A view of the former Geauga Lake from May 2013

Geauga Lake is exactly the reason why preserving our parks is such an important thing to do. In May 2013 we rode by the park to check it out. The park was open from 1872 to 2007 when the rides area was closed and the focus upon the amusement operations was put upon the water park, Wildwater Kingdom, that replaced the former Sea World. Geauga Lake Park was located in Aurora, east of Cleveland, Ohio. It was always a regional park. Many parks closed around it including Crystal Beach, Erieview which closed in 2006 I believe, Idora Park and others. This once thriving rust belt area lost most of its parks. Geauga Lake remained.

The closure of the park created a huge hole in the community. History repeats itself and it is very close to happening again at Conneaut Lake, another rust belt park. I am contributing a portion of my sales to the restoration of the park and giving away free Blue Streak tickets with each purchase.

The park was owned by the Funtime in the early 90s. In the mid 90s the Funtime Parks went up for sale. These parks included Geauga Lake, the former Wyandot Lake which is now part of Jack Hanna's Columbus Zoo and Darien Lake up in New York near Buffalo. Kennywood Entertainment Company, owners of Kennywood, Idlewild and Lake Compounce were VERY close to pulling of a deal to purchasing the Funtime Parks, but Kieren Burke, then president of Premier and later Six Flags, swooped in and purchased the parks in a last second deal.

The park was steadily expanded and then in 1999 it was decided that the park was going to expand at a huge rate to try to compete with the large tourist destination park, Cedar Point, located about an hour Northwest of the park on Lake Erie in Sandusky. The park added four coasters in one year in the year 2000 including the CCI built Villain wooden roller coaster, the B&M built Batman Knight Flight (later named Dominator) the Intamin built Superman: Ultimate Escape (later named Steel Venom) and a kids coaster. In 2001 Busch, then owners of Sea World approached Six Flags to purchase Geauga Lake because they were trying to de-emphasize the educational aspects of the parks and include amusement rides. Six Flags instead countered to purchase the Sea World Ohio park instead. Six Flags purchased Sea World Ohio across the lake AND built a Vekoma Flying Dutchman coaster named X-Flight. In 2002 attendance steeply dropped and the company found the park to not be sustainable. In 2003, Cedar Fair swooped in and purchased the park at a steep discount. The first move Cedar Fair did was remove the branding names from rides, switching Batman Knight Flight to Dominator, and Superman: Ultimate Escape to Steel Venom, among other name changes. They closed down the animal side of the former Sea World and built a water park. Realizing the park was overbuilt, they sustained the size of the park and began removing some rides in 2006 including sending X-Flight to Kings Island to open there as Firehawk, where it remains today, and Steel Venom was moved to Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown and built as Voodoo, where it was later renamed again to Possessed. After the 2007 season, it was announced that the park would close. The Dominator was moved to Kings Dominion where it retained the same name, the Vekoma invert named Thunderhawk was moved to Michigan's Adventure and the Vekoma Boomerang coaster was moved to Carowinds. The remaining rides were auctioned off. Many smaller rides ended up in places all over the country and the remaining coasters were torn down, except for the historic Big Dipper roller coaster that dates back to 1925 and was designed by John Miller. The following photos are what remains.

Here is a pile of rubble. Peaking above and peeking through the trees you see the turnaround for the classic 1925 John Miller creation, the Big Dipper.

 I recall this large pine tree creating some shade on a nice little midway

That tall concrete piling was a footer for either the boomerang or Steel Venom

This is the former ballroom for the park that was converted into storage at some point. A piece of the park's heritage that was already pretty much long forgotten way before the park closed. The park strayed from being a traditional and regional park at some point during the 90s. Six Flags attempted to bite off more than they could chew and put the park in an irrecoverable tail spin. This park is greatly missed. 

 

This is what remained of the Raging Wolf Bobs. It has since been torn down.

More of the Raging Wolf Bobs

This neatly stacked pile of wood is being reused in different places. The wood from the former Hercules at Dorney Park is rumored to have gone to build an Amish barn. This rumor is unconfirmed though. This wood is being used by the park and rides operator and restorer, Adams Amusements. 

This is the former Sky Coaster. It has since been taken down as well. It is creepy because the cables, even though they are rusty, look like they are about to head back down and pick up some more riders. 

This is the view from behind the former river rapids ride.

