WHY? (an editorial with much frustration)

For being a season pass holder for the last 6 seasons and anticpating season # 7 I have seen a lot of changes in the park since I first became a season pass holder. I know for people like Walt, Pete, and Tim among others who have been around much longer they have seen many many changes over the seasons. We can make a list of all of the rides and attractions that have come and gone over the years. Many people have special attachments to the rides and attractions of the past. Maybe someone was a ride op on a particular ride, or maybe they met their future spouse or just have cherished memories of a certain ride or attraction of the past. The obivous is that the park with one of the most richest histories of any Amusement Park in the WORLD has done little to preserve the great history of the park. We have Town Hall, but besides a few old photos, postcards, and souviners from the begining of the last century what do we have? Mill Race, Jumbo Jets, Vertigo, Ride Signs, Fascination, Frontier Lift, Schwabinchen, The Jet Stars, The Frontier Carousel, the list goes on and on of attractions that are lost. With just a few pictures in private collections and merchandise from these rides in private collections, how do you expect to maintain your past history for others to enjoy. We could sit here a list countless numbers of ride parts, signage, and memorabillia from the past. Everything from the woman atop Schwabinchen to the sign that was atop of the millrace what do we have?

If you think the point I am getting at is what should we do to make sure this doesn't happen anymore, or how can we help preserve the past?.....its not.

Coming from the park that saved the arches outside one of one its restaurants and its flagship park and then uses them for the entrance of a coaster at one of its sister parks, how can a park that saves so much stuff not have much to show from its past?

Where did this topic come from and why do I feel as passionate as I do? Well the new wharehouse is done behind the Breakers Express. The move of product of the wharehouse on First Street to the new wharehouse has been going on now for a while. Uncovered recently at the old wharehouse were parts to an old attraction that I loved as much as Magnum, out of all 50 or so parts to the attraction only 4 were saved! The rest were (and if they aren't already) mandated to be destroyed! How sick is that. An auction public or private or something could have been done. Why throw history away when there are people out there who would pay to preserve it. Even with the moeny going to the Firelands or some other charity...............

If anyone from the park reads this and knows what I want...get a hold of me.

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magnumdan
magnum count: 2233
www.cpthrillology.com

*** This post was edited by Dan 11/20/2002 8:18:56 PM ***

I feel your pain. I've felt this way myself for some time, but you have said it very nicely. I know that there are many at the park who really appreciate the history and would like to see more done. I can understand if the Point wants to keep items in storage (the park as a whole tends to be a bit of a pack rat). But to just discard historical items doesn't make much sense when there are so many who would appreciate these things. I'm sure something 'insignificant' like, say, the sign for the Swiss Chalet, holds a memory for someone. There are probably better examples than that, but I think the point is understood.

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Virtual Midway
http://www.virtualmidway.com
*** This post was edited by Gemini 11/20/2002 8:34:58 PM ***

Nicely said. I agree with you, Dan.

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"Millennium Force, the Future is riding on it."
Now, Cedar Point is "Bulding for the future."
Coincidence?

Amen to that. What I wouldn't do for some scrap of the Bayern Kurve before it was whisked away...maybe some piece they decided not to 'refurbish' or whatnot.

At least CBaby and I got some quality time on it before it was replaced with....I shudder to say it...picnic tables and a climbing wall. Long live the Kurve. And the Jumbo Jet. And the Wild Mouse/Wild Rails/just plain Rails. Okay--I'll just adopt Magnum Dan's list and save time.

-'Playa

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The CPlaya 100--6 days, 9 parks, 47 coasters, 2037 miles and a winner.....LoCoSuMo.
*** This post was edited by CoastaPlaya 11/20/2002 9:04:27 PM ***

I am completely in agreement with you Dan, I might be a "newbie" to this whole deal compared to you and Walt, etc., but there are a lot of things from Kennywood for instance, that I would like to purchase even though I know they were just junked.

