if you sign up this weekend, your subscription will include a five dollar donation to folds of honor. we hope to see you at "fox nation." god bless, and good night. >> a menagerie of exquisite specimens... >> leopards, lions. >> ...skinned, stuffed, and mounted by a master. >> he was a different guy, different cat. >> not everyone can take something that's dead and make it look like it's alive. >> elk, moose, deer, goats... >> you're walking into someone's lifelong obsession, their commitment, their passion. >> ...antelope, waterbucks, duikers, dik-diks. these lions are from "night at the museum." >> that was a big get. [ lion roars ] >> whoa! >> can his sons get this legacy to pay off? or did they inherit a dying business? >> nobody has an inheritance like the one that we've been bequeathed. [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ]

[ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] >> i'm jamie colby, and today i'm surrounded by millions of acres of pristine forest near vancouver, british columbia. i'm on my way to meet a family who inherited a legacy that evokes the very spirit of this wilderness. they're also left wondering how to preserve it. hi, brian. >> hi. >> how are you? i'm jamie. >> good. nice to meet you, jamie. >> nice to meet you, too. >> come on. check out the stuff out. >> love to see the house. thanks. what?! oh, my god, brian. what is going on? oh, my gosh! this is your house? i can't believe it. it looks like a zoo. >> my name's brian kulash. in 2010, my dad, steve kulash, passed away and left us an

inheritance with noah's ark implications. >> brian tells me that he and his brother stacey inherited this menagerie from their dad, a taxidermist named steve kulash. a series of calamitous events, including the one that caused their father's death, have stunned the brothers. they struggle to carry on his legacy. kulash, born in 1938, grew up on the family farm in nelson, british columbia. how did he get introduced to taxidermy? >> he sent away for mail-order taxidermy books. and he started by doing chickens and rabbits and stuff around the farm. >> it sets him on a journey that will take him far from the farm, which he leaves when he takes a job as a welder in vancouver. that pays the bills, but taxidermy remains his passion. in 1959, he marries rachel collins, and they raise three strapping young lads --

steve jr., brian, and the youngest, stacey, who i'm told has an even bigger surprise for me 40 miles outside vancouver. what?! >> welcome to the ark. >> what stacey calls "the ark" is a drafty old barn stuffed with the kulash brothers' strange inheritance -- more than four decades worth of their dad's taxidermy. ark is right. oh, my goodness. you do look like you have two of everything. this is incredible. at first, steve kulash fashioned works like these in the basement of the family home. he began with game from his own hunting trips, but soon other hunters brought by their trophies, too. >> when people seen the quality of the work that he was doing, they all started to come to him. >> did mom ever say, "if you bring another animal in this house, i'm gonna kill you"? >> uh, i did hear her say that before, but she would always soften her stance at a bit of coaxing.

>> show me a really fine example of your dad's work. >> his ibex mount is one of his best works. >> why? what makes it great taxidermy? >> he paid a lot of attention to the shape of the eye, the muscles that would make the eyes blink, and tissue. you have to have an artistic eye. not everyone can take something that's dead and make it look like it's alive. he was an artist. >> like so many artistic types, steve dreams of actually making a living from his life's passion. in the late 1960s, he pulls the trigger, quitting that welding job and betting his family's future on his skill as a taxidermist. >> i remember going with him to empty his locker. and he had said, "i'm just gonna break free and do my own thing." >> he rents a storefront and opens steve kulash taxidermy. brian pitches in when not working as a meat cutter at a grocery store in vancouver

while stacey works full-time at his dad's shop and learns his craft. >> birds of prey are my favorite. they look menacing even when they're standing still. >> his dad taught him anyone can learn to stuff a bird, but to turn a lifeless pile of feathers into this, it's about the expression, the pose, the articulation of muscles and limbs. stacey demonstrates the skills he learned at his father's side. >> so, now i'm separating the feathers along the breast plate and stomach area. the entire leg bone stays in, attached to the skin. and then you wrap cotton around the legs to make it look like it has flesh again. before, they just used to inject formaldehyde in the little fleshy part of the -- this part of the wing. >> from start to finish, each piece can take days of painstaking work. >> he would go at 9:00 in the morning, and sometimes he wouldn't come home till 8:00 at night. >> steve's dedication pays off.

