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Ride list has been posted. Racer and Soap Box Racers added. That will help capacity.

Christmas at Kentucky Kingdom!

I'm excited to see Racer and SSR added! I'm looking forward to adding those to my "winter coaster ride" experiences!

I'm glad others found this stuff interesting. Here are the full un-cropped versions of the aerial photos I downloaded when researching the fort house. These versions show a much wider area, and include a few more years, versus what I included in my original post. Fort house is still circled in red in each of them. 1956 - Great shot of the entire land which Kings Island would later occupy 1957 1958 1960 1962 1964 - You can see the clearing for I-71 in progress 1967 1970 1972 1974 1975 1980 - A nice look at The Beast in its early days 1985 - King Cobra is visible 1986 - Real good look at the whole park here 1993 1997

THIS is the kind of content I come to KICentral for! I just spent so much time looking at those pictures and comparing them to present-day!

I finally got to this episode recently. First let me say I love both Tower Topics and The Attractions Group podcasts. Always interesting stuff... That house has fascinated me for some reason. At one point not too long ago I went down the rabbit hole of seeing what historical information might be available about the property online and learned quite a few things. None of that is super exciting, but perhaps a few details might be worth sharing... Based on various property records, I believe the house was built sometime between 1954 and 1956. I can't speak for or against the accuracy of the supposed agreement to not tear it down, but FWIW it was actually one of three houses side by side all along what was the east side of Columbia Rd that Kings Island left standing, and apparently used in some capacity, for many years. Each property had different owners prior to Taft purchasing each of them separately in early 1970. All 3 houses were still standing at least until 1986. 2 of the three until at least 1993. By 1997 only the one in the fort remained. Hopefully I'm attaching these images correctly... The first one is snip from a survey from 1984 showing each of the original property boundaries of the three houses KI kept around. The house in the fort is the southern most of the three plots in the red circle. The other images below are all snippets cropped from aerial photos made available online by the Ohio Department of Transportation. In each one the "fort house" is circled in red. Here is 1956. Fort house is recently built. The middle of the 3 houses is being built. No sign of the northern house yet. The old farm house further north in this photo would not survive the park opening. Here is 1957. The middle house is now complete. The fort house has added a pond. Still no sign of the northern most house. Here is 1964. The northern most of the 3 houses the park would keep is now present. The middle house has added a garage or large shed. Here is 1970, the year Taft purchased each property. All 3 houses were purchased on different dates in Jan and Feb of that year. The northern most house looks to have added an addition to back since the 1964 photo. This one is at an angle that gives a reasonable idea of what the housed looked like before the park owned them. Also of note the old farm house further to the north is still standing at this point. Here is 1972. The park is open now. All 3 homes are still standing. The older farm house that was further north is gone. This photo shows what Don described in the episode that the train did not originally come particularly close to the house. Here is 1974. Cars parked at all 3 houses. This one is angled to show a bit of the front of the houses. Here is 1975. Another one showing a decent look at the houses. Here is 1986. All 3 houses still standing and appear to still be used in come capacity. Here is 1993. The middle house is now gone. It would have been in the way of the re-route of the train for the water park. The fort is now build around the southern house. The northern house is still standing though. Here is 1997. The northern most house is now gone, only the southern one inside the fort survived this long.

Not controversial at all to me at least. The entrance is the way it is to act as a tunnel gate that you walk through leaving the real world behind and entering another. Everything is probably meant to be hidden from the outside to build up anticipation.

If you're interesting in finding more historical aerial photos of the park or anywhere in Ohio, go to the link below. I've been using their Google Maps KML file to view images for years, but it appears they now have a web portal that presumably is much easier to navigate and work with. Beware, this is an easy way to lose a few hours (or an entire weekend) if you start exploring that content. https://www.transportation.ohio.gov/working/engineering/cadd-mapping/survey/aerial-imagery

The 1980 USA Olympic men's hockey team didn't win the Gold Medal because they had the best players. They won because they had the right players. Same thing applies here. For the restructuring to work, the regional PR and social media teams are going to need the right people involved. If they build the regional teams that way, it will lead to the improvements park fans want to see.

I will preface this with as a former employee I do have quite the bias for not only the park but other employees. Plenty of people including me that have worked and currently work there care so much about the park and only want the best for it. There are a few people that do have the mindset as mentioned above but that is the minority. I have been on plenty rides that have stopped due to people having there phones out and employees try their best to get people to put their phones away. Also the splashing the soda thing I feel does not warrant a formal report from the employee, but more of a talking too and depending on this kids age where were his parents and why didn't they say anything. It sucks as an employee it can feel really difficult to get anything done by security or to get a guest reprimanded. Most of the time in my experience when security gets their the guest is gone. Also what would you have wanted the employee to do? If you were an employee what would you have done in that situation? Putting yourself in the employees shoes and seeing everything that they see in a day can really change how they view things. At the end of the day people are people we are not all perfect should they have said something probably, but you never know what is going on in that persons life at the moment. Somedays I remember going in to work and you are just trying to keep it together cause of something that is happening at home. You have to think this is also their job and you may or may not have a job, but I bet you that you have seen something wrong at work and you didn't say anything cause you were tired or you didn't feel like it that day. Did you feel bad about it yes, but you are just trying to keep your life together. Pointing out every little thing that goes wrong at the park can be so discouraging and honestly destroy peoples passion for what they do. So really we should not keep this going it is so toxic. I do not speak for the park.

