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Lion Country Safari Spotlight


Guest TombraiderTy
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They should just tear out the water tower completely, and most of that large center ring, and put in a HUGE planter. With a couple trees in the middle, so eventually it will provide...wait for it... shade in Action Zone :o

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Thanks for putting this together! I'm amazed at the amount of research this must have taken.

WAH was one of my favorite attractions as a kid. We only got to go to KI once a year using the tickets that my grandmother got from working there, and she got seperate tickets for the monorail. We have a picture of my sister and I in that photo spot under the 1975 section of your post... one of these years I'll find the time to hook up my scanner and scan in all of those pictures from the '70s and '80s!

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Guest TombraiderTy

Thanks for all the comments. I enjoyed learning and organizing all the information and I'm glad that other users found it informative and entertaining.

Just a few responses to various comments...

Wonderful post, this goes to show you how a "certain" KI fansite "could" have succeeded in. :P

Great job, Ty

EDIT: OH BABY

I'm sure that stuff like this would've been extremely entertaining and informative- too bad it never saw the light of day.

As I recall, the first year of operation, Lion Country Safari was included with park admission and that in the second year, they added the upcharge of $1.00.

I obviously wasn't around in 1974 to be an eyewitness, nor could I find any report of what the price was, so I just said it was believed to be $.50. I'll edit it up to further open the possibility of a different cost though- thanks for letting me know.

I wish they would update Timberwolf to reflect the look of Action Zone. Some brightly-painted sheet metal nailed to the old wood would do wonders for the look of that area. Walking back there feels like a weird time warp.

And some of us wish they would retheme Action Zone to match a (refreshed) naturalistic Timber Wolf. No more primary colors and sheet metal in that corner of the park, please!

They should just tear out the water tower completely, and most of that large center ring, and put in a HUGE planter. With a couple trees in the middle, so eventually it will provide...wait for it... shade in Action Zone :o

Assuming the park was to actually bother trying to theme Action Zone, I think most any theme could work. Movie backlot, safari village, etc.- all the present rides could be incorporated into the theme. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing an Adventure Village type theme, but I'm aware that's quite unrealistic :P

It was really neat to see the layout of the monorail compared to today.

That diagram is my favorite piece of the spotlight- it took a while to figure out and place, but I'm pleased with the result.

Now only if all the rides at the park could have histories like this.

That's one of the reasons I've become so fascinated by the Lion Country Safari- its history is nearly as in-depth as the remainder of the park.

one of these years I'll find the time to hook up my scanner and scan in all of those pictures from the '70s and '80s!

I would definitely enjoy seeing any of those pictures :)

Great job, really interesting! Some of those pics are mine...wish I could remember it, though!

Thanks for the pictures then- they're definitely helpful and interesting :P

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That was extremely wonderfully done. All day today, I worked happily knowing what a feast of history was awaiting me when I got home from work. Very well done, sir.

I would be remiss if I did not point out that Six Flags Great Adventure continues to operate its drive through Safari...where the monkeys used to be known for tearing the windshield wipers off cars! (They are now contained so they can not get access to visitors' cars...some of the visitors were doing harm to the monkeys. For real.)

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Ty. It's been said already, but I'll say it again - excellent work.

Are you sure about the 70 lions part though? 70 lions seems like an awful lot of lions.

Even so, I never realized the attraction was THAT big.

Wonderful read.

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I've read through this 5 times now, and appreciate it even more each time.

While I don't have reason to doubt the number of animals, they are almost unbelievable. I have childhood memories and remember the compound being huge, but I thought those had been romanticized by my youth. The housing of 70 lions, 25 rhinos, and 12 elephants would make this a much more ambitious operation than even I remembered.

Think of it this way: The Columbus Zoo has the largest pachyderm building in the world, and houses 4 (formerly 5) Elephants and 2 Rhinos.

If anybody has any photos of the infastructure or support buildings (especially those which have since been demolished), I'd love to see them.

A few questions...

The black leopard and snow leopard enclosures near the monorail station... Where these in the station itself, or built onto it?

Where were the tigers along the route?

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I would like to add another thought, too. Kings Island's reputation was built, if you will, on the "foundation" of extensively detailed and themed attractions and areas like LCS. It makes me a little worried that there soon won't be too many people that will remember things like Lion Country Safari (and still want to visit KI all the time). Does Kings Island still offer (and did it in the last couple decades) what it takes to make current and future generations think of Kings Island as an institution like those that still remember "old" Kings Island?

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Thank you Ty for bringing back some awesome memories that I have of the park - I know that I visited this area and rode the monorail through the habitat every trip during my early annual visits to the park with my parents.

