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Bells has set up a Paypal for donations for anyone interested in pitching them a few bucks to help them get on their feet. I have heard one person pledge almost $1500 if the other fans can raise the same amount. That alone should cover the cost of rebuilding the spider. The tilt-a-whirl and another kiddie ride are still coming along.

 

Again, all of this is essentially being done by one guy who refuses to give up and his family and friends who are trying to pitch in and help. I would encourage any fans to pitch a few bucks his way as a show of encouragement from the community. Literally any gift, even just $2 from a bunch of us would make a huge difference.

 

https://paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_express-checkout-mobile&useraction=commit&token=EC-45H49994Y10102340

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  • 4 weeks later...

Bell's has begun announcing that they are "back" in tulsa. They've changed their facebook around a bit and have begun to more aggressively market themselves and their campaign. They've added over 15,000 followers in just the last couple of days.

 

They have also released a new website and video that can be found here: http://www.bellsisback.com/

Basically, they have formally announced that they plan to rebuild the entire park, including the log flume and Zingo, and then go even bigger by adding a water park (take that, Murphy's!), and an indoor area of some sort.

 

Right now they are still sitting at about five kiddie rides, but the Tilt-a-whirl is coming along slowly but surely. The spider and the scrambler will come shortly after, and then the carousel and some other kiddie rides. He is also setting up a concession booth soon that should help with the fundraising efforts. It also sounded like they might have a new fundraiser soon. They've currently raised about $1,000 or so though Paypal alone.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Bell's has announced that they are raising the money now for Zingo and phantasmagoria and the log ride. They have the mini golf course ready to be put together and they are putting up the tilt- a whirl and scrambler now. This is really awesome! Bell says he has plans to make Bell's a full fledge amusement park and water park! Along with a building to run year round with rides in it. They have lots of room for expansion. Here is their new location in yello and where they can expand in red.

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Very exciting times for Bell's. Like I've said before, the whole thing is a little rough around the edges, but they are really putting everything they've got into it and you've got to respect them for that. The recent social marketing pushes have been extremely effective. Tulsa still really wants to see Bell's rebuilt, and a lot of people are getting behind this movement. They had over 400 people show up a weekend or so ago. Not bad for just four kiddie rides in a flea market parking lot.

 

The tilt-a-whirl is still coming along. I've seen them out there working on it for weeks, but they're mostly just working weekends at the moment. The top deck seems to be done, and they've got a lot of the gearing in place. Seems to just need side panels, railings, the cars themselves, and a motor. I think the cars have been worked on separately, so I hope to see it running this Fall. I believe the spider will be the next ride on the agenda, as well as a concession stand. The scrambler and carousel will soon follow, as well as the mini golf course.

 

^Btw, about that map: Bell's/the flea market is actually located just to the left of the yellow circle. They are inbetween the dirt farm and the race tracks. I believe the guy that owns the flea market also owns the land the dirt farm is on as well as some other land around it though, so they certainly do have a lot of space to grow, just not that entire red area.

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An announcement will be made tonight on funding, however they will be relying on 'crowd funding' to help finish some of the projects started. Zingo, Phantasmorgoria, and other 'big kid' attractions are not in the cards this go around. They will reportedly seek 60k. 400 riders last Saturday at $1 a ride basically covered their operating costs.

 

While I would like to see my childhood park return, don't get too excited. The cost to rebuild Zingo could hit around 3 million. The concrete work on a simple shoot the shoots ran $1 million for a park down south a few years ago and the log flume will require just as much if not more.

 

Not being a debbie downer, just being realistic. The best possible thing that could be done would be to join forces with the karting track next door and build up an FEC, something that outside of Incredible Pizza, doesn't exist in Tulsa.

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Bell's has officially announced their 'Crowd Sourcing' plan. They are seeking to raise 60k in 45 days, some of the rides listed as being brought back are either already in operation or in process of being rehabbed or built.

 

We need the capital to fund bringing back enough equipment to have an amusement park for the northeastern Oklahoma community.

