Chippawa Lake Park - Fire - etc.

Due to overwhelming response I have gotten from the pictures I have posted 25 more!

enjoy,

http://www.pbase.com/dannyjphoto/chippawa_lake_park_part_2

I disagree with the dogems roof, but all the other pictures are very cool!

-ADAM

Very nice pictures Dan. The coaster has really deteriorated since the last time I was there. [sniff]

Wood - anything else is an imitation

Looks like I could have a fun time there... ;)... I just realized its closer than Cedar Point (from my house). Might take a ride out there this summer.

Just went to the park in the middle of last week - didn't get any pics this time, cause I went out when it was getting dark.

However, I took some pics a few months ago (can't remember when) but here some of them are.

http://community.webshots.com/album/53001376pUsSWD

Nate (coasterdude318) and I spent a great deal of time out there over 3 days a few years ago, and I have about 200 non-digital pics I need to scan.

I'm planning on heading out there again shortly (I live in Wadsworth, about 10 minutes from the park) so if any "locals" want to meet up for some exploration, that might be cool.

I'm really into the whole "Abandoned" thing, not just amusement parks. There's quite a few other places I'm going to head out to explore sometime soon. I know it's not totally coaster-related, but one of the greatest sites I've ever seen is www.forgottenoh.com <click on the skeleton and check out some of those places. "Americana" amusement park is listed, but not Chippewa, yet.

-Josh

Edit : Good luck with the owners, they pretty much have that place in the back of their minds, hoping that someone will buy it all for the HEFTY asking price, and they're nearly impossible to get ahold of. - Most of the times I've been there I've run into locals (real ones, the ones that live there) fishing town by the lake, or walking around on the "paths" in the park just to walk. Most of them will say hello, and a few of them will share stories and chat your ear off. *** Edited 2/4/2004 4:57:10 AM UTC by Raven-Phile***

There is something interesting about abandoned places. I snapped a few rolls of film in the inside of the old Richfield Coliseum (where the Cavs once played) as they were tearing it down. Seemed like such a waste.

It's weird to drive by that site in Richfield now and not see anything but an empty field. I remember seeing many concerts there from Aerosmith(in their early years), to Ted Nugent, and even the Rolling Stones. Not to mention all the other events like the RB&BB Circus, graduations, and many sporting events.

I drove by the Coliseum many times while it was being torn down also. It really was a waste in a lot of ways.

Closer to topic, the first time I went out to Knoebels for the PPP, we stopped by Idora on the way home. It was too dark for pictures, but there were a lot of buildings still there at the time. We climbed on the Wildcat in several places and explored the rest of the park as best as we could in the dark.

It was actually very spooky, and we got creeped out at some noises we heard coming from inside a building and tore out of there as fast as we could. I kept saying it was probably a racoon or some other rodent. but we didn't really want to take too many more chances there that night.

Meyers Lake Park in Canton is completely overgrown (where there aren't condos now). You can still find foundations for rides like the Bug and the Comet roller coaster (1947, Schmeck/PTC). There used to be pieces of structure and long long rotting sections of the rail lamanents broken up lying on the ground. I went back last summer and there are more new more condos where the coaster once stood (just like Puritas Springs).

I was contracted to work on some newer concession stands at Euclid Beach State Park. It was a beautiful early spring day when we did the job. The buildings we did were located on the promenade along the small bluff near where the end of the pier and fountain was. The entire day we were there my one buddy (who is also an enthusiast) kept saying to he felt weird vibes coming from the place. I couldn't argue with him because I felt the same. nuff said

I'm depressed now thinking about all these once grand parks. It was a waste to see them go. The rich history and all the traditions they possessed are now gone and left to only photographs and memories.

Wood - anything else is an imitation

Hardly seems like something to get depressed about. Time moves on with or without you, and that's not something any of us control. You can celebrate the past or mourn it. You can guess which one I think is a waste of time.

^ I completely agree, and as much as no one wants to hear me say it, I'm glad that we have these "forgotten" places to talk about. What's life without memories? Though some of us never got to experience them firsthand, part of the experience is finding someone with stories and pictures and trying to imagine the abandoned place as it once was. This doesn't just apply to amusement parks. I've been really interested in old schools and movie/stage theatres lately, too.

One of the coolest places I've seen in a long time was the old Detroit Grand Station - Amazing bulding, but there's nothing in it but ruins.

-Josh *** Edited 2/4/2004 2:49:02 PM UTC by Raven-Phile***

Last time I was near Euclid Beach the only vibe I got was hoping my car was locked and hoping my camera didn't get jacked. My grandfather use to damn near cry when driving by that place.

As far as the Coliseum goes, it was blessing. that was a boring drive out there. Its so much faster going downtown.

You have to look at it like this. If all these grand parks were still open, then you wouldn't appreciate what they were and in turn wouldn't appreciate the small older parks the still exist.

