Can This Amusement Park Be Saved?

A longtime recreation destination across the river from Philadelphia was being auctioned for parts. Then a man with a plan swooped in.

CLEMENTON, N.J. — Their coats buttoned against the chill of a gray Friday in March, people were climbing the stairs of the water slides and the roller coaster with clipboards and measuring tapes. They ducked under the carousel’s turnstile to peer around its striped canvas cover, wind tattered and hanging to the ground in places, and walked the edge of a murky wave pool. It was three days before the auction of Clementon Park and Splash World, and a few dozen prospective bidders carried stapled packets listing 410 lots, from the Scrambler to the trash cans. Marianna Wilson, 60, had flown in from Cleburne, Texas. She walked along the railroad line, counting sections of track to estimate its total length. She and her husband, Jim Wilson, hoped it might fit on their farm park 25 miles south of Fort Worth. Mr. Wilson, 64, had his eye on the giant Ferris wheel.