Teen breaks into Geauga Lake and gets pictures ON the big dipper

I still remember my first rides on Villain on opening night of Six Flags Ohio on May 5, 2000. I remember thinking that it was easily a Top 10 woodie and it truly gave a remarkable ride. It was a fun, smooth front seat ride and a wicked but still comfortable back seat ride. I rode the ride countless times those first 2-3 seasons. I remember Fright Fest night rides in 2000-2001 where the fog from the haunts would cover the ride and it was just insane. Amazing memories.

Fast forward to 2006-2007 and you couldn't pay me enough to ride it. I would take a courtesy ride or two each season, but it had become brutal. I am sure Six Flags did not take proper care of things, and not knowing how long the powers at be at Cedar Fair actually knew the fate of GL, I am sure it was only given the minimal amount of TLC needed to get it through the end of 2007.

If wooden coasters were "movable" - I'm sure it would have found a home.

Wood coasters are movable -- Phoenix at Knoebel's, for example, was moved to the park from San Antonio.

Call me a cock-eyed optimist, but I do think Cedar Fair had the best intentions when it bought the park in 2004, and that all the park's attractions received the attention they needed. (Yes, I place the blame for the ultimate fate of the park with Six Flags trying to create a park its market could not support.)

I know they are movable. But it's not as simple as taking it apart and putting it back together like a steel coaster. Unless it's got some major significance, it just isn't usually worth it.

I put equal blame on both parties for the closure. Six Flags came in and made a mess, but Cedar Fair didn't always do it right either. The abandoned waterpark, the shoddy retheming, not a single new attraction. 2004 was passable as they had no time to get the place ready. But when Dominator still had the Batman logos carved out of the seat backs and the visable Bruce Wayne lettering still hadn't been painted over by 2007 - it was just obvious to me there was no long term commitment. Four seasons just wasn't enough time, especially since despite everything people were starting to come back.

TwistedWicker77 said:

After a few years of it still sitting on CF property, I thought the deal was that he forfeited his right to own BD, and it goes back to CF.

The current owner still retains posession whoever they are. It was purchased for the owner on behalf of Tom Woosnam of Apex Western Machinery Movers. The owner purchased the ride originally on a $5k bid, but was quoted as being renegotiated to a higher price later. Several times the owner has tried to auction the coaster off on sites like ebay for Buy it now prices of $65k or face demolition, but obviously has never came to fruition. That's been part of the whole controversy is that Cedar Fair never had any legal wording on moving the coaster/etc. after time. They essentially sold the rights to it and left it at that.

I'm sure it'll have some future eventually, albeit sold for souvenirs, vandalized, or just comes crashing down either on it's own or scrapped, but it's not going to be erected and put into riding status without a multi million dollar investment. Given how aggressive Cedar Fair has been with the Meijer deal, I expect them to pull out of that area all together in the next few years.

According to this article, it says that Busch may have originally offered to buy the ride side of the park, but Six Flags counter-offered. I wonder how that would've worked out and if the park would still be open today. I think by combining the parks, it was just too big to keep up. And I think that when CF bought the Paramount parks, GL went on the backburner but CF just saw more potential in the Paramount parks.

There were many big factors into it's demise.

Too large of a park, a-lot of debt in Cedar Fair's portfolio, poor local infrastructure (two lane road to the park, lack of hotels, etc.), declining attendance, the recession itself, and I still do believe they were ok with just getting the park to gut it. I'm not some guy comparing Kinzel to like say Cheney or something, but I believe that strategy was on the table the whole time as an easy out method.

Regardless, ride side is dead, Meijer will now own a large portion of the parking lot and I think some land adjacent, but not sure which parcels they're wanting to eat up. Big Dipper is trash, it has been for years. They repaired it shortly after close which was great, but now it's a neglected plot of land growing trees in the structure now and turning into a set of brittle toothpicks and rusty metal. Tear it down, get the blueprints, and build it somewhere else if possible. It's a hell of a Miller coaster, it's about as Airtime driven as say Magnum is, that's all it cares about. However resurrecting a 1925 hunk of neglect is pointless other than to fuel nostalgia, say we did it, and feel like we saved a landmark when it's been dead since the park decided to close it's doors and sell to Mr. Woosnam in 2007.

Has the Meijer deal even been finalized yet? Last I heard, it was under review by local officials, but nothing set in stone yet.

