What defunct park intrigues you the most?

805Andrew · May 1, 2015

Pacific Ocean Park or the old Coney Island amusement parks in its heyday.

Rai Fox · May 1, 2015

Rocky Point, have always heard stories about it but never got to go, but since its closed, they have turned it into a big park and walking section open to the public right on the water and its actually really nice. It's a cool feeling knowing you're standing right where a coaster used to be

It's very bittersweet, I think. Far better than condos there, but I still can't help but stand there and see what was there and still should be. Makes me so incredibly angry...that park had no reason to close except for pure greed. It would still be there if the park's board hadn't been embezzling away all of its profits.

I know there are quite a few people who want to see an amusement park there again someday, including senator Reed, so...maybe there's at least some small chance.

Nrthwnd · May 1, 2015

^^ Yes, for Pacific Ocean Park!

Me and my mom were there back in 1963, seeing Disneyland and Knott's,

but I also knew of this park, very well. Had an info.flyer snail mailed to

me, so I knew all about what was there.

Sadly, when we were there, around Easter time, we found out P.O.P.

was CLOSED during the week!

I was devastated, and cried my disapproval. At age 10.

My anguish was assuaged with a trip to a mini golf course, lol.

But I was still very sad I came "this close" to visiting the park.

Recently, I got the book all about P.O.P., and it's really something to

enjoy reading through, with a lot of old b/w photos in it.

So P.O.P. is definitely worth a time machine ride.

The iconic "Starfish Entry" into Pacific Ocean Park.

And here's a pic of the recent book I bought, about the park.

Edited July 23, 2015 by Nrthwnd

wiyoh1984 · May 1, 2015

I would have to say:

Astroworld

Six Flags New Orleans/Jazzland

Geauga Lake

Hard Rock Park

Philrad71 · May 1, 2015

Crystal Beach - a shame that I only lived about an hour and a half from there and never got to go when I was a kid as my parents just weren't into amusement parks back then. I remember also hearing on the news that it got pretty bad with delinquent minors and drugs before they closed it down, so probably another reason that Mom and Dad wouldn't take me.

Being a music fan, I'm also disappointed in never getting to the Hard Rock park. I would have loved to ride Led Zeppelin - The Ride and of course Nights In White Satin - The Trip. Really wish that someone would make another go of this type of park in another location besides Myrtle Beach. I would love more music themed rides and coasters! Maybe a place like London?

805Andrew · May 2, 2015

^^ Yes, for Pacific Ocean Park!

Me and my mom were there back in 1963, seeing Disneyland and Knott's,

but I also knew of this park, very well. Had an info.flyer snail mailed to

me, so I knew all about what was there.

Sadly, when we were there, around Easter time, we found out P.O.P.

was CLOSED during the week!

That sucks that you were so close to going there and it was closed while you there. No internet back then to check the operating days/hours.

Recently, I got the book all about P.O.P., and it's really something to
enjoy reading through, with a lot of old b/w photos in it.

So P.O.P. is definitely worth a time machine ride.

The pictures and artist renderings of this place really intrigue me. It's looks way cooler than what Santa Monica has now. I'd take a time machine back to there too.

ernierocker · June 20, 2015

It's nice to see Opryland being represented in this thread. It certainly wasn't the greatest park out there, but you never forget your childhood park especially when it becomes a stupid mall.

sirspud · June 20, 2015

Boardwalk & Baseball/Circus World, just because I grew up practically down the road and remember what it was like when an area that now contains a shopping mall had an amusement park. I DID actually visit the park before it closed, but I was 4 or younger and could experience very little and remember even less.

Other than local factors, I'd love to see old Coney Island, or perhaps Riverview Park in Chicago.

cfc · June 20, 2015

Another good, but defunct park was Frontier Village in San Jose, California. I visited this park a couple of times when I was a kid, and it had a great dark ride: The Haunted Dutchman's Mine. Sadly, it couldn't compete with Great America, and an industrial park now occupies that land.

You could shoot real bows and arrows on Indian Island.

Edited June 21, 2015 by cfc

RollerManic · June 20, 2015

Geuaga Lake R.I.P

GCI Wooden · June 21, 2015

^I just came here to say that.

Geauga Lake really intrigues me.

CanobieFan · June 22, 2015

Whalom Park from lunenburg Ma. My parents talk about how fun that place was... Flyer Comet looked like one hell of a frightening ride. Looked totally unsafe. And tons of classics at the park too.

Sportsdude360 · June 22, 2015

For me it would have to be Spring Lake amusement park in Oklahoma. My fondest childhood memories

are of this place. Sadly, it was also the scene of a terrible race riot back in the early 70's.

It was also known for it's racist policies during the 60's.

coaster57 · June 22, 2015

Whalom Park from lunenburg Ma. My parents talk about how fun that place was... Flyer Comet looked like one hell of a frightening ride. Looked totally unsafe. And tons of classics at the park too.

