Why Ohio Abandoned Its Greatest Amusement Park: Geauga Lake

Aurora, Ohio was once home to more than a lakeside picnic ground — it was the site of the largest amusement park on Earth. By 2001, seven hundred acres surrounded a fifty-acre glacial lake, holding forty-four rides and ten roller coasters — more attractions than any Disney park in the world. Killer whales, dolphins, and sea lions performed on one shore while roller coasters roared past on the other. Attendance reached two and a half million a season, built on nearly a century of growth from a nineteenth-century picnic ground into a resort that spanned both banks of the lake. But the scale that built the park also made it dangerously dependent on the ownership chain behind it. Corporate turnover — from Funtime to Premier Parks to Cedar Fair, which acquired the property for 144.3 million dollars — left the park's future tied to decisions made far from the lakeshore. Within thirty-six months, attendance collapsed from two and a half million to seven hundred thousand. The rides came down, the parts were sold off, and the seven hundred acres are now being divided between a hardware chain and a grocery chain. This is the story of how killer whales, roller coasters, and a fifty-acre glacial lake built the largest amusement park on Earth — and how a chain of corporate ownership brought its golden age to an end. A full history documentary about Geauga Lake, Aurora, Ohio — from its rise as the world's largest amusement park to its final closure and demolition. Copyright & Fair Use Disclaimer • This video is a non-commercial, educational history documentary created for commentary, criticism and research. • Some archival photos and footage are used under the principles of Fair Use (Section 107, U.S. Copyright Act) for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.