 

$60,000 will provide us what we need to bring these rides back up:

 

Tilt-A-Whirl

Spider

Scrambler

Hampton Cars

Hampton Cycles

Mini Enterprise

Critter Track

Lady Bugs

18-hole miniature golf

Concessions

Skee-ball and redemption

Plus:

 

Signage

Tile work (the red and white tiles as before)

Landscaping

Labor.

 

Fundraising Page

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So here's the deal, and I'm going to be brutally honest.

 

Since the launching of their 'crowd funding' page and a tremendous amount of news coverage including help from the rides broker IRM, the park has only managed to raise less than 4k. Tulsa and Creek County combined has approx 750,000 residents. If the residents really believed in the vision and the business plan(which includes 4 rides already in operation as part of phase I), then raising 60k should be no problem. Afterall that's only 8 cents per person!

 

The reality is people have been hearing the Bell family say they are going to rebuild year after year. Just under 3 years after closing they put rides up for sale with several being sold. And yes, the Himalaya was sold to Lakemont but is now sitting in a warehouse in PA, a ride the he says he's bringing back. Yes, millions of dollars of infrastructure were lost, BUT the park was NOT that fancy nor did it have much charm. It was just a collection of rides in a parking lot in the middle of the fairgrounds.

 

Its biggest asset was and still is, the memories. Memories of ones first ride on a wooden coaster, first dates, first kisses, and maybe other stuff in the Phantasmagoria (I'm guilty of that ) Others remember the concerts, 4th of July Fireworks and riding the sky ride from the dirt track to the park for a few spins on the wild mouse before heading home. So what the park lacked in atmosphere it made up for in memories.

 

Had the park been more profitable there would have been no issues with getting a loan, no issues with getting land, nor issues renewing the lease. But with two bankruptcies under their belt, one which a state representative helped them out of, no bank in their right mind is going to touch them.

 

The park had an idea 5 years before they got the boot that their lease would not be renewed as the fairgrounds refused to negotiate an extended lease. Years would go by and no lease renewal. Then at what the Bell family conceived as the last hour, it was get your stuff and get out. There were indicators, but they went unseen, it was just assumed the lease would be renewed.

 

At first I was pissed, just like everyone else. But given my position at the time I was privy to some of the information contained in the business plan presented to the fairgrounds. And while that is still confidential, I can certainly see why the board voted the way they did. Maybe the outcome would have been different if some of that plan was made public and gotten public support, but I doubt it.

 

The last 5 years it was evident that something wasn't right, there just wasn't much of an effort being put into the park. I remember riding Pharroh's Fury and noticed a giant hole in the center ornament. The mini golf course hadn't been used in years, bathrooms were in disrepair, and the many gangs in Tulsa were flooding in and driving people away. Oh, and lets not forget about the fire that destroyed the Zingo ride station and both trains(some people still think that was a conspiracy). Certainly the storm that shut them down their last year for a few weeks didn't help either.

 

While crowd funding does indeed work, case in point Theme Park Studio, it only works with a proper business model, a product people can believe in, and right now, it just doesn't appear that Tulsa believes in Bell's, otherwise they'd have already met that goal.

 

But even after being brutally honest, I still tip my hat to the man as he hasn't given up on the American Dream.

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^Great post here. I agree with you on every thought , except for the last sentence. If you mismanage a business to this level, (alienating your customers through bad customer service, destroying your credit emotionally and financially, advertising promises that are unkept and telling lies to the public) then you have given up on success and the American Dream.

 

This is attributable to any business........any business.

 

-Chris "Crowd Funding is for new and forward thinking ideas and not ones we somehow care about because of nostalgic memories" Con

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  • 3 months later...