soon, his shop is attracting customers from all over north america and beyond. what kind of money can you make doing taxidermy? >> a good sale that we had was $150,000 when we sold two containerfuls of animals to japan. >> his storefront on kingsway was a vancouver icon. and certainly, when you walked in, you realized you were walking in to someone's obsession. >> rachel poliquin, phd, is author of a scholarly history of taxidermy called "the breathless zoo." >> what i've done with taxidermy is to explore if it has any relevancy in today's world, what is its history, what is its meaning. great taxidermy is when you think that the creature might just reanimate in some way. >> reanimate is right. see those lions with ben stiller? steve kulash goes hollywood after the break.

[ lion roars ] >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. what's the oldest museum taxidermy display? an owl in greece, a dodo in china, or a crocodile in switzerland? the answer in a moment. this is decision tech. find a stock based on your interests or what's trending. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity.

>> so, what's the oldest museum taxidermy display? the answer is "c." a crocodile

in the national history museum in st. gallen, switzerland. dates from 1623. >> by the mid-1970s in vancouver, steve kulash has established a thriving taxidermy business and himself as a legend in the field. >> he was a different guy, different cat. >> at the same time, tragedy stalks the kulash family. in 1981, steve's wife, rachel, dies of cancer at age 38. seven years later, steve jr. drowns in a boating accident. >> the death of my mother and my older brother crushed him. it just made him be closer to us, cause we're all he had. >> wow, how did your family manage after that? >> we just dug ourselves into our work and just kept going. >> yeah, i think that looks good. >> indeed, long hours at work

prove to be therapeutic. >> and then you're going to open it a bit, right? >> as his reputation grows, new clients come calling... [ shop bell rings ] ...some from vancouver's burgeoning film industry. >> his first prop was the "grizzly adams" movie. >> "grizzly adams" -- his first big break. >> and it just snowballed from there. >> they would commission us to make a 10-foot by 4-foot-thick grizzly bear for "macgyver." >> then another action figure places an order. >> for the first "rambo" movie they wanted to rent for the sheriff's office. >> speaking of movie rentals, do these felines look familiar? if so, you're probably one of the tens of millions who bought a ticket for the 2006 hit film "night at the museum." yep, steve kulash was the one who made them movie stars. they're the "pride" of his collection. >> here's the hall of african mammals.

>> he found them and stuffed them. and then, digital artists made them attack ben stiller. [ lion growling ] down boy! >> did you catch 'em? >> all by myself! >> so, following his passion is paying off for kulash. >> do we have schnapps? >> yeah. >> a job he loves, and the freedom and money to take hunting and fishing trips -- and safaris -- all across the globe. >> [ speaking foreign language ] >> my dad could speak a few languages, loved to travel the world. this is my dad on one of his hunts for mountain lion. >> that could be my favorite picture. i'm 50 and he was 70. [ dogs barking ] when we went hunting, i still couldn't keep up to him. >> steve's friend herb karas shared many of these adventures. >> he could handle himself up a mountain or down a mountain, or stay overnight in the woods

if you had to. >> very nice. >> yeah, very good luck you have today. >> yes. >> in 2009, kulash gets recognition not just as a master of taxidermy, but as a bona fide artist. his work is featured in a museum show of animal art called "ravishing beasts." rachel poliquin is the exhibit's curator. >> steve's taxidermy was great. it reflected who he was and it had a certain charisma and passion to it. >> the following year, kulash is preparing to pursue one of his other passions -- an international hunting expedition. >> then one night in march 2010, his son stacey, who lives in the basement of the family home, is awakened by the smoke alarm. >> i opened up my bedroom door, there was a five-foot fire. >> as stacey runs next door to phone the fire department, his dad makes a fatal mistake. >> he went and tried to put the