Yes, Six Flags made a counter-offer in response to Busch's offer (not the first time such an offer had been made; years ago then-Sea World owner HBJ offered to buy Geauga).

Interesting article, thanks for linking to it.

The Meijer deal is still under review, but moving forward. If the city blocks it again, Cedar Fair has already stated that they will sue Bainbridge Township.

According to this article, they already threatened to sue. It looks like the township wants them to build a "visually appealing" store. Anything in that spot would be more visually appealing than an empty, overgrown lot. On another note, I see they are interested in putting a store near me in North Canton.

As much as it will break my heart to see my beloved Big Dipper dismantled, in the end it is the only option at this point. In 2008/2009 it would have been an easy refurbishment to get it back in operating condition. Now, forget it. Which is why I don't understand the butthurt clan over on the GL facebook page posting propaganda about how we should all boycott Meijer because they will be the ones to tear down Big Dipper. What good is it anymore standing? I loved my grandmother, but we sure didn't prop her up in what used to be her house after she passed. I'd rather have a Meijer than a parking lot full of weeds and the skeleton of the Big Dipper, which will easily start to succumb to one of these wind or snow storms - or injure a trespasser. Or be a victim of arson, which just needlessly puts people in danger.

I so wish Cedar Fair would have given the place a few more years to get settled. And somehow with the way the last eight years have played out with that land, I have a feeling many of them (maybe not Kinzel) wish they had as well. Had it survived to the Ouimet take over, I have a feeling he would have found a way to make it work. I would have been happy with the floating bridge to the Big Dipper and a tiny little boardwalk area. Heck, I would have been happy with a relocated Big Dipper. But even as a GL fanboy, at the end of the day, that's life. In the eight years those GL extremists have ranted and raved, I've enjoyed life and many thoughts of the fun times at GL while still enjoying other parks.

Sometimes you just have to let go. Chicago's Marshall Field's department store was re-named Macy's in 2006 and there are organized groups of people protesting the change.

A visit to Chicago, before I moved here, wasn't complete without a visit to Field's, walking by signs with that iconic logo, luncheon in the Walnut Room and buying a box or two of Frango's (and way back in the day, a loaf of strawberry bread). Now it's just another Macy's.

I think that just as Michigan's Adventure does just fine as it is, Geauga Lake was doing just fine as it was; it didn't need $40 million of new rides and attractions in one year. While I didn't know until reading the article linked above just how many hundreds of acres SFWoA sprawled over, I always found it an inconvenient park to get around, either a long walk or a slow ferry ride.

I would agree that the $40 million dollar investment was the first nail in the coffin of GL. It was always a small family picnic park. Changing it over the course of one off season to compete with Point was dumb. Removing more rides then adding. Destroying a huge childrens area for 7 rides in Loony Toons Boomtown just wasn't the same. 5 coasters in 2 seasons was just too much. On top of that adding the marine life on the same gate. The two parks complimented each other nicely for almost 3 decades. Families would plan 2-3 day vacations to the area. Now they could accomplish everything in one day. Six Flags took something that was successful against it's competition, had itself a nice little nitch in the market and was profitable and changed it.. CF may have closed it. I also believe if the Paramount deal never happened the park would still be alive, and possibly "right sized" by removing some things. But it was Six Flags that took a once amazing family park and turned it into a monster that turned a lot of folks off and away.

The two parks complimented each other nicely for almost 3 decades.

I think that's key. They did compliment each other. While there were multiple attempts to combine the parks over the years, I do think they were better off as separate, unrelated parks.

Yes, GL and Seaworld complemented each other not competed. It was the perfect marriage, together the parks making a weekend trip. As soon as Busch pulled out it was all over.

Personally, once you close your property and leave it abandoned for years, you forfeit all rights to keep people out and sue for trespassing.

I think not. So long as there are signs posted entering is tresspassing. It's not good PR to press charges in this case but it is private property and I would hardly consider it abandoned if there is security roaming around periodically.

Is it being used? No? Then it is abandoned. This isn't Area 51 we're talking about here.

Whether it's being used is immaterial. As long as the owners of a property are paying the necessary taxes, etc., they have every right to ban and/or prosecute trespassers regardless of the condition of the property.

If you haven't used your game console in over twelve months, can I walk in and take it? After all, it's not being used and has been abandoned.....

OT: if anyone has an abandoned PS4 or XBONE I am in the market for a Fallout 4 console.