Kings Island, circa 1972

Photo courtesy of Don Helbig

Ryan, awesome picture. Very nice of Don to share it. Any idea when it was taken? Hard to believe the antique cars were once the back of the park.

Opening day, 1972. I'd chalk that up as being a semi-historic day in the history of Kings Island. :-)

The Racer looks awsome, with it's new shiny coat of paint.

600 posts!

wonder if he has any pictures of the entrance The Beast opened with?

post 666

That is a GREAT picture. I also liked the one posted in the Diamondback thread. Thanks for sharing.

Oh my gosh! That is such a cool picture. The Racer looks very nice, pretty. Good forums today! First forgotten Cincinnati, now this? I'm happy

Good forums today! First forgotten Cincinnati, now this? I'm happy

Me too. I've always been fascinated with history, and obviously I'm fascinated with amusement parks too.. put the two together and you have my attention!

That is a great picture. I want to see a picture of The Beast's entrence in 1979.

The historical items that most of us would probably never come in contact with had we not been a part of this community is staggering. Absolutely staggering. We are so privileged to have access to the internet and this site, and be in contact with people that have many the same interest as ourselves.

Thanks KIC, and Thanks Don!

Another awesome picture! The back end of Coney Mall was not completed (along with the connection to Rivertown) until 1975 when Shake Rattle and Roll and the Zodiac were introduced.

See the Haley`s Comet ride? The Super Round Up ride painted in red? See that large sign that it sports? That was actually the old sign from the Shooting Star, that was moved from Coney Island and renovated for the Haley`s Comet ride. Just another little tidbit of history I thought I`d share.

And if you notice, the crowds were rather sparse on that first day of operation on April 29th, 1972. That was because it rained most of that day!

Excellent picture. Pretty crazy how the back of the park then is now practically the central hub of the park

Amazing, fantastic to see how different it was back then! I'm so surprized how small th park was, The Vortex would be barely visible in that picutre!

If i am correct isnt it in the history that Kings Island opened up on this day but since it rained they had another opening day ceremony of some sorts? I could be wrong though. Nice picture Boddah and thank you Don!!

April 29th, 1972 was the official opening day for Kings Island. Daily operation would not begin for a few weeks after that date, just like the seasons now a days.

Not to step on toes, but I didn't want to start a new thread for this. It's nicely ironic that I just found these pictures yesterday and was going to post them, but them saw this thread so I thought they'd be a great addition!

My mom recently scanned some of her old slides onto the computer, and she has some from the park in 1979 (sorry footballfreak, none of Beast's entrance). It's neat to see what's still there and what is gone.

The dolphin show:

Monster (the blonde woman with shoulder-length hair and wearing glasses right in the middle of the picture, on the ride, is my mom) - look at that line!

Lion County Safari:

Kings Island Railroad - all that lush green grass!

Those pictures are fantastic!

EXCELLENT excellent photos! Thanks for sharing!

Wow the park sure has changed since then. Imagine if back then there would have been a ride like Diamondback come along. We might have coasters over 1000 feet today.

Violkat those photographs are great! Thank you for sharing! Would you mind if we added those to the KIC History gallery? We will watermark them for you and give you full credit. PM me if you are interested.

Thanks for sharing those photos! Its amazing how much the trees have grown up at the park, especially by the train station!

I love the look of the park back then.

Just wanted to say thanks to Don for sharing another great opening day shot...these are the kind of photos that need to be displayed in Wings...also thanks to violakat03 for sharing those slide shots...I love seeing the early train theming.

I found some more slides from inside Enchanted Voyage - but they are all too dark, even to be fixed in Photoshop. I'll keep looking!

My how the park has grown! Awesome pic of Racer and Halley's Comet! I almost thought I saw Zodiac, but it was the sign for HC... Great picture! Thanks for posting that!

(04-29-1972: At that moment, about a mile to the west, a young Tb was celebrating birthday #3!)

Kings Island, circa 1972

Photo courtesy of Don Helbig

Wow!!!!!!!!!! I have not been on this forum for a while, but I see it is just as cool as ever!

This picture is just beautiful! I love looking at pictures from the first few years of KI.

The park just grew and grew.....I guess it's still growing too!

Thanks for the lovely picture :rolleyes:

The park needs a museum!!!!!

I have some decent photos of King Cobra from 2000 if anyone is interested.

^I am very interested, post em up giga!

I apologize for the poor quality. These photos were taken with a throwaway camera, and I scanned them as a collage before cropping and saving each photo as its own file.

The date on these photos is June 23, 2000.