But speaking as a devil's advocate here, I think it's probably a lot more trouble than its worth for the park to make sure that they don't give away a part that was somehow proprietary material, or to categorize for sale a bunch of small things that really don't matter too much to them when they have 400+ foot tall structures to assemble. I think this is why they're such a "packrat" organization, something that I have noticed a lot in the last year, beacuse its just not worth the trouble to get rid of a bunch of little stuff, either through sale or junking until it gets to be a big bunch of little stuff that demands attention.

Just my thoughts on the issue - and if you get a response from the CP execs, let me know, maybe there's hope in getting KW to respond to me ;)

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1. Kumba 2. Millie 3. Mantis 4. Lightning Racer 5. Wicked Twister (front seat)
"The key to a happy life is moderation" -- Jon Stewart

Does Cedar Point HAVE a paid archivist? I would be surprised to hear that they DON'T, since it's such a large entity, but it seems like with all the good things that are trashed, they don't. The reason to keep archives is because NO ONE knows what the future will bring. It's possible (probable?) that 20 years from now, Cedar Point will stil be THE park. But, if the rich history is not preserved, it will, just like the old rides, disappear. I am interested to hear what others think. I for one am always very interested in learning the history of CP and other parks. . . and I think that CP should have a sort of archive system in place.
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"Uhhh I don't think my restraint is supposed to move like this. . ."

I don't think it would be possible for me to agree with you more, Dan. It's sad, almost pathetic. I just have to wonder what the motivation (or unmotivation, if that's even a word) is behind the lack of preservation.

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- John
*I resign from the game of life if I have to play with stupidity.
*We're getting screwed in the rear two coasters in a row.

Dan, I think that you put into words what many of us feel. I love the history of the park. Going to CP as often as I have, I can almost use the timeline of attractions in the park as a timeline for my own life. That's going back to the 60s, but I can tell you what the new ride was during any significant point in my life.

The history of the park is very nostalgic, and I’d love to see as many things preserved as possible. A park with as rich a history as CP deserves to have it’s history prominently displayed and preserved. Something along the lines of a Cedar Point Historical Society would be wonderful. And that would be something I would most definitely volunteer to work at.

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Florida may have Disneyworld and Key West,
but Ohio has Cedar Point and Put-In-Bay.
It's great to live in Ohio!

Cedar Point is a place of business... you can't make money off of old parts to a ride that some of your season pass holders may have ridden many years ago. History is history, and sentiment is sentiment, but 99% of Cedar Point's guests are there for the attractions that are open.

Do I miss some of the old rides? Yes, I do. But what can I really do? When I'm on Wicked Twister the last thing I'm thinking about are the previous rides that have sat on that site. I think about that stuff at home, and Cedar Point doesn't make money from people sitting at home thinking.

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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes
Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure 2002 Ride-Ops Crew! Have fun trying to find me!

I can bet that if CP advertised a sort of "Flea Market" or old cleanout rummage sale type of thing on their website and have the stuff in a warehouse for sale, they would clear it out in a weekend with just the people from this site,let alone the ones reading their site from all around the world. They wouldn't have to make a mint on it since they are destroying it anyway. Let someone who could make use of it take it instead of filling up the landfills.

Zero-G: (I am not aiming to sound mean or anything! I am just talking. :) ) A company's history has EVERYTHING to do with what it is today. Cedar Point is successful NOW because of planning in the past. You are right, history IS history -- that is all the more reason to preserve it. Once its gone, its gone for good. Think about some of the major successful businesses -- GM, Ford, Disney, even stuff like KitchenAid -- their history is PART of their business. From selling old products to having trade shows and museums, preserving the history adds great depth to a company. If not for us, imagine our kids, and their kids -- what good is one photo or one webpage?? That will not tell how great Cedar Point has been and where it has came from. Archives are a must for everything.
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"Uhhh I don't think my restraint is supposed to move like this. . ."

The idea of tracking the past has become quite important to the business world. Example: I work for Best Buy, and roughly 6 months ago, they asked everyone in the company to send anything from the past to the corporate office. They want to put it all in a historical area in the new campus.

