Edgewater park in Detroit.

Has anybody ever been to this park?

http://www.waterwinterwonderland.com/amuse.asp?id=301&type=2

The park is no longer there, but it looked like a great park with lots of major rides.

There is also a bunch of links to pictures of old amusement parks in michigan. Very interesting.

I was one of the last persons to ride their Roller Coaster, which went by a number of names while it was operating. When I first visited this park in 1973, (During a School Picnic) It went by the name Swinger. It's final name when the park closed in 1981 was Big Beast. In the mid to late 1970s it was named Soul Train!

Answer my Prayers, Overbook my next Flight!

I have been to that park and it was a great place. My whole family did a huge reunion get-together to celebrate the park the very last week it closed down forever. I rode the Big Beast probably 20 times - I loved it! They also had a great Rotor there and that was probably one of the last times I have been on a working Rotor. I wish I knew whatever happened to those pictures. Oh well, that was 27 years ago. Good times.

The demo pictures of the coaster on that link look pretty recent. I wonder if anything remains of the park?

I may have to take a drive out there some day to see for myself. The big beast looked like a fun coaster to ride and the park looked like it had a decent ride line up.

The park also had a wooden wild mouse and a Turbo ride. I have a small video clip of those and POV of the Big Beast for those interested. I'll have to upload it from my camcorder first but I've been wanting to do that anyway.

I think the "turbo" ride was only one of a few ever built.

Yeah the wild mouse was cool. That would be so awesome swampfoxer - I'd be very interested in that. Thanks.

swampfoxer...please post that to your youtoob... ;)

Thanks... :)

In the second pic, the wooden coaster trains seem to have an arched roof in the front car. What was the deal with that?

I remember seeing good footage of the ride on one of the Roller Coaster Weekend videos. It looked like a ride typical of John Miller's work in the 1920s, which is to say it looked great!

In this article (under The Auction & End of an Era)
https://home.comcast.net/~eieiopike/LeosStories.htm

it says they sold the roller coaster & all the rides. I assume he was referring to the Big Beast coaster. Makes me wonder why they tore it down.
Maybe they just sold the trains and some of the mechanical parts.

Chitown, those funky arches on the coaster train https://home.comcast.net/~eieiopike/images/Coaster18.jpg
look similar to the the old Silver Flash coaster from Riverview Park:
http://www.ultimaterollercoaster.com/coasters/history/1960_1970/60s_parks3.shtml

Seems I read somewhere they put the covers on the trains for safety reasons although it added extra rattles to the roll. *** Edited 4/6/2008 2:35:36 PM UTC by swampfoxer***

Interesting, very interesting to look at, read and think back on. Ironically enough, looking at Leo's stories and following it back to Norton Auctioneers, they are the ones who will be auctioning off Geauga Lake stuff too - including the Big Dipper.

http://www.nortonauctioneers.com/Auctions/GeaugaLake/Geauga.jpg

*** Edited 4/7/2008 1:13:56 AM UTC by cyberdman***

For as long as I can remember, Norton has been the company to go to for amusement park auctions. When the name of that company is mentioned in an article, it's never good news.

I was wondering the same thing about the arched cover over the trains as well.

added the Edgewater Park clip with bonus TURBO clip:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=r_2jU3eyjiY

^Thanks.... :)

Coaster trains with headlights > those without... LOL!

That is so awesome, thanks. Man, that took me back. I could almost feel it again.

Great Turbo footage. Man I wish some manufacturer would resurrect that ride...it was wilder -- and better! -- than the Zipper!

Coastaplaya must be busy at work to have not responded to this.

I went to Edgewater Park many times over the years, although my last trip was in the mid 1970's. I know when I last rode the wooden coaster it was still called Soul Train.

What I remember most about the park, though, was going for the live shows in the band shell; Bobby Sherman and David Cassidy in particular.

Yeah...I've just dated myself again.