So here's another stroke of luck for the park that just won't die:

International Rides Management (IRM Rides) Vice President of Sales and longtime ACE member, Samuel Shurgott, has personally purchased the SBNO Safari Kiddie Coaster, a 1985 Allen Hershel model that was previously located at Fun Spot in Angola, Indiana. Earlier in November, the coaster was dismantled and transported to its new home, at Bell's Amusement Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 

One could consider the coaster a gift to the park, as it's essentially on indefinite loan to the reincarnated Bell's. The ride will be repainted, repaired, and renamed, and will operate year round on weekends.

 

An entire second complete set of track and supports, along with an extra coaster car also was purchased to supply the original ride with enough parts and a possible expansion in the future.

 

Several extra pieces of track, supports and the extra car will likely be donated to the National Roller Coaster Museum and Archives (NRCMA) in the future, once all the rehab work is complete.

Source: http://www.aceonline.org/AceNewsNow/?article=470&RSSupd=20131127

 

Sounds really strange and amazing to me, much like everything else going on with this park. Who just buys a coaster and then gives it away to a random park like that? I guess it probably went for a few hundred dollars, and IRM figured it would be a nice little promotion. What a huge stroke of luck for Bell's though - a kiddie coaster could be a real attraction for them. I know I was glued to the Herschell little dipper at kiddie park when I was a kid.

 

In other news, the crowd-sourcing effort was a bit of a fail. It's been awhile now, but I think they got $15,000 or so out of the $60,000 they were hoping for, but since they used Indiegogo, they actually got the money. In the last update they gave, they had made visible progress on the tilt-a-whirl and were promising to get started soon on a concession stand, mini-golf course, and several other rides.

 

I'm going to be able to stop by the park in a couple weeks again to see if they've really made any real progress.

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  • 4 months later...

Two weeks ago I stopped by the Saturday Flea market to see what was going on. The parks' fundraising campaign yielded just under 20k. What does 20k get you? Turns out not a lot. They did manage over the winter to clear out one of the lots they had items stored in near Downtown Tulsa and brought it to a field onsite at the Flea Market. They also went and retrieved the donated roller coaster from Indiana and picked up a old school ferris wheel. A strange himalaya trailer also has appeared.

 

But the bad news is not a lot has changed in two years. The original 4 rides have been moved around a bit and stuff can be found all over the grounds. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but let's be realistic, the chances of this park surviving on $1/ride is slim.

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Well, here we are.

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I equate the tilt-a-whirl to the building of a hot rod.

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Why? Because no matter how hard you try it just never seems to get done.

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Rode on these many a time as a child.

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Another one of the original rides to the new location

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Ditto.

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Here lies part of the old Fun Spot Coaster

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Freshly painted track and supports

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This is the strange himalaya looking ride that arrived. The wires are hanging all over the place and doesn't look sea worthy. Not sure where it came from, but it's for sure not the Reverchon version they originally had.

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I can't for the life of me remember what ride this went to. It was either the ferris wheel or super roundup....I think

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The mini golf course arrived last year

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But here it sits.

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In many pieces

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Along with the classic yellow picnic tables

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Phantasmagoria cars. Fun fact, Bell Sr. not only built the molds and cars for his park, but also for Joyland in Wichita and Wonderland in Lubbock.

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Track waiting for paint.

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Another shot of these cars. The memories they bring back of fondling and tonsil hockey. *sigh*

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Not sure if these are the spare cars purchased or the ones that will be ran.

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If they are the ones to run, they need a lot of TLC including new floor boards.

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A shot the back lot

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The ferris wheel that was purchased from a park in Texas. Still can't place which park they came from.

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So that's it. I heard they were starting assembly of the coaster, next time I visit the family I'll swing by and see what's changed. Although I'm mostly pessimistic towards the parks rebirth, I still give him credit for trying, it's more than most of us do.

Edited by chadster
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We keep saying how unlikely it is that they'll "make it", but somehow they persist.

 

As of Easter Sunday, the coaster looked like it was at least 50% complete when I drove past. For the track work that is, I'm sure it will take a year after they've put it together to actually get it to work, just like the tilt. They've got a lot of rides almost ready to setup, but they lack the manpower to get over the threshold of actually getting them operating from what I can tell. Didn't they only raise like $8,000 of the $20,000 goal? They've barely got any money.

