Creepy Abandoned Theme Parks

[pilotank]

Weather Channel has a great blog on abandoned theme parks from

Chippewa Lake Park to the Ukraine:

http://www.weather.com/travel/creepy-abandoned-theme-parks-20130320?pageno=5

Before:

Now:

pilotank

[Voicetek]

An interesting segment done on The History Channel about the "Americana" amusement park:

[SupremoSteveo]

Seeing the ruins of Six Flags New Orleans makes me sad. It was closed not due to money or struggling from other parks coming in near by, but mother nature's wrath. I wonder what will come of it.

Also, you couldn't pay me to walk through any of these parks at night....creepy!

[westcoaster]

or the fate of current KY Kingdom, hope they can fix it up?

[TTD-120-420]

NBC's Revolution filmed a few episodes at the former Hard Rock Park. Pretty weird looking, but I don't know if NBC did that, or if it already looked that bad.

[Maverick00]

Chippewa Lake is in pretty rough shape. Many rides including the Ferrie Wheel are still standing though.

[Voicetek]

Here is another video of the Americana/Fantasy Farm areas. The video was filmed by a guy called Adam the Woo. He has a YouTube channel and he's got quite a few videos of abandoned places including amusement parks. I watched a few yesterday, very interesting!

[Sonofbeast2.0]

I truly wonder is 1972 was the start of their decline...

If it was, I wonder if/when the same will happen to KI?

[pilotank]

Here is one more by Queen City Discovery:

Also, this is their website for LeSourdsville Lake.

http://queencitydiscovery.blogspot.com/2007/10/lesourdsville-lakeamericana-revisited_29.html

Great Pictures!

pilotank

[Voicetek]

^ Wow great video and interesting web site! It really brought back a lot of memories!

[SupremoSteveo]

Enjoyed the video as well. It's amazing how quickly a park goes to ruins without any upkeep. Could you imagine what KI would look like after a couple years with no upkeep?

[westcoaster]

The john henry train what a ride over to loggers run western town!

[XGatorHead 8904]

Sad pictures. It reminds me of a quote I heard while I re-watched The Wiz last year (which I liked as a kid but hadn't seen in years). When Dorothy and Scarecrow meet Tin Man in an abandoned amusement park, one of the first things Tin Man says to them is "There's not much amusement in the closing of an amusement park."

NBC's Revolution filmed a few episodes at the former Hard Rock Park. Pretty weird looking, but I don't know if NBC did that, or if it already looked that bad.

I saw those episodes and wondered what park it was filmed at. I thought HRP was probably it. I thought it interesting because they were on their way to Philadelphia, and at the time of those episodes they would have been in Indiana or western Ohio (since it was before they got to Columbus). The only big parks I can think of in IN and Western OH would be HW and KI, and considering HW doesn't have a big steel coaster like was featured in the episode... hmm, which park would that represent in the story then?

[The Interpreter]

A short side trip to Kentucky Kingdom?

Terp, who just HAD to.

[TTD-120-420]

I remember the episodes where they set up base on Ohio State's campus. Honestly, I doubt they used the amusement park and intended it to represent HW or KI, becuase who the hell would even care besides people like us?

[thunderbeast1968]

Sad to see the park in that condition. I never got to visit.

[shark6495]

I truly wonder is 1972 was the start of their decline...

If it was, I wonder if/when the same will happen to KI?

Well small company owned/family owned parks are really one bad investment, one bad ride, one bad season from closing for good. Hate to bring it up, but KK could have been the first nail into the HW coffin, had they taken on a park that needs a ton of capital investments to get the park open. For a park like Americana, it was another park opening, the high way not really being super close (KI and 71 versus Americana and route 4), and changing habits of amusement park goers. You see this with many companies, they either follow the customer base, lock down in who they are, or waver between the two. Usually the company that wavers is the one that closes.

Now for KI, since its owned by a company it has a little bit more wiggle room. As long as it bring in crowds and is considered a jewel in the companies crown it gets the capital investments it requires to continue to bring in more crowds.

*** the above statements are just pure speculation and my humble opinion.

[The Interpreter]

Americana was owned by the same people that owned Coney Island of Ohio for quite some time. They chose to invest in Coney instead.

[pilotank]

If you look at the park using Google Earth or Maps:

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=couch+rv+nation&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.44158598,d.dmg&biw=1280&bih=827&wrapid=tlif136422674434010&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

Sadly you'll see the major attractions are gone.

Screechin Eagle

Raging Thunder Log Flume

Liberty Train

Sky Ride.

Most of the buildings are still up.

pilotank

[Voicetek]

^ I don't think that link takes you to the correct location

Here is a screen shot from Google Maps though of the main park area:

[Tanna]

And to me it was so big! When I hear "Lakeside Park" by Rush, I don't think of KI, I think of LeSourdesville. Honestly, though, after a while, it got a little creepy. Does anyone remember that very tall man in white flowing robes and carrying a staff that used to parade around in LeSourdesville twilight years? I never spoke to him, but I have a sense that he was concerned about salvation.

[Voicetek]

Does anyone remember the Country Bears show that used to be at Americana? It was in the building by the train loading station. It was an animatronic show that was kind of a rip off of the Bear Country Jubilee at Disney World. I can't remember much about it except that I loved that show! However, it was closed the majority of the time cause it never worked. I guess they were constantly having problems with the animatronic characters. I'd give anything to see a video of this show or something!

