chadster

^ Not to worry, the fairgrounds has restored many of them. I am going to try to go out later tonight or in the morning and grab some pictures of what the area where Bell's used to live looks like today. The gondola's are stored at the opposite end and are enclosed while not in operation. They've even put advertisements on them!

wow, this looks like a great place! Although, I might need to take out a second mortgage to ride everything The one thing I don't think would interest me is taking a lawn chair 383 feet up in the air and spinning around. Was it an uneasy feeling or did you feel secure?

I think I am more in shock with this than the restraints magically releasing...

^ Thanks, well put.

I will try to stop by today and snap a picture with me cell phone of what the former area occupied by the park looks like today, its nothing more than a parking lot, but still. I haven't heard anymore whisperings about when or if a vote would be rescheduled. Most of the people who would vote for it live in Tulsa County and not Wagoner County. Wagoner is a smaller county so any increase in taxes would hit the residents bottom line, that, combined with other taxes for business over the last years that have been voted for, only to have the businesses close of just barely fullfil their commitments, then, pick up and move, kinda stings. Tulsa got bit by American Airlines just recently. At one point the Bell family said it would cost around 1 mill to rebuild Zingo, it was built in house (built, not designed) originally with the help of local students. The phantasmagoria (awesome dark ride) will never relive in the same capacity it once was according to Bell Sr. As far as the rest of it, I mean think about the cost of infastructure alone, that would be in the millions. It's a sad reality that while the park made the Bell family a good living, they went through ups and downs including a bankruptcy and a catostrophic event on the wildcat where two people died after the dog came loose on the lift hill and the roll back failed. The op dispatch a car too soon and when the car on the lift rolled back it did with such force that riders were thrown out of the car, killing them. which helped to see an attendance decline for a few years as they removed the ride and never put anything back in it's place. RCDB has a little history on where it went after Bells, but I think it's still in storage. As such, I doubt they had much money in savings to rebuild from scratch. Without a no/low interest loan from taxpayers I don't know if he will ever get the capital together to rebuild, and you can be assured if he does rebuild it won't be in Tulsa County. edit: don't take this a negative comment, it's just reality. I loved the park as a kid, and Zingo will always be in my top 10, and should they rebuild, I would patronize the park, if for nothing else than to support the small business and show my support.

^the lease has acutally fell through at this point as two of the county commissioners in Wagoner voted against going forward due to lack of business plan, oddly, the same reason the tulsa county fairboard voted not to renew their lease edit: I believe I have a picture of it somewhere at home, I will check tonight or tomorrow tonight, elections tonight so I will be busy working.

^^ Steve, I wished more ops had your attitude! I don't really care for the rudeness either, afterall, even if the pay is small and temp is high, one is being paid to do a job, and that is ensure the guest is safe, and has a good time, which includes saying hi and thanking people for coming. SF's is getting good as this, just hope they keep it up.

haha, yeah, all you need to do is look for the big a$$ lift hill and walk towards it, it can't be missed.

My first visit to KD was three years ago and loved it, and since, I've gone out of my way to visit the park when in DC for training or just in the area for whatever reason. Unfortunatley as noted in my east coast trip report, I found the park starting to slack off in the cleanliness and friendliness area. The attendees all look like they just came from the NASCAR track up the road and have no regard or respect for others. The ride attendants didn't seem to enjoy their jobs, however, I wouldn't either if I were in the ultra hot volcano and domintor as a ride-op. I had spoken to an older gentleman at BGW, who said he only lived 5 miles from KD and had been a season pass holder for many years, but as of four years ago won't go there anymore, not becuase of his age as he said he still rides all coasters, all the time, but becuase of the metal detectors. His opinion was that any park that makes you empty your pockets is not safe and he won't go there. To an extent I can see his point, however, all SF parks I've been too make you go through the detectos, but not all CF parks make you, so that in all honesty, tells me KD expects problems with the clientel and is trying to be proactive, while causing longer entry lines into the park. Now, I will say if going thru a metal detector prevents a stabbing or shooting, then it's worth it, but, come on people, this isn't an airport. The layout is odd, but not hard to navigate, just takes a while to get to where you are going, and CF didn't design the original layout so you can't knock them for that.

^ That's just wrong, but I like it.

Two great little parks, thanks for sharing, just added to my bucket list. I love that the death machine is a trailer model, that's classic.

looks like an oriental elvis painted on the right side of taganda's backboard, he is alive I tell you, he is!

I don't care if this thing isn't that intense, with the fog, lighting, music, and other special effects, I want one. I will now commence to clear a space in my backyard and put one on order. I don't care if I'm the only one who will ride the thing, or, if it drains the powergrid. I want one. (I'm about ready to break out in willy wonka song and dance, I want it now, lol) I think would even go out at night and fire that baby up just to watch it in action.

