said Jamie Feldman, 19, one of the thousands of parents and children who walked, biked or drove to the Magic Kingdom. "It's just special."

But within the next month, the Magic Kingdom at Pinewood Elementary is slated for demolition. It's considered a safety hazard. Boards are missing and sections of it have been closed off by the school district.

"It is a magical place," said Jim Johnson, superintendent of the Monticello School District. "It's the size, the climbing, the imagination you can put into it. But it has done what it was supposed to do. What it comes down to is the liability."

Johnson, citing safety concerns, recommended to the school board that the structure be torn down. In a vote on Monday, the board agreed to remove it.

Feldman and others made a valiant effort to save the structure, including a Facebook campaign to refurbish the Magic Kingdom that drew more than 1,500 supporters.

Reality sets in

Olson said his committee could not come up with a consensus; some members wanted to refurbish it and others wanted to remove it. The reality is that the Magic Kingdom does not meet federal guidelines for disability access and playground structures.

"We're in a different era now," said Olson, noting that Pinewood students don't use the structure anymore. "It's a supervision issue."

The wooden play set is big enough for adults and has numerous places for children and adults to walk and hide. That ability to hide, in fact, is one of the biggest problems because school and police officials cannot monitor it without physically walking through it.

Over the years, teachers, administrators and playground supervisors have found everything from empty bottles to used condoms within its walls.

The difficulty in keeping it up has not lessened the emotional attachment of many inside and outside of Monticello. The Facebook page drew many comments from parents, most of them younger, who grew up with the Magic Kingdom or helped build it. Nearly all expressed a desire to share it with their own children.

Johnson got a firsthand reminder of the attachment that children have for the Magic Kingdom recently after prom at Monticello High School.

"A lot the kids went over to the Magic Kingdom to walk around and take pictures," he said. "They could climb all over it as seniors in high school like they did when they were in third or fourth grade."