Im jamie colby, in ocean city, maryland, an irresistible atlantic resort town known for its golden beaches and this historic boardwalk. Now, the population may read 7,000, but more than 8 million visit every single year. And im here to meet a family that has a strange inheritance thats been an icon on this boardwalk for more than a century. Hi, doug. Hi. Im jamie. Nice to meet you. So nice to see you, too. Your family really is so well known here. Yeah, im afraid we are. Yeah, weve been here a long time. A long time, indeed since 1890, to be exact. Doug trimpers greatgrandparents daniel and Margaret Trimper purchase two city blocks of oceanfront land. They start with a pair of small hotels but in 1902 decide to risk everything on a new attraction. Daniel wants to bring in a ride unlike any seen before in maryland. He orders a massive carousel from the herschellspillman company. With a diameter of 51 feet, the merrygoround is one of the largest built up to that point. How special is the carousel . Its pretty unique. Theres 48 handcarved animals on it, with real horsehair tails, and it has Oil Paintings around the top. I mean, its just not the sort of thing thats made anymore. The carousel is originally powered by a steam engine, and rides costs a nickel. But those nickels add up. When Daniel Trimper dies in 1929, he leaves ownership of a thriving operation to his seven children, and they pass it on to theirs. Under the Third Generation of trimpers, the park enters its golden era with the leadership of Daniel Trimper iii and dougs father, granville. My father all he ever wanted to do was to run the Amusement Park. He was the youngest person in the planets history to own and operate a ferris wheel. Starting in the 1960s, granville upgrades the parks rides in both scale and theme. In 1964, he commissions a former ringling bros. Art director to build a Haunted House. Granville later opens the trimpers wheels of yesterday attraction a fleet of vintage cars that includes a 1914 overland driven by the tv and movie comic jack benny. In the 1980s, he restores the famous carousel and erects the parks first roller coaster. He had big ideas for the Amusement Park. You know, that was his dream. The man was just crazy about amusement rides. Over the next decades, profits keep climbing. But the parks success is an exception to the rule within the industry. Amusementpark historian jim futrell tells me that, since the 1960s, familyrun operations like the trimpers have become a dying breed. With the interstate highways and the shift to corporate theme parks, a lot of the familyowned parks fell by the wayside. What does a familyowned Amusement Park do with that kind of competition . Well, i think you have to know your place in the market. Trimpers did seem to know its place, trading on its rich history and tradition. No Amusement Park in the world has been owned by a family as long as this one. In the world . In the world. And these are rides that have been around for generations, and people come to these shore communities for generations. [ people screaming ] but nostalgia must compete with ever wilder thrill rides at bigger parks. Trimpers attendance tumbles in the 1990s. Then, at the turn of the 21st century, another challenge arrives in the form of another wild ride. The realestate boom. In that decade alone, 15 Amusement Parks closed throughout the country on the seashore just because the value of their land outstripped the value of the business. Oceanfront Amusement Parks across the country are selling out for big paydays. Coney islands vintage astroland takes 30 million to build condos. Panama city, floridas, miracle strip goes dark in a 15 million deal. Its tough to say no to Something Like that. But granville, now in his late 70s and still park president , has zero trouble saying no. Hed much rather hold on tight to his familys boardwalk empire than cash in his tickets. And doug is a chip off the old block. Youre making people happy, and the thing my dad liked the most about his job was sitting on that bench every night, watching people be happy. But after five generations, more and more trimpers share a slice of the pie. And some Family Members no longer feel the amusementpark magic. We spoke with one shareholder, who wished not to be named, who told us some owners just feel the business no longer makes sense and think the times come to sell. Joe harrison, one of the trimper family attorneys, says this divide is a common theme among Family Business. Trying to keep a business in a family for a long period of time is very difficult. The family loyalties just tend to get disintegrated. Its just a pattern for disaster. Ownership of trimpers is now split among 7 families, with a total of around 22 stakeholders. Doug says two of those families are becoming increasingly vocal about wanting to sell the park to cash in on the realestate boom. How hard is it to have to deal with a Family Member who is only saying, show me the money or else . It was a probably the only thing in my fathers life that really caused him any real anguish. In 2007, the majority of the trimpers family board of directors still want to keep the park open but find themselves backed into a corner. Thats because the beachfrontDevelopment Boom causes the parks property taxes to skyrocket. The new propertytax assessments came out, and i was like, oh, my god, you know . Whats happened here . Our property taxes increased 500,000 at once. Our annual profit generally ran, at that time, around 300,000, so it was a those numbers dont work. No, they dont work at all. That must have been sad for your dad. Nobody wants to