Thanks, always enjoy reading about the small parks.

Ok, so I saw some activity a few weeks ago at one of storage locations for Bell's rides. I thought that maybe they were going to move them to possibly their new home. Fat chance at this point. Turns out, they had to clean up a bit after one of the neighbors sold their property to a development company. One kiddie ride was removed from the storage area, don't know where it went to, probably scrap, as it's only a matter of time before Robbie is probably forced to move more items. So today we will take a look back at the storm, which was the catapult the launched the downward spiral of the park, through demolition, and to stuff in storage today. P.S. I have yet to locate the Zingo ride structure and various other buildings/structures that were taken apart and place in storage. I've chased a few leads, but came up blank. If anyone thinks they may know where it is, please PM me. I've been thinking of trying to get in touch with the Bell family to see if they would allow for tour of their warehouse, but thinking is as far as it's gone. A freak storm passed through the Tulsa area in June of 2006. The ferris wheel couldn't stand the 100mph winds and looked as if God came down and kicked it over. The Tilt-A-Whirl also sustained some damage The Himilaya also sustained damage. What alot of people don't know is that this version was not a park model, it was a trailer model and of only a few left in the country. Thankfully, much of it indoors. A tree fell over onto one of the bunny hills on Zingo and had to be rebuilt. The park was down about two weeks. Although this picture is a little blurry, this was the last time the drop tower would light up. On this day on 11.9.06 the county announced the park had 90 days to vacate. A tall task for a park with 50 years worth of history. The drop tower and the sea gull attraction to the left (kiddie attraction that spins around and raises about 20 feet off the ground) went back to their respective ride manufactures in Texas. Then came D-Day, in the days following the annoucement a winter storm came through, with a foot of ice and another foot of snow on the ground, it became difficult to remove all of the rides in the 90 days alloted. The fairboard granted multiple extensions. Pharroh's Fury also went back to the manufacture. The ride had suffered from Gangs vandalizing and breaking items on the gondola. Behind Fury was the last of it's kind dark ride, Phantasmagoria. I had many of, um, fun times in that ride. Last October, some of the props resurfaced as part of a halloween display. The pad for the drop tower that sits empty. In the background, the building with red the roof was a concession stand, over the years it was different things, most notibly, a Mazzios Pizza The Super Round Up, an adult and kiddie bumper cars, himilaya, and octopus once stood here. part of the old mini gold course the dark ride building, almost demolished. There are several websites dedicated to it out there, look it up, be cool. White Lighting (log ride) queue line, Zingo in the background, the top of the hill used to house a Pepsi sign that was much neglected in it's later years taking down Zingo They started towards the north end of the park due to an agreement with the county. They were allowed extra time to take down Zingo and other attractions. The weather was not playing in their favor getting it took down, rained many days. the track bed could not be saved. Only the frame was kept lifthill pieces of Zingo, RIP The park had three wet rides, here sat two of them. You sat in a dingy and got wet, really wet, and the water smelt horrible. midway White Lighting - It was built for the Worlds fair in Chicago (I think) and was one side of the double flume ride. The other half went to Dollywood the mountain to the right was going to house anamatronics, but that never happened, it was just an empty dark space where you could get in a quickie (kiss that is) demoloition crews working to turn it into a.... parking lot. The fairboard said they wouldn't make it a pay to park site and wouldn't let the fair operator, Murphy, put rides in that location, well, false on both. They've pushed out the fair slightly and you now pay 10 for preferred parking for the fair. this was one of three rides that the bell famliy didn't take with them it was sold to the fairgrounds. It also had a lien on it, so selling it helped get them out of debt. The sky ride used to ferry people from the dirt track to the amusement park. The dirt track left over twenty years ago. When the track left, the ride only operated during the fair. Today, it is in operation during the fair and has been rebuilt and repainted. This is where part of the rides are stored, this was taken about 6 months ago. vandals had broke out windows the 4x4 kiddie truck ride that was once in storage is missing. current day pictures, the ride ticket booth. octopus arms more octopus the steel here was used for a canopy that once housed a grand carosuel, it was later sold due to financial problems and was used for picnic areas. The park later bought a replacement, but didn't house it in the structure. these benches would be found all over the park. There are more stored between two buildings, but I don't know who owns those buildings and didn't trespass to get those pics. parts of the super roundup are also stored between those buildings. part of the lighting and ski lift supports first lift of the log ride in this building sits many more rides, like the zingo train, logs, ride cars for the himilaya, arcade games, etc. remember the ferris wheel? Can you believe they kept the gondolas? motor for the ski lift this was part of the log rides lift i laugh that they kept part of the roof the covered the station of the log ride. here we find the super round up backside of the ride log flume parts, more log flume parts are located about a block away, but because they sit in a lot next door to an occupied home, I chose not to be rude and take pictures. round up drive line. I'm sure it would fire right up and work first time, more supports. That's it, hope you've enjoyed.

