Boblo Island

[Skramp]

I can remember going to this small park as a kid. Did anyone else ever go there?

 

I remember have to ride the ferry over to it and they had some decent coasters. Too bad the place fell apart. Reminds me of a Canadian Americana.

[Gutterflower]

hey

although ive never been its always interested me as it was the only park in america that ever had a sansei coaster. although its now in south america.

 

Sansei = Japanese Coaster Builder

[snuggles]

Boblo island had a cursed coaster. Nightmare closed at boblo island, and then it moved to AW, and AW got closed. see, it's cursed!

[Chris Benvenuto]

well, it was closest park to Detroit, 20 minutes from I live currently. But never got there, Boblo closed 5 years before we moved to Michigan.

[Coasternerdette]

THat was my first park and my first coaster.....I can clearly remember being scared out of my mind while waiting in line with my aunt, who was not happy at being dragged on a coaster.

[Sparebear75]

I took my first ride on a looping coaster there. I only got to go once, that was 1986. It was definitely an experience.

 

You would have to wonder had it not closed, with all the new border crossing rules coming into effect, how would it of been affected.

[Coaster Joe]

I went to Boblo once a year, starting approx '85 until it closed. My first looping coaster was that Vekoma...waited almost an hour.

 

The Sansei was an out-and-back with several straight floater hills. Very similar to a steel Blue Streak. We would alternate between the Sky Streak and the adjacent Rotor.

 

My favorite ride at Boblo was the Sky Diver wheel, despite my lack in strength to keep the pod upright at all.

[crazyrider06]

No never went there, actually never really heard of it either

[Gutterflower]

for those who miss the sky streak its here

 

http://rcdb.com/ig713.htm?picture=3

[MonkeyPants]

In the mid '80's, my father's company had an outing there. We loaded up on one of the Boblo Boats in Detroit and froze our butts off during the ride to the island because it was cold, windy, and drizzling. After quite a long ride (I recall it being about 1.25 hours) we arrived at the Island to find that the power had gone out and they weren't open. The power had been out for a while, and they didn't anticipate getting it back on, so we froze our butts off for the return trip as well, without even stepping off the boat.

 

The next weekend, we drove a Amherstberg and took the brief ferry ride across. This time, the sun was out and we had a lot of fun. My sister an I did laps on the Sky Streak. I was surprised that it was actually fun. The Vekoma corkscrew was, of course, lame.

 

We also did laps on the funky ferris wheel that had these carts that you could flip upside down by spinning a wheel in your cabin. We had a blast on that!

 

I was surprised at how fun it was. It's a shame it closed.

 

Btw - Does anyone remember Edgewater Park in Detroit? They had a coaster with the all-time best name of "Soul Train."

http://www.rcdb.com/ig2185.htm?picture=3

http://www.rcdb.com/ig2185.htm?picture=2

[RedB]

Unfortunately for me, this park closed before I was old enough to go. Always wondered what it was like. Seems like everyone who ever went there had fond memories of it. It's a shame no one was able to step in and save it.

[ltp74]

It was closed before I moved up here but I have been told it was a decent park until the early 80's then it went down hill and by the late 80's the only thing it was good for was watching fights between Detroit Street Gangs and Canadian Motorcycle Gangs.

[speedracer]

Here's a pretty extensive article on the complete history of the park:

 

http://cec.chebucto.org/ClosPark/Boblo.html

[RedB]

^^ Extensive is an understatement!!

Nice find. This should keep me busy for a while.

[dandaman]

Kind of before my time, I'm afraid. (I'm maybe 20 minutes from ex-Boblo.) It would be nice to ride a coaster within a half-hour's drive.

 

There's a big wall advertisement still up on a building, actually... you can see it when you cross the Ambassador Bridge.

[BobloLives]

I went there from about 1974 until it closed (I was two the first time I went). That was my first coaster -- the kiddie one. And I LOVED the Journey to Mars (not sure that's 100% correct) which was a dark ride with a valley in the middle that the cars would coast down and back up. My 75 year-old grandma and I rode it when I was about 5 and we got stuck in the valley and I remember she had to get out and walk out of the ride. I thought that was cool; not sure how she felt!

 

Wow, just noticed this thread's been dead a while. Oh well.

[Zero One]

I was there once, but I was so young I can hardly remember.

 

I remember a train, riding the log flume and the boat ride.

 

I found this website a little while ago: http://www.boblosteamers.com/bobloislandindex13.html

 

It has some nice pictures of the current state of the island. Including the sky tower which is still there.

 

 

Speaking of parks in Michigan, about a year ago I found this website: http://www.waterwinterwonderland.com/amusement.asp which has some great information about all the parks Michigan used to have. Autoworld, Electric Park, Edgewater Park, Walled Lake Park, Jefferson Beach, etc.

 

Going through all of that, the one thing that was the same in all the parks' stories was the reason they closed: They just couldn't compete with a little place called Cedar Point.

[montezooma]

Never went to the park but dug this out of my attic...

 

Shane

[dandaman]

^Cool stuff, Shane. For my location, this was about as local an amusement park as I could get... I'm about a half-hour from Amherstburg (one of the Boblo docks). Too bad I never got to experience it.

 

As I mentioned above and a year ago, there's still a big sign on the side of a building stating "Boblo Island: Detroit Dock" visible when you cross the Ambassador.