Mean Streak Construction

Howard Gillooly posted a fantastic gallery of Mean Streak construction photos over on Facebook. Definitely worth checking out.

It looks like it could be an awesome ride.
Spoiler alert: It isn't.

It's interesting to see the process that goes into building a wooden coaster after seeing numerous times how steel coasters are built—a lot more footers, for instance.

You can also see how they repaved the perimeter road so it goes around the ride.

Another interesting nugget to glean from the photos is how the southwestern section of what is now Lighthouse Point was, at the time of Mean Streak's construction, very much a boneyard for CP. In fact, I recall looking over from the lift hill the first or second season of Mean Streak and noticing the junk piled over there.

Obviously, the lighthouse itself is the only building that survives in that area now; I'm not certain if some of the other buildings in the photos were part of the Coast Guard station, the OSU research center, or something else. But it's amazing how much that area has changed since then.

Howard's photos certainly show the massive scale / prep work / footer count for the ride. I hope some of it remains and that we see a conversion--it sure is a beautiful structure.

What a great set of photos. I'm always glad when people digitize old collections like this. This set has so many aerial photos too!

Looking up some of the history from the time period, I can't help but think how much Magnum impacted the development of Mean Streak. With the success of Magnum in '89, Mr. Kinzel was well on his path to breaking records with every new ride. But which type of records would be broken?

Summers/Dinn was in high gear at the time, having built Hercules at Dorney in '89 followed by Texas Giant in '90 at Six Flags over Texas. Both had been record breakers, so it was almost textbook that Cedar Point just took it a step higher. Dinn was building a ton of wooden coasters during these years, so who knows if any other builder would have been up to it.

The "other" record at the time would have likely been for a looping coaster. Six Flags Magic Mountain had just built Viper in '90. Imagine if instead of Mean Streak, Cedar Point had built some sort of 8 inversion Arrow monster! I would have to guess that is what Arrow would have pitched them at the time.

Mean Streak got built in the time warp period just before CCI, B&M, Intamin, and Premier would really shake things up in the mid-90's.

So in 1991, it WAS an awesome ride comparatively. By 1994, it had already lost most of its shelf life.

In 1991 I was impressed with it. I still ride it regularly now but I've been aware of its flaws for some time. I have a love/frustration relationship with it. I do hope the structure is used somehow it is so beautiful.

A terrific ride experience matched with the beauty of that structure would make for a nice crown jewel at the end of the peninsula.

^ and that is why I would have loved a GCI/GG overhaul.

Let it go, maverick.

What are you talking about? That was specifically why I had made those desires known to start with. Unless you are assuming that I believe that it will happen? In that case, I'm not 12. I know how these things work, in detail.

Chuck Wagon said:

Imagine if instead of Mean Streak, Cedar Point had built some sort of 8 inversion Arrow monster! I would have to guess that is what Arrow would have pitched them at the time.

The 8 Inversion Arrow Monster would have been at least as painful as MS, and wouldn't have a chance at a second life as an RMC.