fire out himself when he could have just walked right out the front door. >> could you see? could you breathe? >> i tried to get him out of the basement, but there was too much smoke. i couldn't get back down there. >> steve kulash gets trapped amid piles of boxes and equipment. [ siren wails ] >> a while later they told us that our father passed away. >> he leaves behind the business where he'd worked side-by-side with his sons, filled with nearly 200 mounted animals. that's not including the metaphorical elephant in the living room. can a taxidermy business really thrive in the 21st century? and if it can, is stacey kulash the right guy to do it? did you ever say, "i know i can, i know i'm good, but it's not for me"? that's next. >> here's another quiz question

for you. the answer in a moment. i am totally blind. and non-24 can make me show up too early... or too late. or make me feel like i'm not really "there." talk to your doctor, and call 844-234-2424. that's why usaa is giving payment relief options to eligible members so they can pay for things like groceries before they worry about their insurance or credit card bills. discover all the ways we're helping members today.

>> so, what animal was first thought to be a hoax created by a rogue taxidermist? the answer is a -- the platypus. in 1798, when british explorers sent home the first pelt of the australian mammal, scientists thought it was a hoax and that a taxidermist had sewn a duck's bill onto a mammal's body. when more pelts arrived in england, they acknowledged it was real. but if you're wondering about rogue taxidermy, don't change that channel.

>> four years after their father's death, brian kulash and his brother stacey are struggling with their strange inheritance -- a taxidermy business, plus hundreds of creatures crafted by their father, a legend in the field. they face one big complication when they lose their lease on the shop their dad occupied for more than 40 years. almost 200 mounted specimens, plus eight freezers full of skins, have to be moved to a barn outside vancouver. if someone came along and said, "i have to have them all"... >> definitely. >> how much would you want for everything you have right now? >> $270,000. >> that's not exactly just a round number. you've thought about it. >> yes. [ laughs ] >> the brothers insist that their dad's work would go for at least that much back in the day. will it get that now? stay tuned. >> let's flip it over and inspect it to find if there's any stray threads anywhere. >> okay.

>> meanwhile, like his father did, stacey kulash gets calls from hollywood. >> two months ago i was working on a life-size beaver for a movie with leonardo dicaprio. i had to make it so that the belly could be reopened so that the actor could be skinning it on camera. >> good work, if you can get enough of it. >> at the end of the day it's always about the dollars. you can't pay your bills on good intentions. >> did you ever say, "i know i can, i know i'm good, but it's not for me"? >> well, this is what i trained for for over 30 years, so i'm just gonna keep on doing what my dad taught me. >> it's only between stacey and i, so we're in solidarity because we're brothers. i'm a meat cutter, but i've recently retired and i need to regroup my family and push this to as far as we can go. >> and that may mean going pretty far out there -- to the

land of jackalopes, "pegasus squirrels" and whatever you want to call this creepy creature. >> i took the back vertebrae of a fallow deer and i made a walking cane with it. >> taxidermy going rogue! that's next.

>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> nobody has an inheritance like the one that we've been bequeathed. >> it almost seems like brian and stacey kulash's strange inheritance came a few centuries too late. >> taxidermy really has its origins in a post-columbus era of exploration, when people were going out around the world and discovering new lands. >> scholar rachel poliquin says in the 1800s, taxidermy really took off in the u.s., canada, and europe, growing from a scientific pursuit into a very

common element of home decor. >> in the 19th century, there's the age of colonial hunting, and then it gets into that whole other desire to display your manliness. >> throughout much of the 20th century, hanging one of these heads on your wall was still the cat's meow. >> it was either the largest one you'd ever seen, it was the hardest to kill. it really becomes this souvenir and this point to tell the story about yourself and about your encounter with the animal. >> that's one reason steve kulash's talent was in high demand... >> i learned being by his hip from when i was 6 years old. >> ...a talent his sons inherited. >> you think i can handle the real thing? >> possibly. >> should we give it a try? >> we're gonna glue some eyes in on this mannequin for the next project i'm working on. >> yeah, there's a whole selection of eyeballs. this is one of the ones that we'll be using. that's the way that the eye wants to go on. >> a little glue?