No court date yet, I'm keeping an eye on this one.

hmmm, I see your problem, it's AIM I don't recall, what version are you running, I know it's 64bit, but don't recall what flavor? I'm running professional and enterpise, zero issues with Nero 10 and CS5. If its Professional, I would offer to send a copy of my image your way just to see what happens. Actually, if my store order hasn't been shipped off yet, and you have a pro license, I'd say send me a blank HDD and I'll image the sucker and send it back, I know my sysprep'd (yes, I said sysprep world, I have conquered it!) works on our stuff, but I know your over it now and all, I just can't believe you are having such trouble. I have 50 highly complex nodes running it and many server 08 nodes and zero issues. I even have autocad running a machine for our little secret enterainment complex that's being designed, again, no issues. But I am glad the MAC is working out, I will admit for photos and graphics they have a better package, I still like my Sony Vegas for the PC tho.

^^ I highly doubt it was due to wind that it was closed, I'm guessing more due to saving money on staff or the elevators being down. There was only one time I've been to SFOT that the tower was open, last Sunday it was "closed due to wind" and well, it was still a hot humid misserable day.

I'm rather enjoying learning about Europe and the various parks, between this thread and larrygator's thread on the same, plus bonus, not only have I killed time at work, but also learned things I other wise wouldn't have known, like the tunnel for example that historically had traffic issues. I looked that up and watched a mega builders episode on it online, quite interesting.

I invested wisely in the stock market I have visited parks for years prior to joining TPR and even recording credits, and haven't yet been on one of their trips, however, my job allows for me to have an abundance of comp time which must be used from time to time, so, usually in the spring and fall, my co workers forget what I look like. and while I am earning (yeah right, busting A$$) comp time I'm not spending money becuase, well, i have no life during that annual time of the year where I can't do anything. Plus, when "on call" we have negotiated comp time, I can't remember the last time I got called during that privillaged time, so its a win win for me.

All I can say is that from the top of Power Tower last week, I about wet myself thinking about that first drop with all the track now in place on it, I mean wow, even up close and nerding out and studying the angles and what not, this thing will probably blow my #2, El Toro, down a peg when it opens. (Personal #1 is Montu) Wood is Good, Steel is Real, but styrofoam? I got nothing.

^^yeah, that bridge was a huge hassel which added to my "blah" in referrence to the park's layout. In all reality, they only have a handful of solutions to the bridge problem. 1. don't use that side of the park, tear it out and turn it into a parking lot, 2. build a bigger bridge, 3. tunnel, but that costs lots of money, or 4. do number 1, then expand the opposite direction when/if it's financially viable to do so.

I can see Robb's reality, I mean when you think about it, the back of the park was closed off and not used for a few years anyway, and with the twins needing new trains and extensive rehab, it's probably better they tear that and the falls down and bulldoze the dragster area and make room for something else down the road, maybe like another entrance to the park with new attractions. The park itself, as I remember it, was a little akward to get around in, and was kinda blah, IMO, when it came to layout. I'm thinking Hart is a smart man who will play it out with some real thought. If the water park packs them in combined with a few rides, then for the first year or beyond, so be it. It will give him time to drum up money and redo other parts of the park to a point that it will attract patrons from a far for the 2012 season. Seeing that newspaper article really gives some perspective on his thoughts. The industry and the city doesn't want to see another failed venture. The older rides I'm sure if kept, and even the not so new rides, oh who am i kidding, all of the rides will need a complete overhaul given the time that they have sat not to mention that fact that parts may be missing (wouldn't know who would've done that, cough, sf, cough). And while I would like to see him buyout freestyle and move the good rides to KK, that probably won't happen. It would be very funny, however, if he called up B&M and asked for another "Chang".

i hear kentucky kingdom is looking for two gently used coasters, a B&M and a family ride. It would appear to me that it might be good business sense for whomever wins out getting KK to buy Freestyle for pennies on the dollar and then move the good stuff over to KK and sell the rest. but that's just what I would consider doing...

curious of what the new operator will do with the twins, falls, and dragster sites. a lot of room for expansion in this one given time and money. Maybe this will inspire the fairgrounds to also spruce up the entrance and whatnot to help out the new operator bring back the crowds.