be the trimper to close the park. He said it wasnt gonna be him, and yet he didnt have any more answers. Granville and doug know they better come up with some answers if this centuryold Amusement Park is going to make it. Do you have any idea how many children you have to spin in a circle to pay 1 million of taxes alone . Thats next. Announcer but first, our strange inheritance quiz question. The answer when we return. Beyond the routine checkups. Beyond the notsoroutine cases. Comcast business is helping doctors provide care in whole new ways. All working with a new generation of technologies powered by our gigspeed network. Because beyond technology. There is human ingenuity. Every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected. To do the extraordinary. Take your business beyond. On a scale of one to five . One to five . Its more like five million. Theres everything from happy to extremely happy. Theres also angry. Im really angry clive actually, really angry. Thank you. But what if your business could understand what your customers are feeling. And then do something about it. Turn problems into opportunities. Thanks drone. Customers into fanatics change the whole experience. Alright who wants to go again . I do i do i have a really good feeling about this. groans hmph. food grunting menacingly when the food you love doesnt love you back, stay smooth and fight heartburn fast with tums smoothies. Tum tumtum tum tums with tums smoothies. No, just a sec. What would it look like if we listened more . Could the right voice, the right set of words, bring us all just a little closer . Get us to open up . Even push us further . It could, if we took the time to listen. The most inspiring minds, the most compelling stories. Download audible and listen for a change. Announcer now the answer to our strange inheritance quiz question. The answer is a, military training. In 2007, father and son granville and doug trimper are scrambling to keep open their familys centuryold Amusement Park along the boardwalk in ocean city, maryland. The Development Boom has caused the parks property taxes to soar, making it impossible to stay in business. Theres only a level of Government Spending that is sustainable by businesses before the businesses have no more to give. The tax hike ups the pressure from trimper Family Members who think its finally time to get out of the amusement business and sell their valuable beachfront land. I dont get it, doug. You sell off the amusement business and you build condos and a Shopping Mall here, youre gonna make 10, 20, maybe 50 times more money well, i believe that, but my whole familys always been in this business, and it was a legacy that its we all feel an obligation to try and do our part to continue. What, then, about selling some of its attractions, like the wheels of yesterday or even that vintage 1902 carousel, to make way for new thrill rides . Jim futrell, whos written a series of books on Amusement Parks, says some have done that. So, tell me the value of a park like this. Some of the irreplaceable rides that they have you know, the antique carousel, the Haunted House those things you dont find anymore. Theyre really living pieces of history. Back in the 1980s, they took off as a collectible, and you saw a lot of parks that, at that time, were kind of struggling see that as a way to raise some quick cash. Collectors have always been especially interested in the ride that put trimpers on the map. Oh, my goodness. Only two dozen herschellspillman carousels are still spinning today, and just five of those include a unique menagerie like the trimpers. What is really wonderful about these rides is that each one of these was carved by a person. So, there is blood, sweat, and tears in each one of these animals. And whats this . This is a hippocampus. A what . Its a hippocampus. Its essentially a sea monster. Is it more valuable because its so rare . Ive only known about one or two of these to actually be auctioned off. It could easily go probably six figures back at the peak six figures . back at the peak of the collecting craze. In the end, selling the carousel would be giving up on the trimpers family legacy, and granville refuses to do that just yet. But he does realize change is needed. And so granville, who had been the heart and soul of the trimper operation since the 1960s, puts doug at the controls. My dad was getting on in years and ill at the time that this happened. I was the next in line to do it, so just started doing what had to be done in order to try and survive. Dougs first step toward survival . With the help of attorney joe harrison, doug appeals the parks landvalue assessment, which was based on skyhigh property sales prior to the national realestate crash. It was my job was to try to go ahead and show them that the numbers that they had were just out of whack in that environment at the time. Doug, meanwhile, takes his fight to the public, writing letters to local newspapers and politicians. Do you have any idea how many children you have to spin in a circle to pay 1 million of taxes alone . Just how much can anybody bear . People say, you ought to put condominiums in down there. no. We want to run an Amusement Park. The new county propertytax assessments just came out. They sealed the deal for us. Our time is over. Our time is over. Thats serious. The public response is overwhelming. Politicians across the state jump on the save trimpers campaign. Even Maryland GovernorMartin Omalley tours the park and puts the trimpers land appeal on a fast track. The state Assembly Goes a step further, taking up a bill that could provide additional relief. Will the tax relief come . More importantly, if it does, will the trimpers take it . The surprising answer next, on strange inheritance. Announcer heres another quiz question for you. The answer when we return. 