It wasn't faster when you lived a couple of miles down the road in Brunswick, or virtually anywhere in Akron or Canton. And downtown sucks in terms of traffic.

So true Snap 43. As the old saying goes, "You don't appreciate what you have until it's gone." That's why I appreciate the older parks instead of damning them to slow deaths and history, like some people do 'round here.

As far as the Coliseum goes, the only thing nice about being in Richfield was that it was easier access to more potential people, and the parking was a lot cheaper than what people pay now downtown.

Wood - anything else is an imitation

What do you mean "instead?" That's where you keep losing me... It is in fact possible to appreciate older parks and at the same time be realistic about "slow deaths and history." Like I said, time will move on regardless of how anyone feels, and if you want to be really dark, we'll all die someday.

Jeff - You don’t understand why it can depress people? Comments like that are naïve, condescending and mean. Do you actually believe that because somebody is sad about something that happened in the past that they sit around all day crying into a pillow? Nobody is suggesting that we return to some idyllic, non-existent time in the past. There has never been nor will there ever be an “ideal” time in history. ]

George Tilyou said “There was a lot of trouble yesterday that I have not had today, and there is lots of troubles today that I did not have yesterday." Yes, things change and we have no choice but to accept those changes that have already taken place – we can’t turn back the clock. But that is not to say there aren’t elements of the past worth holding on to. Celebrating their memory is important but mourning for their loss is a natural and healthy emotion. Not everything changes for the better and it is the passion we feel for those elements lost to time that will help us to make better decisions in the future and possibly bring about positive change.

Are condos a positive change for the Euclid Beach property? Maybe to those living in them, maybe to the developer who built them, and maybe to the banks that lent money for them, but to the millions to visited and enjoyed Euclid Beach over the years it was an amusement park, I bet the answer would be an emphatic NO! All too often we don’t appreciate what we have until it is gone. Remembering the past with passion and emotion can help us to appreciate what we do have and to see clearly what changes, positive and negative, have occurred. Is it better to be emotionless and take whatever happens with ignorant acceptance or is it better to look at life and the changes it goes through with a critical eye and really assess if what is happening is good or bad for myself, my community, or for the world as a whole.

Wallace Stegner in his famous Wilderness Letter said “Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clear air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence, so that never again will Americans be free in their own country from the noise, the exhausts, the stinks of human and automotive waste.” Imagine using this argument for other important parts of the world? What would happen if we permit the last of our historic places to be turned into Wal-Marts, destroy cherished bits of our communities for a slew of fast food joints, push out the last remaining vestiges of our communities that give us a true “sense of place” and replace it with boring and endless junk architecture? Creating suburb after suburb completely indistinguishable from the next.

Reality is was we choose it to be. I, for one, am not content to sit back and let somebody else choose my reality. The decision for the future is in our hands!

Yes, some things are worth being sad about and some things are more important than the latest Cedar Fair stock price, the newest Disney all-inclusive corporate blowjob, or the latest cheesy movie tie-in at Paramount Parks. Guess what I think is a waste of time.

There’s nothing wrong with getting depressed when one thinks about a lost part of the past that was an important part of their life and something that helped build their character. Frankly, I wonder about people who don’t look back on a beloved pet, a favorite climbing tree, or their favorite lost hometown amusement park without so much as a small tear in their eye. A lot of people probably won’t understand and I can only think of Wallace Stegner again when he said “it will seem mystical to the practical minded--but then anything that cannot be moved by a bulldozer is likely to seem mystical to them.” *** Edited 2/4/2004 8:11:10 PM UTC by millrace***

Millrace -

(Jeff, if I'm wrong, let me hear about it, but .. ) I don't think Jeff's implying in any way that we should just forget about the past, not care about it and say "oh well that's what's there now".

I think he's saying something that I firmly believe and that's that mourning and crying over something that brought you great joy in its time is a real disgrace to whatever that memory is, be it an amusement park or an older relative. I've (knock on wood) only been exposed to death in the family twice, and once was someone who I didn't know too well. But the second one was a grandfather who I was very close to, loved to be around, and wished I could hang on to forever. But, I know that's an impossibility. And, at his funeral, while everyone around me was crying rivers, my one cousin and I were in the back laughing and joking, because we made a concious choice to not be sad about it. Sure, Grandpa was gone, but having a room full of people sitting around crying about it would have just made him angry. Seeing his grandchildren together having a good time with memories of him, and relishing the good instead of dwelling on the bad is more his style, and its something that I think applies in this situation too.

If you sit around and mourn something the way certain people in this thread seem to be doing, you're trashing those memories of happiness by being pissy and crying about them. Instead, when you drive by ____ (insert old park that would not survive in today's amusement business climate anyway) park, smile and remember those good times you had there, then go try and find a secluded spot at Kennywood, or even *gasp* Cedar Point for those that are that creative enough (like me) that takes you back to those old parks and those old times that you loved.