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First, the photos of the Bell's2 site and past photos are great. But, to get some of the comments correct, I will answer some. The Little Dipper did not cost a few hundred dollars. The coaster, while SNBO, was in very good condition, but required a total rehab. The trains are receiving all new floor boards, new padding, logos, etc. It (the coaster will get a new name) will look brand new very soon.

 

We have access to many rides, but selected the Little Dipper for the site available, and for the history. Bell's started with a similar coaster.

 

That mystery ride is not a Himalaya. It is a Garbrick Carousel base, and is owned by the flea market. It arrived last year and no decision has been made on its future. The Bell's still own a Arrow Carousel. Tulsa had its worst winter in years, hampering everything, and work is slow in an outoor environment.

 

The plans by June is to have the coaster running, the Tilt running, the Spider running, and the golf course open. A carousel the ferris wheel, and 1-2 more kiddie rides will join later if time permits. Bell's plans on opening for a Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule this summer, we hope they get enough visitors to encourage further growth in the area.

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That mystery ride is not a Himalaya. It is a Garbrick Carousel base, and is owned by the flea market. It arrived last year and no decision has been made on its future. The Bell's still own a Arrow Carousel. Tulsa had its worst winter in years, hampering everything, and work is slow in an outdoor environment.

 

This is why I have much respect for IRM, always willing to answer any questions or set us straight.

 

Thanks guys

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Well, we get a lot of questions. Like, 'Why was this ride removed ?', or 'What are you doing in my living room' ? It's not always about money, its about passion. Lots of independent parks need some help, love, and maybe a living room, an we are there to assist.

 

Honestly, Wonderland in Texas has a living room. Talk about close to the action.

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  • 6 months later...

Well guys, here we are, back at the Saturday Flea Market & Bell's Kiddie Park. Yes, that seems to be the new official name.

 

So I drove by two months and not a lot had changed, last week a few things had changed such as the addition of a new fence around the rolling coaster and the beginnings of a parameter fence. Unfortunately the fence posts weren't dug into the ground and made in a more portable fashion(makes sense) and the wind decided to play around with it. You can guess the end result. (Swearing, cursing, finger pointing, and finally some shoring up)

 

So the coaster itself has had a little progress made in the form of the start of a loading platform. Elsewhere things looks pretty much the same, in fact I think the Tilt-A-Whirl has suffered some weather damage and/or vandals. I had thought it was to be up and running after the fork lift repair, alas it still sits, presumably needing parts as all the pieces are painted and waiting re-assembly.

 

I did spot Robbie at one of the old storage lots loading up pieces of the log ride on a flatbed, but I decided to let him be and kept on driving.

 

Anywho, here is what things looked like last Saturday.

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Fencing to match the coaster

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Airtime or Hangtime?

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The chain seems to be waiting for use.

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This would be the beginning of a parameter fence

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ADA Compliant.

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And on overview of the rest of whats going on. Since it was cold, no one was around, heck even the flea market was dead.

 

Anyway the positives are progress is being made, the negatives, very very slow progress. Everything costs money.

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I head down to that flea market whenever I have a free Saturday. I always find something interesting to buy, and it's always interesting to chat with some of the people who open booths here. It's a weird place, but interesting none the less.

 

Next time you're out there you should peak behind the row of outside "booths" ie, garages in the back again. That's where the work area is for Bell's. I was out there last week and he had the coaster cars painted (after being sandblasted) and the chassis looked like they were being worked on. So at least the cars are coming along. I wouldn't worry about the track structure right now, that can all be shored up pretty quickly. The focus right now seems to be on the cars, and with only one person + an occasional helper, he can only focus on one thing at a time.

 

It sounds like he's also focused right now on selling a lot of the stuff he had in storage and getting rid of that extra expense. That's where some of that funding actually went I'm sure. I hope he can sell some of that old log flume stuff and get some working capital for the kiddie park.

