Former Wildwood Lake Water Park near Cleveland...a future?

I'm sure my parents have pictures of when my brother's baseball team went there, but lord knows where amongst thousands of pictures they might be. This would have been in the late '80s. I actually didn't remember that it closed as recently as 2001.

I have an interest in abandoned spaces, and understandably a particular interest in abandoned parks and things of that ilk. So I checked out the Lorain County auditor's website, and indeed a house was built on the old Wildwood site near the road in 2007 (there's even a picture of it). It doesn't seem to say when they purchased the property though... maybe because it was a combination of two other parcels? Interestingly, its card also has a commercial entry for a "retail store"...?

What's weird is, an owner search for "wildwood" turns up just one entry, which appears to be oil & gas rights. The card itself has no street address, but the owner is listed as Wildwood Water Park, with the same address as where the house is now, and a mailing address of a mortgage company in Cleveland. (Usually the mailing address is who actually owns the property, e.g. until your house is paid off, your mortgage company or bank would be listed for the mailing address.)

Yeah, too much info... I'm like that. :)

Well, here's a REALLY old picture for ya, before it was even Wildwood Water Park. :)

http://www.lorainmemory.org/album/search_detail.aspx?AID=115

Google Maps even still seems to label the former Wildwood driveway as "Quarry Rd."

What i am really looking for is a list of the slide names and pictures. I can remember walking around and can probably place where they where all at just not the names of them anymore. Does anyone remember if there was a map of the park?

I remember "The Screamer" when it was put in the mid-late 80's. One of those wedgie slides but when I went, it had only one side open and second one was part way finished. Next to it was a slide you rode down on sled and would skip across the water. That little island thing in the Live map had a big drum that you ran on like a lumberjack on a log, a standard diving board and was where you swam out to two "ball" things(don't know what they are called but remember them at other quarries). One ball had a mast with rungs you climbed to get to a basket at the top, then got the thing swinging. The other ball was like a teeter totter where 1 person would get on each side and you got it rocking back and forth, teetering back and forth, and the whole thing spinning at the same time.

There was a zip line that ended on the island and a high diving board next to the start of the zip line. Closer to the beach from there were a couple of water slides, then the beach. The beach swim area was enclosed with floating docks and the beach had a man-made stream where you could relax and get blasted by the water. Back in the trees was a lazy river type ride, which, I believe, feed the man-made stream.

We used to have small family get togethers there then moved them to Dover Lake. I prefered WWL over DL but that was me. It is kind of sad to see that the whole thing (both parks in fact) are gone.

That lazy river type ride was more like one of those tube rides where you travel from pool to pool with some good sliding from one to the other. I remember that one because my one friend fell off his tube when he hit one of the pools and cracked his head on the bottom, that pretty much ended our day. The sled ride was called "Rampage".

Tom

My brothers and I have been fishing there on and off since it closed.The owner is an ex Browns player.I am wondering about one of the rides in the lake that has been gone since at least 1982.It was like a jet ski motor that had only handlebars,and the two-stroke exhaust would go up your nose.You would lay in the water and turn the throttle and it would lug you around the lake at high speeds.

Someone,please respond?.

Anyone??

Why can't these fake 'Amusement Companies' seeking investors websites started by fifteen year olds at least start a park off with a Gravity Group coaster and not a dueling flying/floorless B&M and a 4D? Just seems too pie in the sky and I will invest elsewhere ;)

Or why can't they just make up a park/company name instead of resurrecting old ones like Wildwood and getting our hopes up? :) Next it'll be Eight Flags, Inc. opening Vollmar's Park with a giga coaster hopping over the Maumee River.

Hello?Does anyone have any insight about this water toy/ride at the old Wildwood in Columbia Station,Ohio?

Apparently not. lol

At 32, I have a head full of memories of Wildwood myself & have looked for a few of them on the internet a small number of times. As you probably are well aware, there isn't much of anything in terms of validation, but I found this buzz feed a couple years ago & decided to check it a couple times since, this time choosing to chime in, mainly, because some friends & I were talking about Wildwood jus yesterday.

So, I'm going to drive out there, take a walk through the woods, & see if there is any sign of past life there, besides the area where the big blue barrels were, which is delightfully obvious. If anyone checks in for updates here any more, feel free to inquire. I should be going in the near future.

*Point of interest: I'd already checked Bing & Google maps, but Google Earth has an option where you can go back in time. It doesn't work so well everywhere, but applying that option with this location was kind of interesting- I went as far back to 1994 & some interesting things popped up. If you would like to try it, keep in mind that it gets grainy as you time travel.

Thanks.

You might want to contact the owner before you go exploring... The property is now a private residence (with a very large house in front of the lake), and there is a big grindstone out front with the address and the word "PRIVATE" etched into it. Also gates across the driveway. I remember driving by there after posting in this thread before.

If you're interested in historical imagery, try historicaerials.com. Here's one from 1970 for that area.

Incidentally, Wyles was the name of the couple from Berea who bought the former quarry site in the '50s and turned it into Wyleswood Lake Park, later renamed Wildwood Lake Park. I mention this only because Bing and Google both label that body of water Wyleswood Lake now.

I understand that my post may have come off as naive. Possibly even a bit cocky (?). Not that I need to explain myself here, but I do want to make clear my interest lies solely in urban exploration. I can see that there are houses around the lake. I hold no interest in them whatsoever. & they're all a comfortable enough distance away from anywhere I'll be. All that I'm interested in is to take a walk through some woods & see where my mind goes, maybe take some pictures (daytime). & that's only if it's possible. All I have to go by so far are maps. I've already got a general idea of how to go about getting back there, but I understand that it could be a different story when I go down there & find that it's not worth the risk. As for the Google Earth mention, I only thought it was something worth taking a look at. Anyway, I'm not sure when I'll go down there, but with this early break in the weather, it could be sooner than later. If anything worth telling happens, you'll find it here.

Also, any word on those pictures yr parents may have?

emcisasquare said:
Not that I need to explain myself here, but I do want to make clear my interest lies solely in urban exploration.

Oh, I figured as much. I was just letting you know to give you a heads up, if you didn't already know. :)

^^ I'm actually going to be at my parents' house a few times next week... If I get the chance, I might see if I can find anything. There are literally boxes upon boxes of photos that haven't seen the light of day in two decades, but usually my dad was good about writing the date on the envelope for each roll, and what was in them, so maybe I'll get lucky.

Sounds awesome. Keep postin'!

Ummm, so there's a reason those pictures haven't seen the light of day in 20 years. We'd pretty much need another house to empty the room *into* to get at them. :) So, not going to happen. Oh well. (And of course I don't even know that they have any Wildwood pics, I'm just assuming.)

Oh well. Anyway, I still haven't gone down there. Hm, maybe today.