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

I lived for years in Meijer's "home town", Grand Rapids, Michigan, and am old enough to remember when their stores were "Meijer Thrifty Acres", so I'm very familiar with Meijer stores. That said, if this comes to fruition I'll likely make a detour on a future trip to Kennywood or Hershey to check it out.

Any Idea when this will be official?

I remember when Meijer's only store was in Greenville, MI. I was in that little store many times.

Abandoned places are fascinating to me, sometimes you can just imagine the "life" and vibrance that so many experienced at the location. I have viewed many online photo galleries of homes, castles, churches etc... and wondered what led to the demise of the place.

We took a vacation to Orlando last April and stayed near Disney in Kissimmee. The road to our Condo had a stretch that looked like an abandoned property with some strange object visible through the weeds. After doing a "Google" search I found that it was an amusement park called "Splendid China". During our week-long stay I noticed vehicles parked in areas that likely accessed the property, people probably exploring. There are many online photos of this abandoned property.

As a teen in the 1970's we road our bikes all over the west side of Cleveland & suburbs. We would ride down the hills of the Cleveland Metroparks at a high rate of speed on our Schwinn. Near one of the entrance hills, Puritas Rd., off in the woods we discovered remains of a roller coaster that travelled down the hillside through the woods. Of course we climbed on it. I am not certain but I think some of the track is still there. The park was "Puritas Springs Park", the coaster was the "Cyclone" and there are numerous photos online.

Like I mentioned, the photos of these places are pretty neat, but I do not want to encourage hopping fences or trespassing such as the two young ladies did at Geauga Lake.

Speaking of this as the subject keeps coming up, is there any news about the Big Dipper in recent time during this whole Meijer controversy. I looked through Google News really quick and didn't see anything, but not sure if maybe there was something in the local papers or whatever.

Jimmy, PS Cyclone was another Miller terrain masterpiece. Thanks for sharing the memories.

From the most recent Cyclone pictures I was able to find online a while back what's likely left will be really hard to find because it's so decayed. From what I've read there was quite a bit less left after the hill and road were reconstructed. I can vaguely remember as a little kid my mom pointing out a little of what was left of the structure when the leaves were off the trees before the road collapsed but I don't remember being able to see anything from the road after the repairs. Of course it was closed for so many years I don't know how much was lost during construction and how much rotted while the road was closed. For a while I was thinking of taking a little family trip to look for what's left of the track with the metal detector. I don't think it would be too hard to access from the metropark but we never got around to it.

I found pictures on RCDB from 2006, and it vaguely looks like an actual Rollercoaster.

These demands are pathetic. Why is this city trying to hold on?

Is it the city proper, though, or some of the residents? That "wish list" is just that, a list of wishes.

I've been in a fair number of Meijer stores over the years, and they often have photographs up in the front of the store that commemorate the history of the town or local area; I expect that's what the Bainbridge Meijer will have, photos of Geauga Lake.

There is a McDonalds on Lake Shore Blvd in Cleveland on some of the land that was Euclid Beach Park with a Euclid Beach Theme. Photographs, replica carousel horses and other theme elements. The entrance is through the actual archway to the park. I expect the Meijer store to be similar without the far fetched ideas like using the Big Dipper.

I don't think those demands are pathetic at all. It's a way to remember what that property once was. I think it's cool.

But what I don't understand is why all of a sudden do the residents want to pay respect to a park that they constantly bitched about?

How are those "demands"? Wish list and demands are not the same thing. It's not like they are saying do these things or we won't let you build the store. There's no way the Big Dipper idea is going to happen.

^^That's what's pathetic. Complain one day that the park is a noisy disturbance to their little town and brings so much turmoil. Then now praise it and wish they had everything back as it used to be.

Plus, who wants to drive next to the Big Dipper or terribly maintained front entrance before buying a frozen dinner for the night?

What do you mean who wants to drive next to the Big Dipper before buying a frozen dinner? Who WOULDN'T want to drive past it? It isn't going to negatively effect my grocery shopping.

It's a run down area that for some reason people are still somehow holding onto in a somewhat blatant hypocrisy. The best part is neither Meijer or Cedar Fair own the rights to Big Dipper, so even if there was interaction, it could be gone whenever. Eventually it will come down on it's own without any outside intervention I feel.

Did it ever occur to you that the complainers and wishlisters are different groups of people in the same community?

I really don't see a difference. The same community wanted nothing to do with the park years ago. Amazing how tides turned.

But that's my point. A community is a group of people that may not always have the same opinions. While the park was there, the complainers were the loudest. Now that it's gone, a different group has spoken up. You see, the complainers aren't going to be making noise now, and the group that wanted the park is making noise now.

This behavior is not limited to just Bainbridge, Ohio.

The complainers are still somewhat there. See how at first they tried blocking the Meijer deal originally until Cedar Fair threatened a lawsuit.

All around it's a somewhat sour experience.