>> right along the rim. >> okay, with my luck it'll be cross-eyed. >> [ laughs ] >> so it would go right here? >> yes. perfect! >> here's looking at you, kid! poliquin says traditional taxidermy is now less popular for a host of reasons. a cultural shift toward conservation over conquest has redefined the art form. still, poliquin sees hope for the kulash boys. >> there has been a revival in taxidermy recently. i think it is -- ultimately becomes a very individual process of how you go forward. >> so, what do you do with that taxidermy business you inherited, in an era when many people see a mounted head and think "comic strip gag"? if you're the kulash brothers, you plant tongue firmly in cheek, and branch out into a new hipster movement called "rogue taxidermy." >> rogue taxidermy is certainly becoming its own art form.

it's putting bits of animals together. there is the carnival nights contest, in brooklyn, where people bring in their strange, rogue taxidermy pieces. >> we've actually done some hipster taxidermy ourselves. that was a fantasy mount that i did for a tv show. i used a squirrel skin and pigeon wings. >> adorable. >> oh, it was funny. >> i guess. >> the jackalopes were done for a café-type restaurant called the cactus club. the antlers are from a white-tailed deer. >> some of stacey's creations go beyond fantasy to the macabre. >> i took the back vertebrae of a fallow deer. and it had like a miniature human skull on the very top of it that was chrome, and i made a walking cane with it. that sold for $650. >> not your father's taxidermy. >> you do whatever you have to in taxidermy to keep your doors open. >> which doesn't mean brian and stacey are discounting their

dad's legacy. they still intend to unload that noah's ark menagerie they inherited for a pretty price -- if not in one big boatload, then two-by-two, or at least one at a time. >> we had a lady that came and bought a tiger from us. the tiger was $18,000. [ register dings ] >> a promising start, but a drafty barn in the middle of nowhere is not exactly a customer magnet. you need a new place? >> yeah. >> they're saving to open up a new shop, confident that their strange inheritance still has a future. >> it's only between stacey and i, and so we're just trying to carry on and keep our name going in this business. >> as author and curator rachel poliquin observes, death makes taxidermy possible. it seems fitting this strange inheritance will long preserve the bond between a departed dad and his devoted sons. >> he is legendary. he taught me his whole life -- little things, big things.

he always had something to offer. >> my father was basically my best friend. >> we're hoping to still dominate and be on top, where we should be. >> kulash rules. >> you know it. >> in his day, steve kulash stuffed a lot of trophy animals, but his old buddy herb karas once found him hard at work on a cat, as in kitty cat. "you mounting pets now," herb asked. well, steve explained that the animal belonged to a neighborhood woman and had been her beloved companion for 15 years. herb says steve was carefully adjusting the whiskers to give kitty the perfect feline expression, gazing lovingly at her owner. what a guy. i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching and remember -- you can't take it with you. do you have a "strange inheritance" story

you'd like to share with us? we'd love to hear it! send me an e-mail or go to our website -- strangeinheritance.com. >> announcer: a century-old amusement park that could be lost forever. >> we're dying on the vine down here. >> "our time is over." that's serious. >> announcer: a divided family on the verge of a painful split... >> no amusement park in the world has been owned by a family as long as this one. >> the family loyalties just tend to get disintegrated. it's just a pattern for disaster. >> announcer: ...and a reprieve from the governor. but will it be enough? >> it's the day after labor day. the amusement park's not open down there. my father is flipping in his grave right now. [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ]

