Gemini trivia... The coaster was to be the star attaction of a park in Michigan

Gemini was supposed to be the star attraction of a proposed park to be built in Irish Hills Michigan by Cedar Point. The original owner was to build this park but, died before the final decision was to be made. Instead the park idea was scraped and Gemini was constructed at CP and Valleyfair was purchased.

Cedar Fair still owns the land and one day when the new highway is built I look for something to start around there. I grew up in that area and still live about 15 minutes from that land. It is very wooded and is divided by a road. The township board rents space to have a billboard on it and i have sat in on meetings and they have said that they would like to see something still be done with the land once the new highway is put in. MIS is about 5-10 minutes away.

Also, the last I knew, CFLP also still owns land not very far from I-94 near Battle Creek, Michigan--just west of the airport.
They were planning to open a park and campground there in the early 1980's, but deals with the city, county, and township could never be reached regarding utilities, taxes, and other "red-tape" stuff.

The State of Michigan Library, in Lansing, also has this documented, along with some artist concepts of what the area would have looked like. *** Edited 1/16/2006 6:25:40 AM UTC by BigHkid***

Ugh you are all so misinformed!!!!!!!! The gemni was slated to be built on land that was part of the fomer fort custer miltary base, the base is stilll there in fact and during WWII it was one of the largest army bases in the United States, the land in question is was in dispute between them and oil company both parties backed on the plan when officails were unable to confirm if there was live ammo dump on the site or not,. Since then base has been downsized, some of it turned into state park some still active reseverist base, some sold to manufactring like Denso and some still unihabitied.

I don't think CF is going to put up the money or effort to construct a new park in the midwestern U.S. when they already pretty much hold a monopoly.

With Cedar Point, their crown park, in the area, as well as set between 2 other parks that they own in just a 2-state area, I do not see any reason to construct another, or to even buy more area.

There's too many established parks out there for Cedar Fair to buy. I dont see them looking to build new parks from the ground up.

I don't see CF building a new park from scratch; however, one needs to look outside the box:

- The Battle Creek area could support a year-round indoor water park/resort hotel based upon the amount of year-round traffic, and easy access to I-94.

-The Onsted area (Irish Hills) could support an outdoor "Soak City" based upon the amount of seasonal summer traffic.

-Even the Muskegon area could support a year-round water park/resort hotel next to Michigan's Adventure.

UGh does anyone not read!!!! Cedar fair no longer owns the land!!!!!

I remember reading, somewhere, that CF still to this date owns around 20 acres near Battle Creek. It's not much property, and whether that 20 acres is in one connected parcel or not, i don't know. At one point they tried negotiating with Battle Creek on this.

Disney secretly bought up their "swamp land" property in Florida in the 1960's under various non-Disney names to prevent the price of land from going sky-high on them. Whether the predecessor of CFLP used this tactic in aquiring the property in the Battle Creek area is very unclear.

Based on the SEC filings, CFLP still owns 450 acres of land in Michigan, with 430 of it being in the Onsted area.

http://sec.edgar-online.com/2005/03/16/0000811532-05-000026/Section5.asp

(Quoted from the above link) "The Partnership, through its subsidiary Cedar Point of Michigan, Inc., owns approximately 450 acres of land in southern Michigan."

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From anual reports, as cited:

Cedar Point Inc. made two serious efforts in the 1970's to build a new park in Michigan. In the 1975 Cedar Point Inc. Annual Report, the Letter to the Shareholders from Chairman George Roose and President / CEO Robert Munger commented as follows:

"We believe the Company must expand not only at Cedar Point but in other areas as well. During fiscal 1975, we expended considerable time and money in planning the construction of a new family recreation center in Irish Hills, a popular tourist area in South Central Michigan. Undue difficulties in obtaining zoning clearances and opposition by a small number of Irish Hills residents prompted us, early in April 1975, to announce the abandonment of Irish Hills as the site for a Michigan recreation center.

