After a year without a fair, last summer saw the return of the Manistee County Fair, but without carnival rides.
That void will be filled this year with an almost new Michigan-based company, Native Amusements.
“They’ve been building their business for the last few years,” said Elaine Bossingham, secretary of the Manistee County Fair board. “I know these people put a lot of work into what they do because I’ve seen them. They’ve been working on their equipment and they’re anxious to put on a good presentation, so I’m anxious to see how they do.”
Native Amusements was started in 2019 by Timothy Jacobs, who decided to return to his home state after spending nearly 40 years in the outdoor amusement business. His last job was as operations manager for a million dollar carnival outside of Chicago.
“I worked out of Chicago for a pretty big operation until I decided to come home to start our show,” Jacobs said. “I just wanted to get back to Michigan.”
Jacobs is from the Port Huron area but now lives near Evart where he purchased a building and land to store his growing inventory of carnival equipment.
“We opened in October 2019 and the pandemic hit in March 2020 — what a great start,” Jacobs said with a smile. “It’s been tough, but we’re still going and looking to the future.”
How to start an entertainment company from scratch?
“I bought five or six of my rides and made a deal with a guy who was selling his little show,” Jacobs said. “Unfortunately that didn’t work so I bought more rides and here we are today.”
Native Amusements has 16 rides – usually bringing 10 or 11 of them to each event. His favorite ride is his newest purchase.
“It’s called Hell. It is a good trip for children and teenagers. One selfish reason I like it is because it’s quick and easy to set up.”
If the pandemic and the failed business deal weren’t enough obstacles for Jacobs, he’s now frustrated by the labor shortage.
“For example, right now, with the relief situation, we’re not setting up the Tilt A Whirl because it takes four or five people five to six hours to set it up,” Jacobs said. “Tilt A Whirl is everyone’s favorite ride, but I can’t find anyone willing to work that hard to put it on.”
Jacobs would like to have 16 to 20 employees, but the company currently has about 10 plus any locals they can find to help.
Another recent challenge for Native Amusements is high fuel prices.
“We run on generators, plus we use a lot of fuel that goes over the road. Coming to the Manistee County Fair, we will be traveling about 120 miles, moving 20 vehicles, so with diesel over $5 a gallon our expenses have pretty much doubled. We chose a job in the Detroit area because it didn’t make sense to drive 175 miles for just one place.”
Jacob says that despite the challenges, the purpose of his business has not changed.
“We just want to put smiles on everyone’s faces,” he said. “We have rides for people of all ages, so we’re making and bringing back memories.”
Jacobs says the smile on all the children’s faces is what makes it all worthwhile.
“They get really excited even on simple trips – the little boats or the elephant ride – they love it all.”
Smiles are not only on children’s faces.
“At the Barryton Lilac Festival we had a guy, 93, and his granddaughter pushes him in a wheelchair and said it’s been 30 years since he’s been on a ride and he really wants to ride the Ferris wheel, Jacobs said.
“So we helped him and the smile on that guy’s face was something else. He had a memory, like all of us, of being on that trip and that’s what we do, bring back memories.”
Jacob’s heritage is Native American, hence the name Native Amusements. He holds dual US and Canadian citizenship and is a member of the Sarnia Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
Jacobs said Native Amusements takes safety very seriously.
“It’s a big deal for us,” he said. “We do security checks every day before we open and we have a guy who does nothing but walk around to make sure everything is OK.”
Getting bigger is not one of the goals of Jacob’s company.
“I want to stay where I am,” he said. “Everyone always asks how big I want to be, but I don’t want to be big. I want to keep about 12 trips and be the best at what we do. “Doing a good job at fairs like Manistee County — that’s our point,” he said.
“We want to be small and personal and we want the people we work with to be more like our friends than our customers. We do a good job for them, we value them and they value us. That’s what makes a good show.”
The carnival will take place from 17:00 to 22:00 on August 16; from August 17-19 from 13:00 and August 20 from 22:00.
Tickets are $1.25 each, most rides take two to four tickets. The wristband purchased during the fair was $25 for all-day rides.
Discount wristbands on sale now for $15 each. However, early bird wristbands can only be purchased from 3-5pm until August 6th at the fair office.
