In 1900, electricity was a novel source of power and light, and the golden age of amusement parks was beginning. Electrified passenger rail line operators, some of whom generated their own electricity, created electric parks as destinations on their lines to increase weekend ridership. In 1901, the Albany&Hudson Railway and Power Company Railroad opened Electric Park at Kinderhook Lake where the Albany-Hudson Electric Trail now runs past the east shore of the mile-long lake. The forty-acre park, lit at night by hundreds of colored electric lights, was promoted as the largest amusement park between New York City and Montreal. Admission was free with a forty-cent round-trip ticket. Visitors enjoyed Ferris wheels, a roller coaster, carousel, waterslide, and farm animals, while entertainment included orchestras and tasteful vaudeville shows, and activities included bowling, dancing, and wintertime skating. For fifteen years, it was a popular recreation destination for residents of the upper Hudson Rover Valley, with summertime weekend daily attendance commonly reaching ten thousand visitors. The rail line ran park-bound trips every half hour and added a second parallel track in 1909 to handle traffic between the park and Albany. Its popularity began to decline during World War I as silent films and the automobile drew people away from amusement parks, and it closed after Labor Day weekend in 1923, after which the land was sold for house lots.