News: Fit for a King

ohioboy25 said:
Kings Island or as I will call it now Cedar Island (heh)...

If CF renamed it to that... I would just laugh...

Its nothing close to an Island... Does anyone know why it was originally named King's Island?

Kings Island first opened its gates in 1972 in what was then Deerfield Township, developed by the Taft Broadcasting Company. Taft Broadcasting took the name from the previous landlord, the defunct King Powder Company, which founded the town of Kings Mills for its workers. The site is between I-71 and the Little Miami River.

Kings Island served as a replacement for Coney Island, a popular park on the Ohio River about 10 miles (16 km) east of downtown Cincinnati. Coney Island was forced to close due to frequent floods, but has since reopened on a much smaller scale. Many of the rides from Coney Island were moved to the new park; the only attraction left at Coney at the time was Sunlite Pool, the world's largest swimming pool. In 1992 Kings Island was purchased by Paramount Communications, along with 4 other theme parks in America and Canada; the park was renamed Paramount's Kings Island.

When Kings Island was being built as the replacement for Coney Island there was a contest held in the surrounding area to name the park. A child, I believe, won the contest by combining the name of the town "Kings" Mills with the original park's name Coney "Island". Thus, Kings (Mills) (Coney) Island ----> "Kings Island" was born.

One thing I've noticed that in old brochures and guides Kings Island had in the 1970s and 80s that it was referred to not as an "amusement park," nor a "theme park," but as an "Entertainment Center." Probably because it was a mixture of a traditional park (Coney Island/Mall), a theme park with themed sections (International Street, Rivertown, etc.), and (since 1989) a water park, plus the adjacent hotel and campground.

Didn't the old powder/cartridge plant later become the Peters Cartridge Company