08/12/2025
This is a long one… But there's so much to say about this past weekend! 💕🥳👑🏰
70th Birthday Celebration for the Enchanted Forest at Clark’s Elioak Farm -- August 9-10, 2025
The Enchanted Forest opened on August 14, 1955. On August 9, 2025 we were proud to celebrate the wonderful Storybook Park's years of entertaining the families of Maryland and beyond on this 70th anniversary of it’s opening. We welcomed County Executive Dr. Calvin Ball and Former State Senator Jim Robey to highlight our celebration by cutting the ribbon on the renovated Little Toot boat, one of the beloved rides at the Enchanted Forest. We were joined by members of the Howard County legislative delegation, County Council members and representatives of the Howard County Economic Development Authority, Howard County Tourism, Leadership Howard County and the Howard County Historical Society.
We were also delighted to welcome many members of the Harrison and Adler families.
The Harrisons were the owners of the Enchanted Forest—they came up with the idea to create this magical place for families to visit and operated it for the years it was open. Adler Display was the Baltimore business that helped make the Harrison’s ideas a reality by building all the attractions. Adler Display is still a very active business in Maryland and just finished a wonderful renovation of the Welcome Center in Ellicott City. Ron Alder also presented Clark’s Elioak Farm with a beautiful 4-panel display on the history of the Enchanted Forest which was unveiled in our Education Building this weekend as well.
Our celebration also featured an exhibit of 40 paintings created by talented local artists who painted during a plein air held at our farm over the past few weeks.
These paintings will also be on display at the Howard County Welcome Center in Ellicott City from August 19 to November 2, 2025.
Thanks so much to all the artists who participated. It’s so much fun to see what great artwork is inspired by the whimsical and creative attractions from the Enchanted Forest.
Our young visitors to the farm this weekend were delighted to find princesses to meet, share photo opportunities with and singalong during their three shows a day on Saturday and Sunday. If you were lucky, you might have had a chance to ride the Enchanted Express Train with a princess or two. Thanks to Megan at Swan Princess Events and all her princesses. Thanks to Laura Betz from Vivid Colors Facepainting, Brittany Faurot from Three Chickadees Bakery and Kim Rosborough for her great food from Kettle Krazed. Keith Kridenoff from Enchanted Forest Behind the Scenes page was Ole King Cole for the day. Thanks!
We are always delighted when Linda Harrison Gardner comes to the farm. For the weekend she brought a birthday cake and all her photos and posters from her family collection---a rare treasure trove of memories. Linda, Ron Alder and Keith Kridenoff presented a panel on stories about the creation of the Enchanted Forest and “behind the scenes” stories. Everyone enjoyed hearing these great stories.
Martha Clark was available to sign her book "The Enchanted Forest: Memories of Maryland's Storybook Park" throughout the weekend and we shared memorabilia and numerous albums and posters of great photos about the Enchanted Forest over the years.
Thanks to all the many supporters and fans of the Enchanted Forest who have helped all of us at Clark’s Elioak Farm move and maintain the Enchanted Forest attractions over the years. Please take the moment to see the list of all those helpers at https://clarklandfarm.com/enchanted_forest_helpers.html
A special thanks to Marty Levin and Mike Cotter from ExCel Tree Experts for taking Little Toot out of the pond (so it could be renovated) and putting it back in the pond (all new and beautiful). And, of course, our very special thanks to Mark Cline from Enchanted Castle Studios for the beautiful and creative renovation of Little Toot.
One last thank you to all the great staff at Clark’s Elioak Farm who work so hard to maintain the Enchanted Forest attractions (lots of scraping, sanding, fiberglass repairs and painting), keeping the grounds looking great (lots of mowing and weeding) and taking such great care of our animals, their fellow staff members and ALL of our wonderful visitors.❤️