A "Cedar Point Museum" would be quite nice. However, I wonder how they would do it. Would the assemble the rides, or just have bits and pieces?

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17 straight years of real thrills and counting...

I volunteer to work on archives for our community theater in our town. . .and 'preserving the past' has always been something I think is cool.

I don't think they would need to have the entire coaster -- that probably isn't feasable anyway. (although it would be cool.)

But bits and pieces can be cool too. Imagine what some of the first artwork must have been like. Imagine all the old home video that could be located. I can picture like a nation-wide (world wide?) calling for people to donate video of the verrry old stuff. And people would, since it would be used for something cool. You could have video of the older rides, pictures, all kinds of memorabilia. Just looking at the conglomeration of EVERYTHING that has been. . .it would be great. It could be done in like decades, or sets of 5 years. And you could see from period to period how much had changed. It would be something very useful and interesting to see develop.

(Just for kicks . . . when I first found out that Disaster Transport was made from Avalanche Run, I freaked. . . I'm sure other people -- young and old -- find the nostalgia and trivia interesting.)

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"Uhhh I don't think my restraint is supposed to move like this. . ."

Dan, first off great topic and editorial. I along with many others I'm sure, know exactly how you feel. I too wish that CP would have some sort of archiving system or offer those items up that they are going to junk anyway in some sort of auction or fundraiser of some sort. MF Jedi is probably correct in saying that they could clear out a whole warehouse in a weekend with the stuff they were going junk anyway. Just by reading your post I think I know what you are talking about;) and that my friend is very disheartening to hear. I mean I can't begin to count how many times us GTTP'ers are out there looking for stuff for our own personal collections let alone rare items that are no longer at the park that many of us would love to have. I had a similar experience at the end of the season with Schwabinchen leaving I mean what is going to become of it? Is it sold or moved or worst of all scraped all together? We just don't really know at this point do we? Will it become another piece of history or forgotten all together?
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It's Time to get Wicked!!!!!!!!

Live E, (I understand, just talking ;)) yes, history is important, and should be charished, but I don't believe keeping parts from an old ride will realy be a sucessful means of learning from your past in a financially positive manner.

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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes
Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure 2002 Ride-Ops Crew! Have fun trying to find me!

They auction off some stuff at coaster events, first rides of new coasters, etc for charity. Remember they had an auction awhile back? I think in 2000. Some of the stuff was like a tour of P&D for 4, etc I am sure they could make a good amount of money for charity. At least try it once. Maybe at an event such as Coastermania, or even on their website.

It may not be a lot of money for them, but to a charity it may seem like a lot. Just look at how much some stuff on Ebay goes for, especially older things.

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Steve Sergent
MF count: 229
One of the few who know about the other big d
*** This post was edited by shorty 11/20/2002 10:43:53 PM ***

Is what is in this warehouse a big secret? What is it?

TekGuy, there IS a Cedar Point museum, it's inside the Town Hall in Frontiertown.

And it is absolutely pathetic. For a park that has such a rich history as Cedar Point, most of the stuff in the museum is jut old junk that has nothing at all to do with the park. It was a dramatic improvement this summer that they added the Blue Streak model and the Golden Ticket awards. But aside from a meager collection of photos, it's hardly much of a museum. :(

Speculating on which ride Dan wants a piece of...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

And you know, I haven't been in there for at least 15 years... guess I've been too busy riding things. I just walk by, not giving it a single thought.

If it's the same as I remember from being little, then I must agree 100% with you... pathetic. Of course, to a 6 year old, it's "fun."

Aaron

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17 straight years of real thrills and counting...

Nice topic Dan, thanks!

I think an improved museum would be a very nice "non-thrill-ride" addition to the park. Pieces of old rides/attractions, maybe some video kiosks, and perhaps a spot where you can record your own memories to share with others. They could even put it in the old VertiGo plot and charge extra for it (oh Lord I hope they DONT do that! :) )