Cedar Point 1969 vs now-ish

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Well I'll Be! there are a lot more trees at the southernmost part in 2010! CP Green!

There's more sand at the tip of the peninsula now too.

The sand was always there (well at least from the last century) it was just covered with scrub brush, which has been slowly removed over the years

I don't know if we're looking at the same spot. The top right hand of the photos the tip of the peninsula to the right looks like a completely different shape in the two photos. There's a break wall or something and in the older picture it looks like there is some space between it and the beach and in the newer picture it looks like sand accumulated between and to the right making the land's edge less rounded. Is this the same spot you're looking at? Does it just look like shallow water in the older picture because of the difference in picture quality?

You are both right. However the tip infront of sand castle has slowly been filled in out to the break wall that can be seen in both photos.

What year did perimeter road open? How was access to the Breakers by car handled before that?

You drove through the park. There was a driveway from where the marina gate is now across the midway to around where the water tower is. There were candy cane striped poles along the drive to keep cars where they belonged and as a warning to pedestrians who (after looking both ways) had to cut through. Hard to believe, but true.

That's what I thought, but I've yet to see a picture. Do yo now what year that changed?

No sir, I do not. I know when I went to work there in the summer of 73 it wasn't like that. I'd guess it was around the time Frontiertown opened, so mid/late 60's?

That's about right, it was shortly after the Railroad started running, but before the Million Dollar Midway was built.

I have seen a photo of cars driving across a RR grade crossing within the park. It may have been on the now defunct CP&LE site. I have copies of a lot of those pics on my laptop, haven't gone through all of them yet.

You can see a good picture of it in the 'Cedar Point: The Queen of American Watering Places'. The road basically cut to the right where the Marina crosswalk is now and followed the old marina midway to about where Eerie Estates sits currently. It turned left there and went out what is now called the 'Wardrobe Gate' that you can see if you walk behind the Scrambler Bathrooms. If you zoom in on the above picture you can get an idea of what it looked like.

Found the picture from the book. You can also see where the train station use to be and how much more parking they use to have in the main lot.

In the side by side photos it is interesting to see the changes to the water areas, particularly near where Iron Dragon is presently. Also it looks like that might be the old Frontier Lift, the white line through the middle of the water area in 1969 photo.

In the bottom left of the photo posted by 99er I see the Sky Ride building and I think a coaster to the left of it that might have been Scamper.

Thanks for posting the photo. I didn't even think to get out the book. It's been so long since I've looked through it that I don't even remember reading about that in there.

That was indeed Scamper. You can also see CP's Scrambler that endures to this day and Trabant #1. I'm not sure, but I think the striped tent next to Pagoda was a short-lived German Fun House.
Sky Slide hadn't arrived yet and the path between the Funway and the lake looks small and utilitarian. Note the parking lot. What eventually became known as the Oceana Midway was mostly just a tree lined path. That area didn't really develop until around the late 60's. There was a portable go kart track where the stadium/Windseeker is now. Twister also lived there for a minute and so did Calypso #1 (that turned into Tiki Twirl #1). Rotor #2 was directly behind the ballroom where 3 Point is now. When Wildcat #1 arrived in 1970 that area really took off and became a nice midway with permanent structures.
At the other end I see Zugspitze near Space Spiral and the beach bath house.

It's clear that back then Cedar Point was no where near running out of room like it is now.
:^)