 

I've been trying to get into contact with Robby to see what his current status is and maybe even see about helping some just for the heck of it, but his schedule and mine don't work well together. He has a family and another job that he has to do to support them, so Bell's is kind of his hobby of passion on the side.

 

I've been negative about all this in the past, but at this point it just is what it is. You just have to watch and hope they'll finally catch a break and get some momentum going someday. I have hope he'll get the coaster up and running by spring, and maybe the tilt will follow. Then maybe they can get over the hump and get some real progress going.

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I'm not at all concerned about the track, it was a joke, suppose to be humorous. IRM has been trying to sell the old rides for a while now, several of the larger ones have moved on, keeping the kiddie ones. I know one person who tried to buy the dark ride but the asking price was more than he was willing to pay.

 

The real issue are the citizens who don't exactly seem to be fully supporting the effort. I lived in Tulsa for 33 years and in that time I saw Golf World and Celebration Station close up shop as did numerous mini golf locations. Even with the addition of amusement rides Golf World couldn't hang in the market. Celebration Station did OK at first but over time business declined and the owners began not fixing things such as the anamatronic show. The highway construction was the last nail so when the offer came from a hotelier to buy the land (the state refused to) they jumped at the chance to get out.

 

Today there is what, Sports World with its 20 year old mini golf course, the batting cages, and the only reason they are still open, the baseball fields.

 

Tulsa has slowly slipped into a restaurant and bar scene. Hopefully one of the three proposed Outlet Malls will spring up and help rebuild the town.

 

I'm starting to think it would have been a better idea to have rented a large space at Promanade Mall and opened an FEC with the kiddie rides and birthday part rooms.

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  • 5 months later...

Almost a year to the date of the start of the kiddie coaster build and it much looks the same. The tilt and a kiddie ride have suffered damage presumably from storms.

 

This was from last Saturday at 1pm. Despite being advertised as open, no one was there. In fact a good portion of the fencing that had been erected is gone (it wasn't much of a fence, 4x4s nailed to a plywood base with 2x4s running lengthwise.

 

I know it's hard to give up a dream and all but the market isn't there. I still believe a quality FEC is the way to go. Kiddie rides, games, pizza buffet or grill.

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  • 2 months later...

I live in Republic, Missouri (on the West side of Wilson's Creek) and it takes about two hours and forty-five minutes to get to Bell's Kiddieland. I'm going to ask my dad if he and my brother could take me over there to try and help Robbie get the Little Dipper and Tilt-A-Whirl running as I'm sure he could need some help, it's not a guaranteed thing yet but if anybody would like to do the same contact me at (417)861-4578 or eliassmertens@hotmail.com and we can try to set up a date to do so (although it will have to be before August the tenth because I have to go back to school or I can try to go on breaks or weekends) because I know Robbie could use the help and I want an excuse to drive to Tulsa to *try* and get an Allan Herschell credit. P.S can anybody that lives in or near Tulsa PLEASE do a photograph update. I haven't seen one since May and I'm sure somethings have changed since.

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I actually thought chadster had posted another photo update, because it literally looks exactly the same now as it did back in May. Well, maybe the weeds have gotten a little taller... I used to go every couple of weeks or so to check out the progress and the flea market, but with nothing moving since early this year and the flea market never having much of any value I gave up and had kinda forgotten about it.

 

I don't think Robby can really use your help. Bell's needs more than a couple of hands at this point. A few extra grand and the right know-how and they could have gotten off the ground, but it appears he hit a wall back in February because there has been no progress since then. I don't think he has the parts or the tools/skill to be able to fix either the coaster or the tilt-a-whirl. The cars for the coaster need to be completely rebuilt, which would probably require a lot of shop work.

 

I tried to talk to Robby a few weeks ago when I saw him there, but he was busy talking to some other people. Sounded like he's still trying to sell off little bits and pieces as he can.

 

They are still open every weekend though. Last time I was there they had a few customers.

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