Roller coaster accident in 1930 ended Ohio park

As a coaster nerd that grew up in Summit County, I only vaguely knew of the park and I never knew this story. Thanks for sharing!

It's amazing to me how many little amusement parks there used to be. My parents grew up in Mansfield, Ohio, which had about 40,000 people in the '40s and '50s, and my mom used to talk about going to North Lake Park to ride the "rolly coaster." I had a hard time believing her when I was a kid, but it turns out to be true.

This is a nicely done video about it, if you have the time:

https://www.richlandsource.com/area_history/luna-park/html_b6340cc0...d8e10.html

Ohio used to be filled with amusement parks. Just about any large swimming lake had a park next to it with a coaster and a few rides.

My mom used to go to the once hugely popular Glen Echo park in Maryland, just outside DC, all the time as a kid. It's a relic of the area, and although I've never been, I have driven past it a few times and it still has the art deco entrance facing the street, and you can see the building that still houses the now 101 year old Dentzel carousel from 1921.

Then there's my late grandma (my mom's mom), who told me a few years before she passed that she once rode "the roller coaster" at Crystal Beach on a trip to Ontario. I showed her a picture of Traver's infamous Cyclone and she confirmed that was the one.

My mom grew up in the suburbs of Pittsburgh and has fond memories of West View. I still vividly remember a conversation we had when I was a young pre-teen coaster nerd driving down Rt. 43 on the way to Geauga Lake 1.0 one day in the mid 90s. She was telling me about how she had gone to West View like I went to Geauga Lake and she hoped I would never have to see it close like she did for her park.

On the upside, I live a half hour away from Velocicoaster

I learned only last month that there are ruins of an old wooden coaster only 7 miles from the house we lived in for 15 years. Puritas Springs Park Cyclone

https://rcdb.com/2077.htm#p=73053

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritas_Springs_Park

A 4 year old Youtube video shows that there's not much left worth seeing, but had I known this I would have gone to that area, as I used to visit that Metropark at least weekly and had no idea.

I've long known about that one, but never got around to looking for the remains. That was 20 years ago, I doubt there's anything left now.

When I was a kid in the 60’s we lived in Fairview Park, and the metro park at Lorain and Wooster was a convenient cut-through for us to the Hopkins airport. We went by the old coaster all the time and it was decrepit but quite visible. I’ll have to check dates but I don’t think it had been abandoned even ten years. The drop looked similar to KW’s Thunderbolt, it went into the ravine and was surrounded by trees and foliage. My dad loved to see it and to me it seemed terrifying.
I’ve been by since but the road up to Puritas (Mastick Rd?) has been rebuilt with a retaining wall and other things that surely got in the way of any ruins. I don’t think you could even find a footer in the ground anymore.

I'm a little fuzzy on the geography, but I recall maybe in the 80's that Puritas washed out and went years before it was fixed in that area. This was when they still had fords in the parkway over the tributaries to the river, and sometimes they were closed due to high water.

I edited my above post, the video is actually over 4 years old. There was almost nothing left in that video and certainly what was left of the wood has rotted completely away by now. I'm sure I'll visit the Rocky River Metropark again, because I loved going there when we lived close. I'll probably visit the site when I do, but am not hoping for much.

Here's the video. Skip to a little after 3 min for the actual exploration of the site.

The Coaster Talk No BS Zone blog posted about a visit to Puritas Springs a year ago. All that's left is some track pieces on the ground, but that's neat enough to me that I would visit if I were in the area.