Unfortunately as the teenage years, season passes, and visits with friends became the norm - monorail trips became less important versus another ride on King Cobra, Racer, and Beast. Kind of regret that now.

And for those wondering, the area was done extremely well and compared favorably to any animal park I've been to before or since. I'm going to have to go dig up some of my Dad's old slides soon.

Again - thanks Ty.

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Guest TombraiderTy

Are you sure about the 70 lions part though? 70 lions seems like an awful lot of lions.

hile I don't have reason to doubt the number of animals, they are almost unbelievable. I have childhood memories and remember the compound being huge, but I thought those had been romanticized by my youth. The housing of 70 lions, 25 rhinos, and 12 elephants would make this a much more ambitious operation than even I remembered.

I agree that 70 lion seems a tad unrealistic, but that statistic (and the other numbers) was taken from THIS news article. Although, reading it again, it says that was the number planned to be place. And, like the baboons showed, planned doesn't necessarily mean it occurred that way. I'll edit that piece of the spotlight to reflect that.

The black leopard and snow leopard enclosures near the monorail station... Where these in the station itself, or built onto it?

Where were the tigers along the route?

I'm not sure about the tigers, but I believe the leopards were directly behind the station in their own little exhibit. As you can see in THIS overview, there appears to be a small area behind the station. Also, I believe the following picture was of the same exhibit (although obviously not leopards):

19873.jpg

I'm going to have to go dig up some of my Dad's old slides soon.

I'd definitely love to see these slides when you get around to finding and uploading them :)

I've added a few additional photos, all overviews, in the original spotlight.

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I believe that this thread exposes just how absurd it is to compare this cheap walk-through Dinosaurs Alive trail to the many live animals and air conditioned monorail that made up the Safari!

I must have missed the release of how much DA actually costs to see how cheap it is.

Where can I find that information?

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Guest TombraiderTy

Here is a booklet/handout that I own...sorry I don't know the year.

Thanks for sharing, it's definitely interesting :)

Regarding the year, the usage of the name "Wild Animal Safari" suggests it predates 1983... but the mention of Spider Monkey Island on the small map suggests its 1983 or later. So I'm rather lost on when it's from :P

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This really brings back memories for me. As a young kid from Kings Mills, I used to hike through out that area prior to Kings Island being built and know the layout in my head. Then I helped to build the mono rail in the fall of 73 and 74. I know every single foundation for the track and and the route the train took. After we laid the track and concret poured, we retrofited the old barns and built the lion den, wiith heated pipe in the floor to keep them warm in the winter months.

Mike

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The more I look back at this... this style of exhibit design was way ahead of its time. In the early '70s, zoos were still building concrete grottoes and tiny yards for land mammals.

I'd be very interesting to see how the lion area was paddocked. With the large number of lions that they had (even if it wasn't 70), they would have had to have been separated into several smaller family groups and likely rotated through the different yards.

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I believe that this thread exposes just how absurd it is to compare this cheap walk-through Dinosaurs Alive trail to the many live animals and air conditioned monorail that made up the Safari!

I must have missed the release of how much DA actually costs to see how cheap it is.

Where can I find that information?

The word "cheap" actually has more than one definition. See numbers 5, 6, and 7 here. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cheap

Edit: Compared to The Wild Animal Habitat, I believe that Dinosaurs Alive is "of poor quality; inferior." (Definition number 5).

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The more I look back at this... this style of exhibit design was way ahead of its time. In the early '70s, zoos were still building concrete grottoes and tiny yards for land mammals.

I'd be very interesting to see how the lion area was paddocked. With the large number of lions that they had (even if it wasn't 70), they would have had to have been separated into several smaller family groups and likely rotated through the different yards.

I think I seen a picture of that once, but don't remember. My dad was telling me there were multiple prides (no doubt) there that were rotated in and out of the view from the monorail I guess what he was trying to say not all those lions were displayed all at once. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Y'know if KI had stuck with the animals, I probably would have chosen animal care over the roller coasters a long time ago.

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It makes me a little worried that there soon won't be too many people that will remember things like Lion Country Safari (and still want to visit KI all the time).

There soon won't be? I hope not! I will hopefully be around a lot longer, with memory intact, and still want to visit! :lol:

Yes, hopefully!!

What I was thinking is that the people, say, 30 and younger...Will things like Top Gun, the current Action Zone, etc. be enough to want to keep going to KI for the next few decades? If all you know of KI is from the last 20 years or less, I wonder if it seems as spectacular as it did to those who knew it when it was new(er)?

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