Chippewa Lake and SFO. Aug. 25-27

Three hour and ten minute drive only. This was about an hour less than expected (from Detroit area).

Friday:

Got to are camp site at about 7:00 PM. Stayed at Woodside near Aurora. The Camp ground was quit interesting. It showed it's age in it's deco and building styles.

Saturday:

Went to Six Flags. Rode Serial Thriller First. This has to be one of the best rides around. It is a bit short though. Half hour wait and two train operation. Waited about forty-five minutes for Batman (two train operation). Had to wait for them to clean the train out. That was kind of gross. Then rode Raging Wolf Bobs. Another great woody and another coaster with one train operation. After that ate lunch. Then rode Road Runner. This is the only ride there I probably wont ride again. The annoyingly long train had something to do with it. Looped on the Double loop after that one. A fun ride but it was only running one train. The Villain followed the loops. This one puzzled me. The have blocks and transfer track for three trains but only run two.

Anyway, I went back out to the car to get my camera and snapped some pictures before it got dark.

Rode three more coasters before leaving. The Big Dipper, Superman, and the Mind Eraser. It must be told that none of the coasters had all trains running (except for the one trainers) and I rode in the front seat on every coaster except the Double Loop (back). I rode Superman twice. It had the shortest line (fifteen minutes) and got to ride in both the front and back. This coaster must be ridden in the front! The low capacity on these rides would never fly at Cedar Fair and Busch parks.


Sunday:

Now this is the day that we made the surprise stop at.

Packed up and left. We headed down to Chippewa (on the) Lake. As many of you no there is a rather large amusement park there that has been closed for over twenty years.

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Tumble Bug. This ride is no longer visible due to foliage.
Ferris Wheel. A blue Mustang sits in front of this ride. The rides cars are missing.
Miniature Golf. Many of the mg stuff was stored in the Ballroom.
Fun House. Torched. The ride did have a spinning drum.
Swinging Cages. Still operable! Though the brakes do not work. :(
Launch. This can be seen from the lake side, although all boats are gone.
Carousel. Rented to a nearby Mall. Carousel housing has collapsed.
Big Dipper. Another abandoned car by this ride. With a lot of work you could get the rides lift motor and chain to work again. The ride is in horrible shape and probably not salvageable.
Little Dipper. The cars are in okay shape.
Wild Mouse. Parts of the ride have collapsed. The cars are beyond repair.
Rail Road. This was originally connected to the RR tracks outside the park. It played a significant role in the slave trade and Civil War so many years before the park was even built. a caboose and engine is supposedly in the somewhere.

There where several other rides either hidden or long since gone. Several bumper cars sit in the woods behind the Big Dipper. A circular raft sits in a collapsed storage shed outside the park. And an old style Virginia Reel car sits in the Ball Room. This is puzzling since the park never reportedly had a Virginia Reel.

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If you want a more detailed description of Chippewa lake and pictures than go to defunctparks.com. The people that decided to trespass on the premises got some good pictures. What a sad sight it is.

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"DONT FIGHT IT, RIDE IT",,,,RAGING BULL

Is Chippewa Lake in the middle of a residental area? And what would the cars do for security?

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Kyle
201.3 Miles to Cedar Point from Owosso MI.

The pictures at Defunctparks.com are three years old The park is in a much worse state. Like I said, the rides are no longer accessible. We had to make new paths. The person we were with had permission to go into the park as well.

The park is on a rather large lake. Some extremely old homes are near the main entrance to the park. The houses appear to have only been built in the early seventies despite there condition. The rides (with the exception of the Big Dipper and Carousel) were closed in or around 1974. The Big Dipper was run two other seasons, 1977 and 1978. The last time the ride operated it was run by the mayor of Chippewa. The other side of the lake is all flood plains and farm land. The park is still entirely in tact however with the exception of the Carousel. It is being rented to a near by mall as stated above.

I have no idea why the cars are there. All I know is they were drove in for security purposes and left there with the park shortly after it closed. Eventually the owners tried to remove them. By that time, however, they were grown in more than the rides. You would need some pretty heavy machinery to get in that park. It is so overgrown that pathways no longer exist. A rumor that was going around the area was that the park had a new ride being planned. Sadly it never made it's debut.

If you trespassed today you would probably be reported.

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"...If We don't get you there in five minutes we don't get you there at all. ~Dispatch Master Tran

I hate hearing about decaying parks and coasters. I wish I had the money to save them. :( It's just hard to imangine parks open one year then the next be gone.

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Parks Hit For 2000! PKD, BGW,DP,HP,PKI,HW,SFKK,SFA,GAdv,SFNE,LC,GE,QP,CDP,LP,KG,SFO,WG,GE,KW,IW,WL,

The richest man in Ohio couldn't fix up this park. The asking price is way to high.

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"...If We don't get you there in five minutes we don't get you there at all. ~Dispatch Master Tran

i would love to see some older parks fixed up. My mom told me about all the fun she used to have at Idora Park, and she still says that the wildcat is one of the best coasters she ever rode. I wish one day these little parks could open back up, but i dont know if they would be able to compete with the big time theme parks,thats the reason a lot of them closed in the first place


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Steel Phantom: A Decade of Thrills. (1991-2000)

About 7 years ago, there were these owners trying to sell stock shares of some sort to this park, to reopen the ballroom, clean up the midway, create a picnic type area. But, I do not really think these people had 100% controlling interest in the place. I do not think they had the ability to judge to financial needs to reopen a coaster and rehab the other attractions in todays dollars. Unless you have some big companies ready to drop deposits for picnics, its hard to tell the banks that you will make money when Conneaut Lake, Waldameer, etc all hold their breath every year that they have off season money. Its a shame, since now its harder and harder for grandma and grandpa to take the grandkids to a park and not pay $7 to park, and $35 to walk in, and have nothing to do for older people.