jignrig

You can see the tube sections of the original slides rotting away in a field of someone's backyard just northeast of Oakwood Lake along Highway 120. Not sure what happened to the Turbo Tubes, Jet Scream, and V-Max though. What is that slide at the top of the picture behind all the kids? Looks too small to be Turbo Tube or Jet Scream, yet does not look like any of the ones in the main slide complex. I think it's one of the first slides in the main slide complex. The landscaping and bottom pools of the slides were changed over the years. What's that thing behind the fence in the top left corner? That "thing" in the background is actually part of the cranes used in the sand quarries. It's several hundred yards behind the kiddie slide but big enough to appear in the pictures. Sorry I have been away. My grandmother passed away. I will return very soon with more information.

Main Slides #1: The Plunge (Second half of the slide was known as Waterfall and the splashdown was moved from the lake to next to Turbulence) #2: Flash Flood (Featured a large almost plunger on top of it that would buildup water, and then discharge it and shoot you down. Unfortunately the thing used to push so much water was broken after a few years, and never replaced.) #3: Turbulence #4: Subway (longest underground section) #5: High Tide (ran parallel to Subway) #6: Cyclone #7: Out of Bounds (ran parallel to Cyclone) An old brochure posted here indicates 9 of these slides, but even counting Waterfall as the 8th slide, there is still one missing. The brochure I saw this in was from 1990. Do you know anything more? There were only 7 slides in the main slide complex. There were two small slides that went into Castaway Bay. Makes up the 9 slides. the second half of the plunge was known as "waterfall" because when you came to the end of the slide you fell into the lake. Depending on the elevation of the lake at the time you could fall up to 4 - 6'. Slide # 2 use to be a second cement slide then later became "flash flood" Flash flood was never really broke. It was a poor design that was taken out of service. It didn't really have enough water to push someone down the slide and had very few riders. ________________________________________________ 3 Turbo Tube (innertube slides). From what I heard, these were known as disco slides because they gave the effect of having a disco balls in them, however this was more of a trick of the lighting from the outside with the semi transparent green tubing (Waterworld here has slides that gave this effect as well) instead of an actual light. I also heard that The Plunge, Flash Flood, and one of the Turbo Tubes shut down a few years before the park closed. Do you know when or why this happened? The Plunge was the original cement slide and took a lot of maintenance to keep it open. Being cement, it would tend to take skin of toes if the rider didn't keep their feet up. It was opened and closed at different times depending on the number of guests in the park. It was open the final year. There was three original turbo tubes. In later years the top of slide three was connected to the bottom of slide two. Made for one heck of a ride and was actually my favorite in the park. _________________________________________________ Jet Scream. Basically early innertube speed slides which consisted of two parallel tunnels that you could go down. The first part was enclosed and the final part was open. You rode down it, then it leveled out, and then it again went downward into the splash pool. That's correct! ____________________________________________ As for the innertube Rapids Ride, it originally had two rivers, but they cemented off one of the sides in the early 90's due to staffing issues. A lot of the rides in the park were the first rides of their kind. The brown family designed the first figerglass waterslide and had the patent on it. The original rapids was a learing experience. Very poor design and didn't flow very well. The second one was built using part of the first one with a far better design. They weren't ran together. _____________________________________________ I saw a video (I think it was on mysapce) of V-Max, and it looked like one of the much larger speed slides we have here in Denver, only with the top of the drop enclosed. I can't seem to find the video, so if you have some pictures that would be cool. The top of V-Max was enclosed because it was to steep. You had the potential of coming out of the slide. We use to do what we called "shooting the tube" where we would stand up in the begining pool and grab the safety bar with both hands. jump in the air and pull yourself forward feet first into the tube. When doing this you throw yourself so far into the tube that you would freefall down the slide without touching anything until you got to the bottom. (not safe or something we let guests do) _______________________________________________________ I see the arial photo of the park when it was open. Unfortunalty I'm not very good with photo editing to where I can draw lines to point stuff out like I've seen in other photos posted on here. I'll see what I can come up with.

No, the lakes were there first. (sand quarries) they built the waterslides around the lakes. When the property sold they bulldozed all the buildings and hills for the park and re-shaped the lakes. The shape of the lake today is not what they were when the park was operating. Oakwood Lake was actually three quarry ponds with the waterpark and campgrounds built around them. _______________________________________ "Thunder Falls...so that's what got brought over to CGA's water park (excluding the open slide)." That's correct. I don't know what they did with the third (open) slide. ________________________________________ The tall slide out front was called V-MAX, it was buillt off the existing bungie tower. (due to insurance costs we couldnt' do bungie jumping anymore) My speech for the v max went something like this...... "It's the tallest speed slide on the west coast. It's takes a while to get up and only 2 seconds to get down at 40 miles per hour. It's a major wedgie machine. If you aren't wearing a thong right now, you will be when you leave." The V Max was notorious for ripping off bikini tops!!

I just moved into a new house last week and will need some time to find some pictures. I know I have some old brochures and ads. My kids were in a lot of the pictures taken for the print ads. Oakwood Lake was actually sand quarry ponds from Brown Sands Inc. The brown family built the waterslides around the quarry ponds. They are still in operation just across the river from the old resort site. If you use Google Earth and look at the area of the old resort and then look across the river to the west you will see more "lakes" That's where the sand operation is now. Here's a list of the Rides: (I will try to match up pictures with the names later) Thunder Falls (was rampage) Turbo tubes (was called disco tubes on here but that wasn't the name) Jet Scream Rapids (lazy river) Kiddie slide Castaway Bay / Kiddie Cove (wasn't a wave pool) Main Slides (also called Mat rides) This was the main slide complex that you rode the slides on mats at 30 minutes intervals. We knew the rides as numbers but they also had names like cyclone, subway etc. I will have to try and remember the names. This is were the waterpark was all started with slide #1 "the plunge" Slide #1 was the original cement slide that was poured using an old horse trough as a mold. The slide went down the hill and dropped into the lake. The whole park grew from this one slide that was built by Budge Brown after he rode a natural rock slide in Hawaii. Thunder Falls Guy getting the Pizza is Mike Brown.

This is what the area looked like before the houses were being built. The only thing left from the resort is the Mobile Home Park in the lower left. (looks like houses) If you look at the lower right corner you will see Woodward Ave. The parks address was on Woodward and if you follow the road to the left just before it turns south (down) the entrance to the park was on the right.

who is watching this thread for updates. My name is Jeff, Formally Captain Miller of the Oakwood Lake Resort Park Rangers. Oakwood Lake Resort was the home of the famous Manteca Waterslides. I grew up going to the slides and then ended up working there later in life. I stumbled upon this today and thought I would try to answer some questions. I may even have some pictures laying around somewhere. My plan is to go through from the beginning to answer questions if anyone is still interested. I will try to get in here and info but please be patient. Here's a pic of me in front of the old Campground Office. We were getting ready for our Easter event.