 The view of the former parking lot and entrance. On the bottom photo you can see the Big Dipper oddly looming over the skyline again. I wish we could see the park start back from scratch as a regional attraction with the Big Dipper and some small rides surrounding it, but I highly doubt that will happen. The community around the park is hurting as a result of this park having gone. We know what kind of power an amusement park has to keep a community together by creating a place to forget about the worries of the world and to make a living. We cannot let Conneaut Lake go out like this. That park closed in 2007, but folks rallied together and were able to resuscitate the park in 2009. Right now an old tax debt is looming over the park and threatens it, even with all of the dedicated folks trying to bring the park back. I have both volunteered and worked to raise the word to help restore the park. Each year the park has taken leaps and strides, but right now the time is critical. I am working to spread the word through my website and Facebook community and also through donating a portion of the funds from my book "Great Pennsylvania Amusement Parks Road Trip." The book is available through the dropdown menu at the top of the page and if you order a book you get the choice of either a free Conneaut Blue Streak or Lakemont Leap the Dips ticket.  

White Oak/McKeesport's Former Rainbow Gardens Amusement Park in Retrospective

At one point, this seemingly ordinary spot had something extraordinary, an amusement park, a place where folks go and leave their worries behind and partake in the joy of taking a day or evening at a park. The park was founded in the roaring twenties in 1924 as a getaway for then booming McKeesport and other Mon Valley workers. They built off of the success of Kennywood, located only 6 miles away, and they thrived. 

Rainbow Gardens would later add on a Drive In Theater and roller rink at the height of their popularity. Nearby in North Versailles a competing huge drive in theater sprung up. As a side-note, in the 90s this competing huge drive in would be replaced with a scene you can see in 11,000 other places worldwide, a Wal Mart Supercenter and a large Loews Movie Theater. The theater and restaurants that were a part of the property closed. Lost is a piece of Americana in that drive in, but I digress.

This priceless postcard shows the drive-in theater and pool that they had at the park. This is a giant shopping center now. Photo credit to cinematreasures.org the RCDB of old movie theaters. I could sit on that page for hours looking at the amazing information they have.

Here is the swimming pool. That high dive looks pretty awesome. Notice the mountain in the background, very similar to what you can see in the photos from the view today. Photo credit to Images of America McKeesport

The park built a swimming pool with sand beaches in 1926, complete with water features and primitive water slides. They also added some amusements. In 1954 they added a National Amusement Device (NAD) designed wooden coaster named the Bomber as an ode to the critical role the region played in what FDR called "the Arsenal of Democracy" during World War II. They also added a Schiff Wild Mouse at some point, presumably in the 50s.  

McKeesport Daily News Photo of the Bomber. Look at that NAD train beauty!

Accounts from folks say that while the Bomber NAD beauty was small, it packed quite an airtime punch. You can also see the pool and what appears to be the carousel shelter on the left. There is not a ton of information out there about this park. Does anyone know the manufacturer of the carousel or have more photos? I am intrigued by this little park.

Photo from the "Stuff Thats Gone" Facebook Page

Here is an aerial view from 1968 of the park when it was about to be closed in 1968.

Here you can see the back of the drive in screen on the right and what appears to be an Old Mill ride front and center. It is tough to see shots like this and how this old Americana is dying. Be sure to support your local amusement parks, drive in theaters, roller rinks, bowling alleys and more. Photo credit to drive-ins.com for the above and below photos.

News paper clipping about the demise of the park.

McKeesport and the Mon Valley were booming manufacturing centers for anything steel. GM even had a plant in nearby West Mifflin because of the close proximity to steel, the most important element in the creation of a car. This money in the region and the sheer amount of people was wonderful for the amusement parks in the region as you can see in visiting Kennywood. The bulk of Kennywood was built during the Roaring 20s including all three wood coasters, the beautiful Dentzel carousel and more. 

A sign with an ode to the old park

At the same time, the manufacturing boom in this time period would eventually lead to the demise of this amusement park for additional infrastructure was needed to support the industry here and at points south, all the way down to West Virginia. Route 48 needed to be expanded into a freeway, something that was a precursor to the idea for the controversial Mon-Fayette Expressway plan. The plan for this highway was (and still is) to connect the area with points south. At that point it was to support the local industry, but now it is to help the struggling area and areas south economically develop. The right of way for this proposed highway was to cut directly through the site. Not ideal and it did kill this park, but this freeway would have been huge for the region that is now hurting. You can read about the Mon-Fayette Expressway here. The freeway is completed to Elizabeth and it is a decent and quick connection to points south, but it is disjointed in that there is no direct connection to Pittsburgh. Once this gets rolling, places like Clairton, Duquesne, McKeesport and places south like Brownsville will greatly benefit. The planned highway also creates a direct highway connection to Kennywood, which will greatly benefit the park but I digress.

Source: contextsensitivesolutions.org

A previous plan for highway right of way for this project went right through Rainbow Gardens, so the park closed in 1968 and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (Penndot) condemned the property with eminent domain. They decided not to run the highway through that alignment anyways and ended up not building it, the damage was done though. The park was closed already. Penndot offered the land back to the owners, but they opted to not rebuild. Eventually the shopping center would be built in 1994, creating a scene that you can see in anytown USA. The folks in the locality of Conneaut Lake should look at the effect the closing of this park, and all of the defunct parks, has made upon their communities. I think Allentown's Central Park, a post I had a few weeks ago, would be a great example for them to look at as to what happens when you close an amusement park in an area. We cannot afford to lose these treasures of Americana to sanitized, big box places. While this story is a bit different because the park was not torn down to make this shopping center, the story still ends up the same, the community lost a place in which folks go and forget about all of their problems. 

