A look back

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/12/26/cedar-po...748130001/

While I always knew about general plans for this park, and why it never came to fruition, I never knew about the planned leprechaun theme. Interesting read that was just posted today.

Honestly the thought of a leprechaun themed park makes me laugh. Honestly could you imagine if it took off IRL? I wonder if it would have become another Geauga lake.

Leprechaun theme? Not Ireland... but leprechaun? Shocking it never took off, what an enthralling idea!

It's magically delicious!

The leprechaun theme is definitely a weird one, wonder what the motivation was behind it instead of a general Ireland theme. All jokes aside, this park if built, would've changed the landscape in the Irish Hills, a place once booming with tourists, now mostly abandoned property with overgrown weeds.

Pretty fascinating that they still owned this land up until 8 years ago. I wonder if there is/was any other random parcels of land out there that they own(ed).

I remember visiting Irish Hills as a tiny tot. There actually was an amusement park there, albiet a tiny one- Stagecoach Stop USA, a little western-themed place with a few rides and a small coaster. There was also the Prehistoric Forest, which is still there but not operating (and sadly vandalized, though I think there's plans to restore it).

Yeah the last I heard, Prehistoric Forest is supposed to be making a comeback. There also used to be another mini fun park called Bears Lair that I used to frequent back in the late 80's. They had a small water park, go karts, and putt putt golf, but that went away sometime in the early 2000's. It sure is a beautiful area out there, over a hundred lakes and rolling hills.

I remember in the mid 80's there was talk that CF was looking into buying part of Fort Custer in Battle Creek. Then I found this thread..

https://pointbuzz.com/Forums/Topic/gemini-trivia-the-coaster-was-to...n-michigan

That whole thread was full of wrong information in regards to the Irish Hills park with the exception of RideMan. The timeline adds up for Gemini to be the main attraction at that park.

I'm very familiar with the Irish Hills as my father's family is from that area, and I've been going there for 60+ yrs. The leprechaun theme is new to me, although it wouldn't be a suprise, as many things in that beautiful area use a similiar theme- we hold our family reunion at Camp Killarny, which is just off Killarny Hwy., for example. Stagecoach Stop being called an amusement park is something I've never heard before and is a stretch. I've heard rumors of Prehistoric Forest making a comeback, but that was a while ago and I've heard nothing new. Next door was Mystery Hill, a place where things defied gravity. Both are near Stagecoach Stop. The old Irish Hills ski area is just down US-12 from those attractions.. There was also a great tobbagon run across M-50 from Frontier City.

Frontier City, too. We used to visit from Toledo.

https://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/2015/10/peek_through_time_gunslingers.html

Yes, I mentioned Frontier City.