I saw a brochure recently from CP where the park calls itself "Cedar Point Amusement Land", I was wondering when the park quit calling itself that. Also does anyone know the year that PKI took out the skylift. I've also saw before that there was a Coney Island on the property where PKI was located. Does anyone have any information on that topic?
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Indiana Beach Guide
Coney Island was and still is in Cincinatti. Because of it's flooding, Taft bought Coney and moved some rides to a less watery location now know as King's Island in 1971-72. http://www.coneyislandpark.com has the history. Coney Island still operates as a picninc park with some rides including a Galaxi like rollercoaster.
Pretty cool history. Amazing the both parks can peacefully coexist together.
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Thanks, that was difficult to locate. Here is a link directly to the history:
http://www.coneyislandpark.com/info/history01.asp
That is very interesting and it seems that Coney Island has only recently began to really recover again. I didn't realize that the park had that much history.
I saw where it said that Taft originally purchased 1600 acres for Kings Island after deciding to move Coney Island. That park refuses to die. Taft actually tried to kill it, but was unsuccessful.
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Indiana Beach Guide
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Coney Island (Cincinnati) ride operator
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CBCon Quote "We didn't even get wet"......30 seconds later you hear plop, then splash!!!!
James Moreland
A couple of notes here:
The Skyride at KI was dismantled PRIOR to the 1980 season. It's removal was announced by the park in mid-February (Feb 19th to be exact.). It had been added to Coney Island for their 1965 season and transferred to KI in 1971 immediately following CI's closure. It was manufactured by Von Roll of Switzerland and was 1,200 feet long and 95 feet high. The ride gained national attention in 1977 when 47m.p.h. winds caused it to jam leaving 27 buckets, 45 riders stranded for up to eight hours. The ride removal was due to the inability to obtain replacement parts.
The current Coney Mall section at Kings Island was originally called "Coney Island" There was a major expansion to the area in 1975 which brought the 130 foot Zodiac Double Armed Ferris Wheel and the Troika, otherwise known as the "Shake Rattle and Roll." In 1984 the area was re-named "Old Coney" which the park used until the late 1980's. By the time Vortex was added, the area was called "Coney Mall" because of confusion between the area name at KI and the actual park on the other side of Cincinnati. KI execs originally wanted to capitolize on the enormous success of Coney when KI opened. To do so, they desinged the area as a tribute to the Cincinnati favorite.
As coasterdime mentioned, Cincinnati's Coney Island was a victim of it's own success as much as a victim of flooding. Sure the floods were a huge reason the park was "closed" but a primary problem was lack of space. Why, in 1964 the park dismantled it's most beloved coaster, Wildcat, just to gain 400 more feet of expansion room. The crowds had grown to the point where a busy day made the park a mob scene.
When CConey Island was originally opened, it was a draw for picnics for nearby farmers interested in it's apple trees. It then became a picnic ground which steam and paddle boats frequented. It was also a sort of trolley park, but mostly frequented by those travelling on the Ohio River. Once the car was a success, more and more people began visitng by auto. In 1947, the Island Queen (The main transport to Coney... a steamboat) burned down. That led to cars and busses galore. The need for parking cut into the land area terribly, and expansion room was nearly non-existant. Even though the land mass did not increase, the attendance figures did and by the late 1960's the park really had no way to deal with it's need for more room.
Once the park closed and KI opened, Taft decided to keep Sunlight Pool, a main draw at Coney, open through the 1972 season with an admission of $1.75. From the time that Coney Island closed, Taft had placed the property on-sale. There were no interested buyers and so the land sat idle while old buildings and midways basically rotted. A flood in the spring of 1972 pretty much washed away the remains of CI, except the substantial pool which was cleaned and re-furbished. Taft was concerned that if they kept any part of CI functional would steal focus from the new KI park. However after a strong spring 1972 KI grand opening, Taft felt comfortable enough to reopen the pool open since the property was of no interest to buyers and was otherwise sitting idle. By 1973 Taft had begun to advertise the pool again. In 1975, CI was taken off the market as it hit 420,000 visitors, and for the first time since KI's opening... made money. In the years since, Coney built on the pool's success adding waterslides and various improvements.
By the late 1970's Coney Island had built on the pool's succes and had re-opened the dance hall. It was then named "Old Coney" which stuck until Taft sold the park in 1984. That year, it was once again christened "Coney Island" and KI's "Coney Island" section became "Old Coney." Confusing, huh?!
There is a rumored no-compete clause written into the sale of Coney Island in 1984 when a group of KI execs bought out the parks division. Coney was not included in the sale.
However, by the late 1990's the park had transferred hands enough that any "clauses" were obsolete and the park once again began to re-build it's midway.
Shaggy
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