>> i'm 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 i'm here to meet a family that has a strange inheritance that's been an icon on this boardwalk for more than a century. hi, doug. >> hi. >> i'm jamie. >> nice to meet you. >> so nice to see you, too. your family really is so well known here. >> yeah, i'm afraid we are. yeah, we've been here a long time. >> a long time, indeed -- since 1890, to be exact. doug trimper's great-grandparents 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 herschell-spillman company. with a diameter of 51 feet, the merry-go-round is one of the largest built up to that point. how special is the carousel? >> it's pretty unique. there's 48 hand-carved animals on it, with real horsehair tails, and it has oil paintings around the top. i mean, it's just not the sort of thing that's 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 doug's father, granville.

>> my father -- all he ever wanted to do was to run the amusement park. he was the youngest person in the planet's history to own and operate a ferris wheel. >> starting in the 1960s, granville upgrades the park's 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 trimper's 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 park's 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 park's success is an exception to the rule within the industry. amusement-park historian

jim futrell tells me that, since the 1960s, family-run operations like the trimpers' have become a dying breed. >> with the interstate highways and the shift to corporate theme parks, a lot of the family-owned parks fell by the wayside. >> what does a family-owned amusement park do with that kind of competition? >> well, i think you have to know your place in the market. >> trimper's 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. trimper's attendance tumbles in the 1990s. then, at the turn of the 21st century, another challenge arrives in the form of another wild ride... the real-estate 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 island's vintage astroland takes $30 million to build condos. panama city, florida's, miracle strip goes dark in a $15 million deal. >> it's tough to say no to something like that. >> but granville, now in his late 70s and still park president, has zero trouble saying no. he'd much rather hold on tight to his family's boardwalk empire than cash in his tickets. and doug is a chip off the old block. >> you're 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 amusement-park

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 time's 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. it's just a pattern for disaster. >> ownership of trimper's 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 real-estate 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 father's 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. that's because the beachfront-development boom causes the park's property taxes to skyrocket. >> the new property-tax assessments came out, and i was like, "oh, my god," you know? "what's 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 don't work. >> no, they don't work at all. >> that must have been sad for your dad. >> nobody wants to be the trimper to close the park. he said it wasn't gonna be him, and yet he didn't have any more answers. >> granville and doug know they better come up with some answers if this century-old 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? >> that's next. >> announcer: but first, our

"strange inheritance" quiz question. the answer when we return. (music) need an escape from reality that won't cost a thing?

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the answer is "a," military training. >> in 2007, father and son granville and doug trimper are scrambling to keep open their family's century-old amusement park along the boardwalk in ocean city, maryland. the development boom has caused the park's property taxes to soar, making it impossible to stay in business. >> there's 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 it's finally time to get out of the amusement business and sell their valuable beachfront land. i don't get it, doug. you sell off the amusement business and you build condos and a shopping mall here, you're gonna make 10, 20, maybe 50 times more money!

>> well, i believe that, but my whole family's always been in this business, and it was a legacy that it's 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, who's 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 don't find anymore. they're 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 trimper's on the map. oh, my goodness.

only two dozen herschell-spillman 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 what's this? >> this is a hippocampus. >> a what? >> it's a hippocampus. it's essentially a sea monster. >> is it more valuable because it's so rare? >> i've 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. >> doug's first step toward survival? with the help of attorney joe harrison, doug appeals the park's land-value assessment, which was based on sky-high property sales prior to the national real-estate 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 property-tax assessments just came out. they sealed the deal for us.

our time is over." >> "our time is over." that's serious. the public response is overwhelming. politicians across the state jump on the "save trimpers" campaign. even maryland governor martin o'malley tours the park and puts the trimper's 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: here's another quiz question for you. the answer when we return. staying connected your way is easier than ever.

