Uncover the Lost Treasures of Texas’ Hanna Barbera Theme Park

If you grew up in the 80s & lived in North Texas, you might remember seeing a theme park centered some of the most iconic cartoon characters designed by William Hanna & Joseph Barbera. Scooby Doo, The Flintstones, The Smurfs, Tom & Jerry... they were all creations of the Hanna-Barbera animation studio.

This Texas amusement park was called Hanna-Barbera Land.

Not much is known of the parks history; but thanks to people's home videos & photo collections (like this one from Larry Syverson on Flickr), we know the park was only open from 1984 to 1985. It was located in Northern Texas, in Spring, Texas, very close to Houston.

If you were curious on getting a deep look inside the park, so was I. So let's look shall we?

You can find more footage of the park on YouTube like this very nice tribute from BenDempster,

Retro Pop Planet,

There's even achieved footage of Willy Wonka visiting the park that was filmed in 1984 from Texas Archive.

Why did Hanna-Barbera Land close & is it still around?

There were a few different reasons; the park had to contend with the very popular AstroWorld in Houston, the prices of oil dropping that happened in the 80s, & very little sales of souvenirs & concessions are played a part in the park closing in 1985.

After it closed down in 1985, it became a Splashtown owned by Six Flags & by Wet n Wild. As of 2019, the park is still operating today owned by Six Flags. It's now called the Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splashtown.

It's clear with more people sharing the photos of the park & home videos of their families going to the park back in the day, people DO miss Hanna-Barbera Land. Even if you scroll through some of the comments in the videos, people have fond memories of the park. It's unclear if it'll ever come back again but... at least we have the memories.

EDIT: This post was originally published on March 19, 2023

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