The Amusement Park That Sat Empty for 30 Years

In 1978, an amusement park in Ohio finished its hundredth season, locked the gates and walked away. Nobody took the rides down. Nobody auctioned them off. The Ferris wheel, the roller coaster and the ticket booths stood in the woods for the next thirty years. Chippewa Lake Park sat in Medina County, about forty miles southwest of Cleveland. It began in the 1870s as a picnic ground and beach called Andrew's Pleasure Grounds, and grew from there into a lakeside resort. The first roller coaster had no motor. After every ride, the car was pushed back up the track by hand. Mac Beach bought the park in 1898 and banned liquor on the grounds. He and his son Parker ran it for seventy-one years. The Big Dipper opened in 1925, fifty feet of wood. The Starlight Ballroom booked live music seven nights a week all summer. The Dorsey brothers came through with a young Frank Sinatra singing for them, and Neil Diamond played the same room in the sixties. Highways gave families other options. Cedar Point and Geauga Lake got bigger. The park kept running a coaster from 1925. Then somebody bought the land and cleared it for a development called Chippewa Landing. During the demolition they ran tours. People walked through the park while it was being taken apart, on the same ground where their parents had lined up to ride it. The last tour was June 19th, 2010. The rides came down. The development never happened. #ChippewaLakePark #OhioHistory #LostAmusementParks #Nostalgia #FallenAndForgotten