Indiana Fun Spot: is it done?

I am a local and I have not heard anything about the park closing anymore then I have heard for the last 20 years.

I had two roomates who went to High School at Prairie Heights if thats close enough for ya.

Has anyone heard anything about this park opening or know details about its current status (are the rides being torn down?) and ownership? I used to visit this park every summer as a kid, and I have so many wonderful memories there.

I believe it closed in 2008, but they had a message on their website for a long time that it was just closed for the season due to the recession. That has now changed to PARK CLOSED.

My aunt lives right by the park, and she was telling me in the early to mid 2000's that the park was under new ownership and thriving. She claimed it was totally packed on the weekends, so I was comforted that it had a sound future. But, I guess things changed somewhere. :(

Last mention I seen of the park was that the Lion/Tiger Sanctuary were the only thing the owners planned on keeping going and that the Park was closed until further notice. Or no notice at all.

Somewhere recently I'm pretty sure I saw Afterburner listed for sale on one of the used rides sites. While the animals were a big plus as a visitor, they can get awfully expensive when your park is onoly open a few months out of the year...

I'm suprised the website is still functional. And, even though they aren't all linkable from the home page, all the sub-pages are still there if you know the exact address.

http://funspotpark.com/

The coaster doesn't appear to be on Ital or IRG. Whether it is for sale somewhere else I don't know. I tried to find the original thread mentioning it being for sale to see if there was a link and I couldn't find it.

Here is an image for those who don't know/remember what it looks like.
http://funspotpark.com/rides/afterburner.htm

Afterburner is still on Google Maps and Bing

Anyone know how to date the sat images?

I just emailed them so we'll see what they say.

The Afterburner is listed in the Amusement Today ads.

Ugh, that's not a good sign. Afterburner is going to be a very tough sell. I actually remember it being very fun / eerie (it always felt like you were going to roll off the track before being launched backward), and it's even historic in a way now.

But, most people were far too lazy to walk up 5 flights of stairs to ride, and then 5 flights back down. It was worth it at Fun Spot, because they let you re-ride until you were ready to puke. But, if it went to a park with a decent crowd, then I really couldn't see anyone content with 1 ride for all that effort.

On an unrelated note, funny story about the Zyklon roller coaster there: When I was riding...probably 20 years ago...the seat bench I was sitting on nearly fell off mid-Zyklon. I was just a young kid and was panicked, seeing nothing but the track rushing beneath me. I shoved the bench backward so I didn't fall through onto the track. When I got back to the station, I told the lone employee in horror, "The seat almost fell off!" and I pulled it forward to show him. He replied, "Awww that's okay, son. You didn't do anything wrong." I gave him a very puzzled look and walked away. It has been a running joke ever since.

What I do know is that a few of the rides from Indiana Fun Spot were bought by Santas Village Azoosment Park. So I am guessing the ride side of the park is done.

I just drove by there yesterday and it looks no were ready to ever open. Sad too. I rode Screamin' Demon at KI and it was a fun ride for its day. If someone would bury it so you did not have to walk up the stairs, then people would ride it. It could dive down into a tunnel. That would be sweet. RIP Fun Spot.

------o------

Zanderdad said:

If someone would bury it so you did not have to walk up the stairs, then people would ride it. It could dive down into a tunnel. That would be sweet.

You bet it would! Hmm... all those RCT2 games where I did that, buried my shuttle loops :)

I rode that bad boy, loved it. I think it was originally the prototype at Circus World/Boardwalk and Baseball in Florida; I was a kid there in 1979 and saw it but didn't ride i then. It had an elevator in Florida!

Satellite images can be tough to date, and never rely on them to be anything close to accurate even in populated areas. Ground was broken for the new Yankee Stadium around 2007 (it opened in 2009) and up until a few months ago, Google Earth showed the old stadium in place with no signs of construction whatsoever, meaning the aerial image was at least five years old.

If you can drill down to street view, Google gives the month and year of the image at the bottom of the map/image. Not perfect, but getting there.

The Fun Spot street view is from June 2009

No reply from the email yet. Funny though because their website is pretty much funtional. hhhmmm... My guess is that they are done.

I think most of the images are from '09. I went by my old house in Chesterton, IN last week and it's blue now and remodled on the outside, but in the picture from goolge earth it's the old white color with the handicap ramp in front. Still Google Earth is still pretty cool.

Got an email back from Carrie Trine.
"Due to the poor economy and outrageous insurance premiums the park will not
reopen. Sorry!"

There it is.

Translation: "We have no idea what the hell we're doing."

Translation for the real non *ME* oriented

. We're a lion/tiger rehab facility who built some rides and things do do for the area and no longer find it feasible to do so.