[Thrill_Biscuit]

And to me it was so big! When I hear "Lakeside Park" by Rush, I don't think of KI, I think of LeSourdesville. Honestly, though, after a while, it got a little creepy. Does anyone remember that very tall man in white flowing robes and carrying a staff that used to parade around in LeSourdesville twilight years? I never spoke to him, but I have a sense that he was concerned about salvation

Gandalf, the White?

Seriously, though, I was away during the years Lesourdsville/Americana faded away. I remember two trips back in the 80s, when they had "Hercules, the World's Largest Pinball Game" in the arcade, and riding the Electric Rainbow many, many times. When I hear the Queen song "It's a Kind of Magic," which was a big hit that summer, it takes me back to that park and its very-much alive self. There were radio commercials that sang ♫The Rage of the Summer is Raging Thunder at America-naaaaa!♫ for the fun little log flume they acquired that year (1986). I might have said this already on here a few hundred posts ago...I dunno. but still, it's sad to see it gone.

[Sonofbeast2.0]

One thing I do find odd is the Six Flags in New Orleans, they didn't scrap nothing from the rides or take any ride parts. most theme parks i've seen abandon reuse or scrap stuff but it is left the way it was before the storm...

The rides still don't look all that bad either!

Also i've seen this tree somewhere else...

[The Interpreter]

Uh, what about the coaster that was moved?

[Tanna]

And to me it was so big! When I hear "Lakeside Park" by Rush, I don't think of KI, I think of LeSourdesville. Honestly, though, after a while, it got a little creepy. Does anyone remember that very tall man in white flowing robes and carrying a staff that used to parade around in LeSourdesville twilight years? I never spoke to him, but I have a sense that he was concerned about salvation

Gandalf, the White?

Seriously, though, I was away during the years Lesourdsville/Americana faded away. I remember two trips back in the 80s, when they had "Hercules, the World's Largest Pinball Game" in the arcade, and riding the Electric Rainbow many, many times. When I hear the Queen song "It's a Kind of Magic," which was a big hit that summer, it takes me back to that park and its very-much alive self. There were radio commercials that sang ♫The Rage of the Summer is Raging Thunder at America-naaaaa!♫ for the fun little log flume they acquired that year (1986). I might have said this already on here a few hundred posts ago...I dunno. but still, it's sad to see it gone.

Gandalf the White didn't have a season pass, he had a yearly pass. He was there every time we went. People would leave a wake around him, like water flowing around a rock in a stream.

My nephew liked running away from home when he was about three, when we asked him where he wanted to run away to, he'd say Fantasy Farm. So we'd run away to Fantasy Farm. When he got older, we ran away next door to Lesourdesville until he was old enough to run away to King's Island in a car.

The park was a serious Jokerville towards the end- There were 2x4's hammered along the coaster, those strange rattle cages that were like a Ferris Wheel but turned upside down on an axis were rusting out, and as SOON as we were locked in, lightening started to strike, and the attendant didn't stop the all metal ride. It was like an abandoned park that still worked. They sold "Fried Dough", they stopped having any pretensions of their wares at all.

I suspect the same Fascination Ladies were there since my youth, covered in cobwebs, still smoking.

The only ride I felt was is any sort of shape was the Serpent.

I'm glad I got to see the tail end of the park, it doesn't spoil my early memories, but when I saw it closed, and things torn down, I didn't feel so bad.

Riding the coaster was the only time I was genuinely scared on a ride.

[Thrill_Biscuit]

My father took my mom and her friends to a special, summertime event there in the late 50's or early 60's, to see Dick Clark, who was travelling that year with the American Idol of the day, one Edd "Kookie" Byrnes from a television show called "77 Sunset Strip." I can only imagine a parking lot full of DeSotos, Chevies and Studebakers packed onto that parking lot as throngs of beehived teen girls in bling-encrusted, horn-rimmed glasses gleefully descend upon that storied park during its hayday. It's just as much an echo as any 1980s trip I can remember. Long live Lesordsville!~

[Sonofbeast2.0]

Uh, what about the coaster that was moved?

I do understand what your saying, but most rides were left and not even touched, a very select few were taken apart and scarped or reused.

Question time, was the whole park even underwater or just parts of it?

[Browntggrr]

One thing I do find odd is the Six Flags in New Orleans, they didn't scrap nothing from the rides or take any ride parts. most theme parks i've seen abandon reuse or scrap stuff but it is left the way it was before the storm...

The rides still don't look all that bad either!

Also i've seen this tree somewhere else...

I wonder if the decisions to take some rides/ leave others were for insurance reasons along the lines of: if your car gets totaled, you can't buy it back & insure it with the same company?

[Voicetek]

That's funny! My family and I spent a lot of time there in the late 80s/early 90s. I just remember there were a bunch of interesting
characters there, both employees and guests. By a certain time it definitely seemed like a questionable operation. Some of the rides did
scare me a bit, but I think that was part of the fun of the place. I think the last time I was there was the summer of 99. I went in for a
day just to ride a few things. It was very evident that the park was going down hill.