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>> announcer: now the answer to our quiz question. the answer is "b," denmark. >> in 2007, doug trimper is fighting to save his family's century-old amusement park. soaring property taxes are threatening to bankrupt the business. unless doug can get the taxes reduced, his family's board of directors may vote to sell the park. >> those were scary times. we're 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 can't 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 you're entitled to? >> we've 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, doug's father,

granville trimper, dies after a battle with prostate cancer. the fight for the park's future must continue without its most persuasive advocate. doug realizes his father's 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. >> there's 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. >> they're not the only ones demanding cash. to cover the steep estate taxes that come due after his dad's death, doug must finally sell off at least a piece of his father's 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 granville's death, is causing panic around the world and even more anxiety on the boardwalk. if you're sitting on millions' worth of real estate, do you sell, or do you hold? what's your price that you could not refuse to sell the park? 10 times more money than you're taking home a year doesn't mean that much to you? that's next on "strange inheritance." there are times when our need to connect really matters. to keep customers and employees in the know. to keep business moving. comcast business is prepared for times like these. powered by the nation's largest gig-speed network. to help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need.

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>> 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

century-old 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 there's 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 great-grandfather started? >> th-they really don't. and they can't, 'cause they weren't here. they weren't a part of it. >> what's your answer to them? >> we're sorry, but, uh, we're not ready to give this up. >> what's your price that you could not refuse to sell the park? 10 times more money than you're taking home a year doesn't mean that much to you? >> not to me. i mean, i guess we could have sold out quite a while ago and all have more money, but, uh, it's just not what we want to do. we just -- we love this business.

♪ >> it's memorial day, the official kickoff of the season here on the ocean city boardwalk. and thanks to doug, yet another generation of parkgoers get to enjoy the classic amusements and rides. [ people screaming ] but the battle for the park's survival never really ends. now entering the fray is the next generation of trimpers, including doug's sons, chris and brooks. like their grandfather granville, they vow that they won't be the trimpers who close the park. >> i believe getting our business to the sixth and seventh and eighth and ninth generation is our challenge. >> it's gonna be a long road ahead of us, but i'd rather be on that road than somewhere else. >> hello, trimpers! they'll know they've risen to that challenge so long as they

can keep that grand old carousel installed by their great-great-grandfather running. i think it's time i went for a ride. >> absolutely. >> i like this one, doug. >> well, it's all yours. >> i'm going sidesaddle. all right, brooks! hit it! it's my first carousel ride in 20 years. >> well, i think it's about time, don't you? >> i do, too! i mean, why do i feel 10 again? >> this place will do it to you. >> as i ride the carousel, i cannot help but marvel that i'm spinning in the same circle where kids have spun for more than 100 years -- before a great depression and two world wars, even before the birth of flight. it's also hard not to feel gratitude to the generations of trimpers who have seen this amusement park not just as a family business but as a public trust. in a sense, they've allowed their strange inheritance to be our strange inheritance, too.

♪ granville trimper made it his business to service this carousel every single day. he was a man of tradition. but his legacy almost never was. the carnival kid and high-school valedictorian earned a scholarship to the prestigious sorbonne university in paris, a much higher-powered career in engineering or management calling. but granville turned it down. he was so much more comfortable in his greasy overalls, fixing the rides, than in a suit and tie. so this family-run amusement park lives on and goes strong into its second century, leaving five generations of trimpers with a heck of a ride. i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thanks so much for joining us, and remember -- you can't take it with you. do you have a "strange inheritance" story

you'd like to share with us? we'd love to hear it! send me an e-mail or go to our website -- strangeinheritance.com. maria: good morning, happy tuesday, everybody, thanks so much for joining us. i'm maria bartiromo, it is tuesday may 26th, top stories right now before 6:00 a.m. on the east coast. the race for a vaccine continues. novavaxx starting first human trial expecting initial results this july. getting america back to work, retailers and restaurants traveling bookings and mortgage applications rising, there are more signs that the economy is starting to rebound. some areas seeing large crowds over the holiday weekend. the reopening of major economies across the world hopes of a vaccine pushing futures higher this morning. we are looking