Enchanted Village opens up Old West Territory area

While I'm not 100% positive, that is probably Geauga Lake's old "Casino" ride, which was removed at the end of the 1999 season prior to their SF makeover. It was rumored to be re-installed last season as part of the new rides area near Happy Harbor, but for some reason it never surfaced.

From the pictures shown, it looks like a very nice little park. Thanks for the info.

Ray P. (who is pretty sure Chance doesn't make the old Casino model Trabants anymore)

The site says that the Great Northwest Project is dead in the Puget Sound area but is rumored that they are pursuing new locations in Portland. If the park was built here I would finally have a decent home park!

-----------------
Steel: 1)MF, 2)Goliath, 3)Magnum
Wood: 1)Villain, 2)Beast, 3)Roar(SFMW)

ProgRay that is very possible, but SFEG also had a casino removed and that looks just like the one that Elitches used to have.

I have had thoughts about that Casino as well there ProgRay.

Last year, Frontier City opened up a Casino ride that I was Positive was Geauga Lakes.... until I saw the Geauga Lake Casino sitting in GL's boneyard. However, I have not seen that same Casino this year yet, but It doesn't mean it's not there... ya know.

Heres a bit of info: GL's was a park model (so it was mounted to a concrete pad, with fencing put in by the park. (exactly like the photograph you see) Elitch gardens Casino was a Portible model, so it had all the fencing designed by Chance and was also trailer mounted, so you would have to go up stairs (about four feet tall) to get onto the ride. The ride in that photograph is indeed NOT Eliches.

So, I will have to do some looking around next time Im at Geauga Lake.

Chance does not currently make the Trabant or casino anymore. The Wipeout is being produced instead.

*** This post was edited by john peck on 7/20/2002. ***

Is Portland large enough to sustain the new Great Northwest Project though?

I've heard that the Casino at Elitch Gardens went to Frontier City. And that the Casino currently at Enchanted Village, runs in automatic, something Elitch's Casino wouldn't do.

-----------------
Big Bucks, No Whammies, and Stop.

Portland and the metro area population easily exceeds a million. The park would also attract people from Tacoma/Seattle area because of the lack of a large theme park. There are easily a few million people whithin a resonable driving distance to Portland. I'd think that would be enough people to sustain the park.

-----------------
Steel: 1)MF, 2)Goliath, 3)Magnum
Wood: 1)Villain, 2)Beast, 3)Roar(SFMW)

*** This post was edited by hunter11 on 7/21/2002. *** *** This post was edited by hunter11 on 7/21/2002. ***

hunter11...

The greater Portland area consists of 2.4 million people (counting Clackamas, Washington & Multnomah counties, according to PSU population & census data).

If you count the entire area for which Portland serves (south as Salem and North as Longview, WA) you have nearly 3 million.

Hope this sheds some light.

Census data also reveals a dense population of over 6.2 million people within 3 hours drive time.

To further expand...

Is Portland really big enough? Give me a frickin' break! Some people really make me laugh. Mostly un-educated people with no intellect regarding Portland or the Pacific Northwest. Even some Seattleites surprise me with dumb questions (they of all people should no better).

Let me answer this question.... YES! Portland is beyond big enough! Portland is the 19th largest market in the US and is the 3rd largest metro area (serving 1 central city) on the entire west coast! Yes bigger than Frisco's metro, Yes bigger than San Diego's metro, and Yes bigger than Sacramento's metro (in fact nearly 2 1/2 times bigger than Sacramento's). But yet all these cities have major theme parks serving them!

Portland is beyond ready, and within no time will have a park of it's own.

-GNW has found it's home!

Portland is easily one of the best cities in the country. It's probably one of the only cities that I've been to that I'd be willing to move to, even though it is relatively coaster-free. I like the people, I like the culture, I love the natural scenery. There aren't that many US cities with a snow capped mountain on the horizon.

-----------------
Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
7/27: Subdivision Cam becomes party cam at the year's hottest Ohio luau!

I grew up in Portland and the one thing I can attest to is how fast that city - and more appropriately - outlying areas like Beaverton and Tigard are growing.

While I think Portland is ripe for a theme park - Seattle is riper. People from Portland already travel to Seattle for concerts and other events that don't make it to Portland, essentially adding Portland to Seattles demo. I personally believe both cities could house and support their own theme parks, sharing customers. Seattle has the added benefit of proximity to Canada, something that the GNW was well aware of and counting on.

So King County (where Seattle and Bellevue WA are) has 1.7M folks, all of Oregon has about 3.5M. It's a lot easier to see Seattle and outlying areas supporting a park. But, if you add the populations of OR and WA it's almost 9M people that are really no more than 6 hours away whether the park is in Seattle, Portland or both!!

Anyone aware of the turnout at Portlands rose festival? Well it's huge let me tell you. Big enough that they continue to have it even though it costs 10's of thousands of dollars to repair the grass at the waterfront each year.

Portland and Seattle both turned Disney away for theme parks, and that mark still follows the cities I think.

-----------------
-Z