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Tell your doctor about all planed medical or dental procedures. Whats around the corner could be your moment. Ask your doctor about eliquis. Thats why Xfinity Mobile lets you design your own data. You can share 1, 3, or 10 gigs of data between lines, mix in lines of unlimited, and switch it up at any time. All with millions of secure wifi hotspots and the best lte everywhere else. Its a different kind of wireless network, designed to save you money. Switch and save up to 400 a year on your wireless bill. Plus, get 250 back when you buy an eligible phone. Thats simple. Easy. Awesome. Call, click, or visit a store today. Announcer now the answer to our quiz question. The answer is b, denmark. In 2007, doug trimper is fighting to save his familys centuryold Amusement Park. Soaring property taxes are threatening to bankrupt the business. Unless doug can get the taxes reduced, his familys board of directors may vote to sell the park. Those were scary times. Were dying on the vine down here. Dying on the vine . It had reached that point . Yes, it had. In march of 2008, success doug and his lawyer finally get taxes rolled back to 2004 levels, plus about a 4 increase. You set a really great example for people to not take no for an answer. Well, you cant always save your business, but people in this country have to fight back a little bit at government that has become so big and so controlling. Government control is the problem doug sees with the Maryland State Assembly bill that would allow the trimpers to operate as a historic amusement zone. That would lower their taxes further but also lessen their ability to run the business independently. So doug turns the offer down, saying he never wanted special treatment from the government. Why not get every penny youre entitled to . Weve never believed much in entitlements. We just want to be part of the community and do our share and be treated fairly. But in october 2008 comes another setback. At the age of 79, dougs father, granville trimper, dies after a battle with prostate cancer. The fight for the parks future must continue without its most persuasive advocate. Doug realizes his fathers death could mark a tipping point. When he died, did he leave a will . He certainly did. What did he want to happen to the park . Oh, he wanted to continue it. But with each generation, park ownership is further diluted. According to one major shareholder, who wished to remain anonymous, some Family Members would still rather cash out than continue the challenging amusement business. Theres a feeling by a portion of the corporation that they still needed to do that so that they could cash out and have the money for their own lives. Theyre not the only ones demanding cash. To cover the steep estate taxes that come due after his dads death, doug must finally sell off at least a piece of his fathers legacy the classic car museum. How difficult was that . That was real difficult. You were glad because we needed the money to help with the estate taxes, but it was really kind of sad to see part of him going out the door, you know . I mean, it was very emotional. The 2008 financial crisis, which hits shortly after granvilles death, is causing panic around the world and even more anxiety on the boardwalk. If youre sitting on millions worth of real estate, do you sell, or do you hold . Whats your price that you could not refuse to sell the park . 10 times more money than youre taking home a year doesnt mean that much to you . Thats next on strange inheritance. I cant believe it. What . That our new house is haunted by casper the friendly ghost . Hey jill hey kurt movies . Ill get snacks no, i cant believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on our Car Insurance with geico. I got snacks ohhh, i got popcorn, i got caramel corn, i got kettle corn. Am i chewing too loud . Believe it geico could save you fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance. 2,000 fence posts. 900 acres. 48 bales. All before lunch, which we caught last saturday. We earn our scars. We wear our work ethic. We work until the works done. And when it is, a few hours of shuteye to rest up for tomorrow, the day well finally get something done. this is the family who wanted to connect. The day well finally get something done. To go where they could explore and experience adventure in unexpected places. Who were inspired by different cultures and found that the past can create new memories. Leading them to discover were woven together by the moments we share. For everywhere you go, expedia has everything you need, all in one place. Announcer now back to strange inheritance. In the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, the driving force behind the trimpers Amusement Park, granville trimper, dies, passing along ownership of the centuryold park to his heirs. For now, doug trimper gets to keep running this strange inheritance. But according to doug, some Family Members are eager to cash out. How often do you hear from that other side of the family . We have an annual meeting, and theres still quite an effort to get us to sell the park. Do they really understand how important it is to you to maintain the legacy that your father, your grandfather, your greatgrandfather started . Ththey really dont. And they cant, cause they werent here. They werent a part of it.