Could Cypress Garden's Starliner or GL's Big Dipper end up in Wisconsin?

Based on this article, a Green Bay amusement park is in negotiations with an owner of 2 wooden coasters to aquire one of them which has historical value.

Sounds like Starliner to me.

Green Bay gazette

Hmm...I wish they would save the Big Dipper, instead.

But beggars can't be choosers, I guess. :)

You know what? That might be possible too. At the GL auction, the same company bid on both Big Dipper and Raging Wolf Bobs.

So it is either Starliner or Big Dipper.

But Apex no longer owns the bobs. They resold it to Ray Edgehouse Jr. who took out about a 15' (maybe longer) section of the ride and donated it to the Geauga County Historical Society to be re-erected and displayed. Plus pretty much anything metal has been stripped from the ride. A while ago the guy was trying to sell pieces of it on eBay. I doubt you'll ever see the bobs run again.

Let's not forget about the Ozark Wildcat.

It has been sitting all year.

Either coaster would be great. The article talks about the person even donating the coaster if Bay Beach would take it off there hands. Why not take both coasters and assemble them over time. I would love to have these coasters in GB. Since I'm about 5 minutes from the park it would be sweet.

Given that Bay Beach has a family/kiddie focus I would think Cypress' Hurricane jr woodie would be a better fit, although I have to agree that I would rather see Starliner saved. But this is good news all around.

crazy horse said:
Let's not forget about the Ozark Wildcat.

In First Drop, it was reported that HFEC has moved the OzCat trains to Southern Georgia. In addition, GCII is reported to be re-tracking Cheetah. I'm anticipating that Cheetah will be the first non-GCII coaster to run MFlyers, in 2010.

And the information above does seem to be pointing toward Starliner...which was much-improved after the move from Panama City Beach. Would be nice if it could find a beach-side setting again...

I'm hoping that it's the Starliner. It was a good great ride at Miracle Strip. Can't comment on how it ran at Cypress Gardens, only that I hope it's still as good as I remember.

As far as Big Dipper goes, well...........Beech Bend is expanding.

You've all missed it... the answer is so obvious.

They're trying to relocate Twisted Twins from SFKK.

The comment about "bring it up to code" makes me dismiss Starliner. It was already re-engineered and rebuilt, so it would be up to code, unless Wisconsin has some weir codes of course. So that makes me think Big Dipper, which would certainly need to be modified to be brought up to code for new construction.

But I heard Cedar Point was going to rebuild it in the near future, so who knows. ;)

The newspaper article indicated they're looking for a coaster with a track length of approximately 2500'. BD scores in at 2680'.

Sounds like a good match to me.

Starliner is 2,460'
Ozark Wildcat is 2,613
Zippin Pippin is 2,865

It could be either of those, too. And then there's the SBNO Joyland (Wichita) woodie.

I doubt it's OzCat since that shouldn't need any "bringing up to code" either and it doesn't really have much history to it, which seems to be something they are looking for.

But Zippin Pippin fits that description to a tee.

I'll take any of em. I get up to Green Bay several times a year. It would be nice to have a good wooden coaster to ride on visits to Bay Beach. I'm wondering, however, if any of them would be a good fit because of the focus on little kids for the park.

Maybe Little Dipper from Kiddieland?

^I think Starliner would be a good fit. It's a good sized coaster but with a family appeal. I believe you had to be 42" to ride.

But you are right, Little Dipper is now going to need a new home or it will be scrap wood.

And Little Dipper might be something the taxpayers of the city of Green Bay might be able to afford. Bay Beach is a city park and is subsidized by taxpayer dollars as the cheap ride prices don't come close to paying for the park itself.