A great source for information on the park is Rick Sebak's "Stuff That's Gone" documentary. 

My questions for anyone reading this, do you have any photos of the park and do you know who the manufacturer of the carousel was? It is such a shame this park's life was cut short like this. The folks up at Conneaut Lake need to realize just how important the park is to their community and that a healthy and fully restored park is the best thing to both revitalize the community, provide a sense of cohesiveness in the community and provide a living to folks. 

Our great weekend back in the Lehigh Valley and full Eastcoaster Update

For starters, if you make a book purchase I will send you your choice of either a Conneaut Blue Streak ticket or a Leap the Dips ticket. Some of the proceeds go to both parks. Just make a single book purchase using the drop down menu at the top of the page and specify in the payment note whether you would like a Blue Streak or Leap the Dips ticket as well.

I cannot express how exciting it was to meet so many folks between the ACE Eastcoaster event and our book signing at the Moravian Book Shop in Bethlehem. It was so much fun letting people know about the great parks our state has to offer. The Allentown Morning Call also ran an article about our state's great parks and our book "Great Pennsylvania Amusement Parks." We were very successful at both of these events.

The two of us at the Moravian Book Shop Signing in Bethlehem

It was wonderful meeting so many folks that I only knew from online discussion. I cannot say how much of a great decision it was to finally join ACE. I really love the community and the aim towards preservation. I apologize for the quality of the slide photos, they are just phone pictures.

Representatives from Six Flags America started off the day giving updates about parks around the chain. Six Flags America is adding a themed area named Mardi Gras with a restaurant, some renamed rides and a relocated spinning mouse. It will be a fun family attraction. I am sure you also know about Goliath at Six Flags Great America and the other projects. I did not take any pictures but I am pretty sure you know about the new 420 foot tall "Zoo Drop Zone of Doom" drop tower that will be built off of the front of Kingdaka. It is a pretty wild concept. They did a wonderful job outlining their projects this year in their announcements. Six Flags is very gracious to ACE and we thank them for that. 

Cedar Fair was represented by a team from Dorney Park and PR manager Don Helbig from Kings Island. They went in depth about the Cedar Fair changes and additions. Cedar Point, as you probably know, is freshening the Gemini midway through repainting and revamping the Eyerly Spider ride that they have along with adding a set of Larson Flyers named the "Lake Erie Flyers" which actually only took a single day to fully install. Those flyer rides are a blast and I would love to see more of them show up. I am not sure if our friend Sam from IRM Rides still has that set of Bisch Rocco Flying Scooters. If he does, one of you parks should purchase it!

Naturally there was the strongest focus upon Dorney Park and Kings Island since the representatives were from those parks. Dorney went into detail about their new slide tower, Snake Pit, which I believe is a perfect addition for Wildwater Kingdom. 

The next slide is pretty hard to read, but it shows some of the wonderful parts of the Kings Dominion 40th Anniversary celebration that will be going on throughout this season. The changes should really add some character back to the park. 

The next slide is about the new, state of the art, dark ride that will be added to Canada's Wonderland this summer. If this ride is successful, I fully expect to see more of these pop up around. 

Below is another look at that spectacular looking new invert train B&M will debut on Banshee. Don told us to expect to see some photos this week of the trains. They will be delivered to the park this week.

Chris Gray from GCI, an awesome guy that I interviewed for our book, came to present for his company. GCI is very busy this year, doing their great work as usual. At Arnolds Park in Iowa they are working to restore their Legend coaster back to full glory through completely rebuilding large sections of the ride. He said that the work was really tough this week since the temperatures were in the negative double digits. They are also doing work on the Twister at Knoebels, reworking the bottom of the first drop. They are also continuing their full restoration of the Coney Island Cyclone. The new emphasis on wood coaster maintenance in the Cedar Fair chain, which we will touch upon even further later in this post, is apparent in how much work they have completed on nearly every wood coaster in the chain. This was a welcome change this past season for the Cedar Fair wood coasters I rode last year, the Blue Streak and Mean Streak. Both of them rode better than ever. Additionally, GCI is working on some international restoration projects. 

Below is the work that they are completing on the Twister.

The new wood coaster of the year next year appears to be the Viper in China. It looks to be one of the best, wood coasters ever made. 

This beast will be built into a mountain side. The parts for the ride are in shipment right now to be assembled.