You can't bring back the past, and most recreations of the past would crash and burn in today's society/economy/world, etc - especially amusement parks that were based around nostalgia and family and other concepts that are no longer the core of American entertainment. So instead of being depressed about it and letting it get you down, and letting it fuel comments like "this place has no charm", "this place isn't like ____", and "I'm not going to have fun at ____ park because its not anything like ____ park was", go out, enjoy what IS and be glad that you can remember what got us to this point. I sure don't remember any of it, the most I remember of most of the parks that are talked about is seeing White Swan Park's roller coaster maybe two times as my Dad took me on a tour with him of the site that would soon become Route 60 and the current road to my house. So you want a tragedy? How's this for one in your mind: there are a bunch of people on here who will probably one day say the same things you're saying about these old "nostalgic" parks, about the "sterile" surroundings of SFGAdv, Dorney, Cedar Point and SFMM. Take that one to the bank ...

First of all, I don't buy the argument that the old defunt parks closed because they couldn't survive in today's "business environment." Some did and some didn't. The reasons for closing are a lot more complicated then that.

Second, I am not suggesting that crying over a lost park is the only and best option! I'm saying that the passion many of us have for what is lost is what gives us the drive to patronize and support what we still have so that these current parks won't have the same fate.

Third, What does it say about a society built on an unsustainable consumer oriented economy that builds with less and less quality but calls it all "progress?"

Progress doesn't mean advances in health care, education, or world peace. Progress means mall expansion. How sad!

"You can't stop regress!"

"Here's the thing about living in the past....
If it was so good, then how come it didn't last?
If it helps you, I'll put it in a phrase...
Those were the times, but these are the days."

- The Human League, These Are The Days from the album Octopus, 1995

Later,
EV

Well maybe in your city, but in mine, progress (while it hasn't translated into funding or population) has meant expansion of education and healthcare. Pitt's grown to one of the best schools in the nation in acedemics and athletics. UPMC has grown expoentially without end in sight, and as much as it pains me to say it, even Penn State has made some acemedic strides, in spite of the state's refusal to support either school and tuition increasing 10-20% each year at both schools.

And I'll agree with you that *some* might have survived, but I think very few would have without getting "flagged" or whatever derogatory comment people have for parks that are gobbled up by Cedar Fair. I don't see how it wouldn't be next to impossible for a park to survive with a dance hall, band shell, carousel, bumper cars, tumble bug and a wooden coaster that is dwarfed by today's parks. That's what it seems like 90% of these parks were made up of. They were the same mold, pratically the same place, just with a different local flavor. And another thing that killed these parks is travel. In the days that these things sprung up, they were trolley parks for the most park (right?). Because they were at points of transportation congregation or trolley stops. Well these days, traveling 200-300 miles round trip to go to a park isn't an everyday thing, but its not like its a once-every-two-years thing. To my uneducated and young eye, Idora, White Swan, Chippewa were all basically the same park, but benefitted from the fact that people just west of Pittsburgh rarely travlled to Youngstown except once or twice a year. Now, my neighbors go to Youngstown once or twice a week. In a climate like that, explain to me how an Idora or Chippewa could have survived?

And I'll concede your second point. I do agree that passion can fuel keeping around what we have, but I still think its wrong to be completely depressed and saddened by everything that has been lost, rather than be happy that it was at one time.

Did anyone stop to think that you can cry tears of happiness as well as sorry at the same time? Brett, I don't like your death analogy because as living beings we are expected to die at some point.

I'll bet that if that fricken' holy grail of a steel park in Sandusky was leveled by a tornado tomorrow, or some other act of God, certain people here would be crying rivers. How would you feel if I told you to "Get over it?" How about I said to you that your loved one that died a premature death "belonged there and should remain a memory?" I don't think that anyone would ever say that to someone else who cared about someone that they've lost. To do so is shallow and callous at best.

My comments aren't weak Jeff, yours are.You have a bad attitude to people you don't even know on this site, and you have the audasity to say to me when I call you out, that I have no right because I don't know you. Isn't that a little like the pot calling the kettle black? I'll bet half the people here kiss your behind because they don't want to confront your rude arrogant, condescending remarks. I'm not afraid to.

You always act like you know more than anyone else here. I've never heard you even admit that you might be mistaken and apologize after beating people down you don't even know. Plain and simple. I'm not the only one who feels this way and I know "people who know too"!!

Wood - anything else is an imitation *** Edited 2/4/2004 9:07:38 PM UTC by Thrillerman***

If it got levelled, guess I'll be spending more time at Hershey. If that was levelled too, guess I'll be going to Kennywood and Dorney.

I prefer to dwell on what I have, on what exists and just be happy that I experienced in the past what I did, wether it still exists or not. I walk around with a smile on my face most of the time. If that makes me shallow and callous, so be it, but I'm happy and content.