[youtu_be]http://youtu.be/1os-MJKacSW[/youtu_be]

Have you seen this video? Whalom is showcased from about one minute to minute five. It was filmed right before the park was lost.

LuminousAphid · June 22, 2015

I'm surprised no one has posted this to be funny, but after reading this article I really would love to go back in time and see this place:

Action Park!

Holy poo those alpine slides look like legit fun (and potentially lethal according to the internets)

The park itself sounds like a one day park at best, but I would pay money to go back to before there were lawsuits waiting for anything half as bad as some of the things in the article. Of course, take it with a grain of salt--or believe it all since that's more fun and it doesn't hurt anyone's rep or anything

edit: 5:05 deserves special mention, props to all three of those kids for holding on

edit2: fixed link

Edited June 24, 2015 by LuminousAphid

coaster57 · June 22, 2015

[youtu_be]

[/youtu_be]

Here is the fixed link for Whalom Park.

Thunder_Run · June 22, 2015

A majority of the parks I am intrigued with are the theme parks that first showed up to become the region's "Disneyland", The parks by C.V. Wood, like Pleasure Island and Freedomland, the amazingly long living Legend City (20 years for a type of park similar to the C.V. Wood Parks is pretty shocking, especially when it was in ARIZONA of all states.), and the two Florida parks Pirates World and Marco Polo Park all fit into this.

The defunct park I am most interested however, is a tie between Busch Gardens Houston (Themed to a continent just like its sister parks, revolving around Asia) and Six Flags AutoWorld. While there is definitely a tiny bit of info on the latter, the park's concept really is fascinating to me, and I somewhat wish that the National Corvette Museum would attempt, or at least consider the thought of a similar "park" within the area, besides having the race track and the actual corvette assembly plant nearby. Busch Gardens Houston has my attention also because of the many "what ifs" that come into my head if the Asian-themed park stuck around a while longer. Compared to Van Nuys, it looked like from historic aerials it could have expanded more substantially, even if it still would be the smallest in comparison to the Williamsburg and Tampa parks. Unfortunately it is one of the least documented defunct parks out there, and pictures of it are scarce.

nhman93 · July 19, 2015

Lately I have been very Interested in Geauga Lake and more specifically it's years as Six Flags World's Of Adventure. The fact that for years two parks ran on separate sides of a small lake is very cool too me. It's also unbelievable that Six Flags combined the two by building a wooded trail, a floating dock and two ferry boats. The amount of expansion in the early 2000's is unlike anything we have ever seen at a park in such a short time period also all the different configurations the park ran under from 2000-2007 is mind blowing, no two years where ever the same. From a traditional amusement/water park in 2000 to the world's largest theme park for the next three years then back down to a theme/water park in 04. I also can't think of any other park which had two separate water parks which Geauga Lake did in the 2005 season while the rest of Wilderwater Kingdom was being built.

A great write up on the park which rekindled my interest in the history of Geauga lake can be found here it's a highly recommended read http://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20140824/28153/lost-geauga-lake-how-worlds-largest-six-flags-disappeared

Also a video of the park at it's "peak" in 2003, The shot at the end walking across the bridge back towards the ride side with all the roller coasters really makes it look like one of the better parks out their at the time

Also for anybody who had been to the park during that era was it as great as all the articles and videos make it out to be or was it just another average park?

Geauga Dog · July 19, 2015

Being my home park at the time I loved SFWoA but then I may tend to be a bit bias on the subject since I preferred it over Cedar Point due to all the things you could do there. Hit a few rides, take a dip in the water park, then go see the dolphin show, Shouka, the killer whale, the tigers at Tiger Island, or even the Batman Water Thrill Spectacular shows if you needed a break.

With the way Six Flags ran the park many will probably say that it was basically your average Six Flags park and in the beginning, in particular the 2000 conversion to Six Flags Ohio, turned a lot of people off. Massive expansion for a park that in reality wasn't prepared for it, bad customer service (which Six Flags seemed to be known for during this time), and exorbitant prices for food and drink. However by 2003 it seemed people were beginning to come back (I used to go every weekend) but by that time it seemed the damage was already done and the numbers continued to drop.

The lakeside setting did make for one of the nicest locations for a park, especially if you viewed the ride side from the wildlife side. The park did have one of the coolest coaster skylines from that vantage point.

I miss Geauga Lake a lot. It was always a great place to head out to on a Friday night after work as it didn't take me long to get out there from downtown Cleveland, but I miss SFWoA more. To me it was a magical time.

BTW, combining Sea World Ohio and Geauga Lake into one park was first brought up back in the mid-80's when HBJ, then owners of Sea World, considered putting the two parks together.

Heth · July 19, 2015

I would say there are two parks I find most interesting.

Geauga Lake / SFOh / SFWOA is one which intrigues me for the same reasons as many have said in this thread. How did a park like that change so rapidly?! That article by Theme Park Tourist is exceptionally fascinating.

The other is Coney Island's parks, but in their original heydey. This was where a lot of ride / themeing conventions began, and that'll always fascinate me.