Bell's Remembered - The Last of Zingo at Expo Square

Spent a quiet post stormy afternoon wandering through what once was one of my very best childhood memory enchantment places on earth.

With a tear in my eye, I took these photos of what once was Zingo and her friends at Bell's Amusement park. All the people were gone, but the screams and cheers and laughter echoed through the old park as if it was begging to stay.

Zingo is being dismantled piece by piece, I trust she will zoom once again in a different location to entertain thousands of riders and thrill the young and old alike.

As I drove away, I caught a glimpse of a twinkle in her eye of one of the many lights that lit up the wonderous Roller Coaster. As if she was saying I will Thrill again....

Thanks for the memories Zingo and friends.

Enjoy the photos.....

http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w162/ampracing10/Farewell%20Bells/?start=all

Photos by Bob Oertle *** Edited 4/25/2007 1:08:27 PM UTC by AMP*** *** Edited 4/25/2007 1:12:25 PM UTC by AMP***

I completely understand what it's like to deal with the stinging sensation of "losing" a roller coaster. The good thing is that Zingo was dismantled carefully and will likely live again. That's definitely something to be happy about!

Cities that have deep-sixed their Parks in favor of "Development" are now RUING their Decisions. Cities that have seen their number of Visitors drop include:

Nashville (Opryland)

Panama City (Miracle Strip)

Houston (Astroworld)

Memphis (Libertyland)

I haven/t heard the stats for Myrtle Beach or Tulsa but I won't be surprised if their Tourism Numbers head south also!

Well if Myrtle Beach does it wont be because of the park, since the Hard Rock Park will be opening soon.

Oh yes, our tourism in Nashville has dropped SIGNIFICANTLY since the demise of OL. I believe at one time we were down 2 million visitors a year after OL closed. Talk about loss of revenue to the city.

Zingo was FABULOUS. Hope she lives on.

Finally, I've been waiting for someone to post more photos of Zingo. Doesn't seem like all that much has been done to it in the near month it's been since my last visit. It looks like haven't done much with the Chili Peppers or the log flume either. Hope they hurry up, in less than a month they need to have half of Zingo and half of the log flume down to be able to stay till mid june.

http://www.laffinthedark.com/articles/phantasmagoria/phantasmagoria.htm

Great site about the Dark Ride at Bell's

It's alarming how cities dismiss the importance of amusement parks. It's common for most cities to tout their tourism, yet they're very quick to let the local amusement park get bulldozed for shopping centers and residential development- two things that do absolutely nothing to increase tourism. And there are a lot of people in cities that make their living off of tourism!

I loved Bell's. Zingo was my #2 coaster, and Phantasmagoria was my #2 darkride. I loved the atmosphere there, especially friendly employees. I remember phantas being such a long ride, its really similar to the Whacky Shack at Joyland.

But isn't shopping the number one recreational activity in the U.S. (pulled that thought out of my rear end but it wouldn't surprise me if it were true).

Who doesn't travel across the country to shop at the same collection of chain stores they have back home? ;)

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if people do that. "Ooooh, we haven't shopped in that Pier One!"

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Rob Ascough said:
Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if people do that. "Ooooh, we haven't shopped in that Pier One!"

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Honestly cannot say I haven't heard something along those lines before. I live right near the King Of Prussia Plaza, and we get people from everywhere coming to this mall (I believe the largest on the east coast). I see plates from all over the country in the parking lot.

Great pictures though, very pretty. The ones of the sunset on the coaster remind me of those old time "techni-color" postcards of coasters and parks (if that makes sense/anyone knows what I'm talking about) *** Edited 4/26/2007 8:48:02 PM UTC by P18***

I can see people flocking to a mall that is a genuine attraction within itself, like Mall of America or the one in Edmonton... but a regular, run-of-the-mill mall? It's one thing to drop by if you happen to be in the area, but making a special trip for the purpose of shopping in stores that are a dime a dozen? Makes no sense to me.

...but a regular, run-of-the-mill mall?

I can think of one: The Beverly Center in Los Angeles. I used to work there and it receives a huge number of tourists looking to buy designer clothes and hunt for the famous. And it's featured in quite a few movies...most notably that Anne Heche stinker "Volcano."

What's funny is that Bell's land won't even be used for retail. It won't even be used for the new exchange center. What will it be used for? A parking lot - that is, until the trailer park right next to it that Bjorklund let in needs to expand. Honestly, they welcome a trailer park onto the fairgrounds, but kick out a much-loved amusement park on the verge of massive revitalization and expansion. At least the Murphy's will have more room to span out their carnival trash every September, that'll bring in the tourists.

I'll love to see the look on their faces when the city gets less money each year since they kicked bell's out. Oh well, at least the new location won't be so hard to get to, hopefully.

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snuggles said:
I'll love to see the look on their faces when the city gets less money each year since they kicked bell's out. Oh well, at least the new location won't be so hard to get to, hopefully.

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The city didn't kick Bell's out, Exposition Square did. The City of Tulsa had no say in the matter since the park wasn't actually in the city. Bell's was on land owned by Expo Square / State Fair. The City wanted Bell's to remain but there wasn't anything they could really do.

Same goes for AstroWorld...short of the city buying the park (which even if they tried most likely wouldn't have happend since SF didn't want to sell it as a park), there wasn't much the city could do.

I see. I thought the expo square was owned by the city and they wanted them out.

^^SF was going to sell to the HIGHEST bidder, regardless of where the highest bid came from...but it clearly was NOT coming from someone who wanted the land for an amusement park.

Meh, I'm still disappointed the closest I got to Bell's was a short visit in their parking lot...but they had one of the greatest signs going - *almost* as good as the one at Valleyfair!

Have to wonder if Bell's and Joyland couldn't put *something* successful together by working cooperatively...

^Yeah, I've always thought that Robbie should have bought JL; the two parks are practically twins to some respect.

Still though, it should be noted somewhere in here that Bell's will re-open again, hopefully next year. We still don't know where or how, but it's been said that Bell's 2.0 will have something like 7 new rides and a new Phantasmagoria. Anyone heard more yet?