As Told in the Words of Greg Schumsky…

“Back in 2019, I was working at a small scenic design shop called Storyland Studios as one of their CAD Engineers, which, is more or less, someone who creates anything on the computer in 3D - from structural frames for life-sized dragons and spaceships, to engineering how to add life to full-size Sneetches from Dr. Seuss, to creating a whole forest of Truffala Trees, to helping sculpt foam and running CNC machines.

I had a dream of someday being a Disney Imagineer, since childhood, so this job was pretty much a dream come true - as I worked on things for Disney, Universal, big trade shows, traveling exhibits, and so on.

One day, my wife and I were heading out to a vintage market at a place called ‘Summer’s Past Farms’, and on the way, we passed an old, abandoned amusement park, named ‘Marshall Scotty’s’ - we both would go to when we were kids, for birthdays or sometimes just as a treat. The park had been abandoned for dozens of years, and the current owners just leave it as so - a relic of fond memories for myriad adults who went when they were children, and then eventually took their own kids there as well.

So, I thought how neat it would be to tear down all the old dilapidated buildings and put in a new western town with shops, some restaurants, amusement rides and a mine cave walkthrough attraction. I told my wife about my idea, and she thought it was “interesting”. I shared the idea with one of my bosses, an owner of Storyland, and he thought it was a “neat idea”.

And that’s how far that got, but I wasn’t ready to let go, as it kept at me. So I worked on a layout, plans, a feasibility study, and a profit and loss spreadsheet I created. “This could work” I thought to myself. So, I thought about whether it should be little shopping center or roadside attraction, or should it be more of an amusement park, but better.

After a trip to something similar, I decided to make it an enclosed experience with a gate, but affordable for most everyone, and at that point it more or less became a theme park idea. But what was the theme, the name, and who or what would be the mascot? The name “Jackalope Junction” popped into my thoughts, and soon, Jackalope Jim, a jackrabbit Sheriff with antlers, aka a Jackalope, was born. Shortly after that, an ex-Imagineer that I had the luck of getting to sit down with at a dinner meeting, suggested the movie “So Dear to My Heart”. Of course, I watched it and found inspiration for some more characters as well as how I wanted Jackalope Junction to feel - laid back, relaxing, fun, and WHOLESOME!

Then one day, one of my kids mentioned that maybe Jackalope Jim should have one mechanical arm, and the whole park be Steampunk Western. To be quote honest, I thought it was a silly idea. But after some more thought, I started to ask myself “Why would it be steampunk, and why is he missing an arm?”

And with that, a whole story started to form, from Jackalope Jim’s life since childhood, to an abandoned mining town steeped in sadness and mystery until he comes along, to rich and deeply crafted characters with similarities to a lot of us - based of of my own life, people I’ve worked with, went to school with, family, friends, etc.

Since then, dozens of folks volunteered to help, from ex-Disney Imagineers, animators, story writers, concept artists from Universal and other companies, have helped bring this idea to life beyond my own writings, and to this day continue to do so to this day. And it blows my mind how this has all happened.

You see, I believe that God inspired all this, and gave me the idea to create something truly unique and wonderful that already has touched hundreds if not thousands of people so far - something that’s wholesome, lovely, and pure. Something that the whole family can enjoy, from a planned television series, to books, to my Storypark - a fully immersive experience that’s never been done before.

Now we just need to find the perfect home for it, and the perfect partners or investors who believe in it just as much as I do.”