Chris specifically said that this ride was designed with their "Wood Coaster" that they built in China a few years ago, but with a second half that is inspired by Boulder Dash. This ride will utilize the mountain side perfectly and be near a mile long. The ride will do nothing but pick up speed throughout and still go into the brake run at 40 miles per hour. 

Here is the POV footage of the ride released by GCI. It is going to be wild!

Rick Knoebel made a stop to talk about the great things that this park does. He is holding the sign that says "separate ticket required to ride" or something along those lines, for the Flying Turns. It will be included in this year's wood coaster wristband. 

He also spilled the beans about the confidential 2015 file. He told Reverend Cliff that there would be a new Dippin Dots flavor.

The text is cut off, but you can get the point of what they are doing. 250 feet of track is being replaced on the Twister this year by GCI. 600 feet is being replaced by the Adams and their company STI. They have a long association with Knoebels and do many wonderful things for wood coasters through the industry, including restoring the Conneaut Blue Streak back into a world class ride. 

The next development I just heard of is the restoration of a W.F. Mangels, a businessman and ride creator that built great rides like this and the Whip at Coney Island. 

This ride was purchased from a carnival company based out of Reading. Back in 1991 or 1992 as a young little chap I rode a pony cart at a circus/indoor carnival at Lehigh University's Stabler Arena. I am pretty sure this is likely the same Pony Cart. Either way, it is very special and I love how Knoebels saves so many classics. 

Jeff Filicko is a great guy and he came to present for his park, and my homepark, Kennywood. One of the biggest things that will happen this year at the park is the restoration of the headlights on the classic Thunderbolt NAD trains. Additionally, look for the original carousel shelter to be turned into a sitdown eatery. It will be a Johnny Rockets. They are going to keep the beautiful wooden ceiling and the historical integrity of this century old building intact. They are also fully revamping the Auto Race ride to have a nice block system to provide for faster and safer loading. Irvine-Ondrey Engineering is responsible for the new control system. 

Many of these next photos are not too crisp at all, but they semi get the point across. This first project is a restoration of the Kemah Boardwalk, Boardwalk Bullet trains. I think I caught this photo as the slides were changing. The amazing and funny Tom Rebbie, owner of PTC, was presenting. It was awesome interviewing him when we were writing the book. 

The trains from both the Six Flags America Roar and Wild One are being fully restored.

Along with the Holiday World Voyage

And Cedar Point's Blue Streak and Mean Streak. This is the second year in a row and those Blue Streak trains are relatively new. Cedar Point is finally getting fully serious about their wood coaster maintenance. This year both the Blue Streak and Mean Streak ran as well as they ever have. Blue Streak was just incredible. Mean Streak was actually pretty smooth.

As confirmed by both Tom Rebbie of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company and Jeff Filicko of Kennywood, a multi year restoration of the Kennywood Racer trains is complete. 

The Clementon Park Tsunami, J2, Hellcat trains have undergone a full restoration as well. 

The Michigan's Adventure Wolverine Wildcat trains are also being worked on.

This is a new set of trains heading to China shortly and that caps off the busy year PTC is having in the shop. It is great to see a great Pennsylvania company like the Philadelphia Toboggan Company thriving like this. 

Additionally, there were presentations from other parks including construction updates on Dollywood's Firechaser Express and a presentation from Schlitterbahn about the spectacular looking Veruckt waterslide. My days on waterslides are likely over, but this 170 foot behemoth WITH an airtime hill at the bottom, looks unique and spectacular.

It was great being able to finally match up faces with the names of the folks I have talked with online. I am glad to be an ACE member now and I think anyone with a passion for coasters should join. The reception for the book from the club and at the Moravian Book Shop was incredible and it is really something to hear about all of these folks, even at Eastcoaster, that are unaware of some of the great parks this state has to offer. It was great getting that awareness out between those events and the newspaper piece in the Allentown Morning Call. If you are interested in the book, be sure to use the drop down menu to order. A portion of the book's proceeds are going to support Conneaut Lake Park and Lakemont Park and as a thank you for the support you get the choice of either a free ride on Conneaut's Blue Streak or Lakemont's Leap the Dips. Be sure to write a note in your order of which park you would like a ticket for and I will send it with the book. 

Our Eastcoaster Announcement! Helping Conneaut Lake and Lakemont Park!

Here is the announcement. We are working with both Adams Amusement/Conneaut Lake and Lakemont Park to give a portion of our proceeds of our sales to the parks. As a thank you for your contribution through a book purchase, you get your choice of either a free ride ticket for the Blue Streak or a free ride ticket for Leap the Dips. 

Help out Lenny Adams and Joe Cappello with their revitalization of the park.

Help the great people at Lakemont continue their work to keep the World's oldest roller coaster, Leap the Dips, running for generations to come. 

Use the drop down menu at the top of the page to purchase a book and put a note in the purchase whether you would like to get a free Conneaut Blue Streak ticket or a Lakemont Leap the Dips Ticket!