Cedar Point tried again in 1976, in Battle Creek, but this project also fell through. From the 1977 Cedar Point Inc. Annual Report Letter to the Shareholders, once again from Chairman George Roose and President / CEO Robert Munger:

"Regrettably, we must report the decision by the Company's Board of Directors to terminate a conditional sales agreement with the City of Battle Creek, Michigan for the purchase of approximately 760 acres of land. This land purchase was the first step toward the construction of a theme and recreational park in Battle Creek.

The August 3, 1976 conditional sales agreement stated that time was of the essence, and although we had twice extended the deadline beyond the original 120-day period, all of the conditions could not be met by the extended deadline of April 30, 1977. Original plans called for the park to be in operation at the beginning of the 1978 season. However, delays encountered seriously affected our construction timetable and made even a 1979 opening date questionable.
*** Edited 1/16/2006 3:10:57 PM UTC by BigHkid***

Heres some Gemini trivia for ya:

""When Gemini first opened, waits for the ride often exceeded 6 hours. Until the construction of Millennium Force 22 years later, no other Cedar Point ride had even come close to such long waits. But something else happened during that first year. Someone left a teddy bear in one of the trains. When no one claimed it, that teddy bear was given a name tag, and was tacked up at the bottom of the first hill following the second turn. The teddy bear was very difficult to spot, unless you knew just where to look for it. It hung in there for many years, managing the harsh Lake Erie winters. Each year, it looked just a bit worse for wear, until it finally disappeared one year. In case you're curious, the bear was given a blue name tag, which is the color given to the leaders of the crew.""

Were Gemini's lines so long because of mechanical reasons or did it just draw that many people. Because I know that Gemini has great ride capacity. (Didn't They use to have 3 read and 3 blue trains.)

I think it probably had more to do with it being the world record holding coaster at the time. Think how busy MF lines without raptor, mantis, WT, TTD, Magnum, MS (well, we could skip that one too) etc...

6 hours?? That's just insane. I got this just by googling Gemini and History. I thought my 3 hour wait for Magnum its first year was long.

Interesting stuff! I remember Magnum when they had the warnings playing in the Q's. I also remember waiting hours to ride Gemini.

The park has gotten better (and worse) since then.

MrScott

The Gemini - when built had nothing to do with Irish Hills. The Irish Hills project, if implemented, would have been an entire project in itself and would not have revolved around 1 ride. Gemini - the Gemini when new had a slow start due the nature of the "new" ride there were problems with the new train design and the capacity was low the first year. Eventually the ride carried more riders per year than visited the park !! In it's hey day, with 6 trains and capacity crowd there were between 4 & 5 thousand riders per hour and close to 50,000 per day ride the ride. Ron Toomer of Arrow Developement Co. was quoted as saying the Gemini was his all time favorite project in roller coasters.

If "all new rides" have a "slow start", there may be hope for Top Thrill Dragster...in year 4.

MrScott

Kevinj said: I thought my 3 hour wait for Magnum its first year was long.

You only waited 3 hours?!? Consider yourself lucky.

Mr. Scott - I respect your opinion (as always) and I hope you are right. Knowing what I know about the pieces and parts from Dragster IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII hope so.

3 hours? You're lucky seeing as that we waited some 5+ hours for Maggie and Mean Streak on their opening weeks.

Mean Streak wuld not have been so long if it had not rained all day.

Starting a Park from Scratch does not seem like something Cedar Fair would be in position to do right now... I don't have much else to say, i just thought i should contribue to the thread if I was going to make an off topic remark. :-P *** Edited 1/16/2006 7:53:44 PM UTC by Coastern3rd***

I hope so, too, Mr Hancock. It is one complex piece of machinery.

Hopefully, they have figured out how works.

MrScott

Ugh, I forgot about Mean Streaks opening wait. That was so long. Yeah, I guess I was lucky...I remember it was a weekday, and we just kept watching the train disappear over the second hill again and again...and everyone whispering about how you can see Canada, etc.