Wow great investigative work! I never knew there were 3 houses! Thanks for sharing!

THIS is why I love the internet! This made my day! In regards to whether or not the house had that tear down agreement, I always thought that sounded a bit absurd. I always assumed they since they actually used the house, and had it disguised, no one wanted to foot the bill for tearing it down and the “agreement” was just urban legend. The same day we recorded this episode, we spoke with a former park executive from that time period to verify the story. He said he “remembers something like that.” So that gives some indication that there may be some truth to it.

Very awesome find! I didn't realize the house was that young. It's also strange, and a little spooky in a way, to see aerial views of the site before Kings Island was built.

I went to PKI in August 2004 when I was 8, and my parents took me on Flight of Fear. I remember everyone watching the preshow, and when the lights went out, all the girls screamed, including the one I was next to (remember that now.) Some guy yelled "SISSIES!!!" I wasn't prepared for what happened next. That voice... that goddarn voice with its slightly condescending tone... "There is nothing wrong with your equipment..." My parents knew this was a riff on the Outer Limits on Showtime, which they watched back then. But Jim Cummings made me feel all weird inside. Me and the guests headed into the station. The trains coming back empty was scary, but that VOICE... Me and the girl next to me boarded (my parents were in front of me.) I heard the "How precious is the human spirit, how optimistic, how naïve" line. My seatmate turns to me and says, "His voice is hot..." My face lit up. I knew I was in for a hell of a ride. The op did a one-liner, we were off, and me and my seatmate were cheering like there was no tomorrow. After the ride ended, that voice came back. "Interesting, we didn't expect you to actually survive that." Me and my seatmate were trying not to get flustered in public. I asked the girl what her name was as we were getting off, she said she was Lacey. I rode with her again on Face/Off, strangely. This happened again at Kings Dominion the following year, but I asked my seatmate if they found the voice hot, and she said "I guess." Said seatmate also asked if I was autistic, which I am. I miss Lacey.

That’s not even bad park etiquette. That’s straight up weak parenting.

I’ll go through each section and list what I would like to see. International Street. Not much I would add here but others have mentioned it and I’d like to see the old music back. The old music really set the mood for a grand entrance. Planet Snoopy. Personally I’d like to see Camp Snoopy expanded into Planet Snoopy to have one cohesive them but I doubt that will happen. My second option would be updating Boo Blasters in some way to improve it as it’s starting to get a bit out dated. Camp Snoopy. I really like the new Camp Snoopy section of the park however I feel it is lacking some more trees to feel more campy. Attractions wise I would like to see Woodstock’s Air Rail receive the new gen Vekoma suspended trains as those are way more comfortable than the current trains. Rivertown. Obviously I would like to see a new attraction come to the Crypt building. What attraction that would be I’m not sure. Not sure if it would be possible but I think it would be cool if a two story restaurant was added in Rivertown with balcony seating. It could make for some really scenic views. New section. I feel the path between Rivertown and Coney Mall could potentially be a new section of the park. Backlot Stunt Coaster feels very out of place to me and if we got a new coaster in The Vortex plot of land I would like to see both of these coasters in a new section of the park if they could retheme Backlot as well. Coney Mall. The back half of Coney Mall by WindSeeker always feels dead to me. If a new coaster came in The Vortex plot of land maybe the back portion past the Antique Autos could be part of the new area as well. Also I think a set of bathrooms near The Racer and front of Coney Mall could help as the nearest restrooms would be the back of Coney Mall if I’m not mistaken. Area 72. A new flat ride could work very well here because as of right now it’s just FOF and Orion. I would like to see a Zamperla NebulaZ or an S&S Screamin Swing although lane might be an issue here. One more thing. I always seem to find the seating by Meteor Canteen taken. Some more seating with umbrellas would be a welcome addition. Adventure Port. Not a particular addition but some more trees would be very welcome as there is not a lot of shade here. Also I don’t know if this would be possible but a small boat ride of some kind maybe self propelled could be cool. Action Zone. This is definitely the area of KI that needs the most work. The area needs a new identity and a Haunted theme would be the best option in my opinion. Repaint Banshee, retheme Drop Tower and Delirium to fit with the new Haunted theme. That could be phase one bringing the whole area together. Then in the future I could see Invertigo and possibly Congo Falls (maybe) getting removed and I’d like to see a B&M Surf coaster themed to King Cobra replace them. It could easily tie into the new haunted area if they theme it as King Cobra returning for revenge.