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Adventure Falls (2004 – 2006)

One, two, skip-a-few. (We’ll come back to fill in the blanks on how it happened…)

In 2004, just four years after it first bore the Six Flags name and a short three years after it absorbed SeaWorld, Six Flags Worlds of Adventure had burned out.

The massive mega-park was purchased by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company – the folks behind Ohio’s other mega-park, Cedar Point. (Hmm...) The park was promptly renamed GEAUGA LAKE again, and any references to Six Flags’ Looney Tunes or DC Super Heroes were hastily removed (leading to some unfortunate and thoughtless new identities that were more de-branding than re-branding… A similar fate would befall the Paramount Parks after their purchase by Cedar Fair two years later, leading to the destruction of one of the world's greatest themed thrill rides ever, coincidentally also in Ohio). 

Across the park, identities were swapped as rides and themed lands took on generic placeholder names.

In Power City (once a dark and foreboding Gotham City re-painted in highlighter yellow), Batman: Knight Flight became Dominator. Famously, the Batman logoes etched into the headrests of the roller coaster's restraints were seared off. Superman: Ultimate Escape was renamed Steel Venom (with a black-and-purple logo thoughtlessly applied to the still-red-and-blue coaster, above).

Mind Eraser was now Head Spin; Serial Thriller transformed into Thunderhawk. Bugs Bunny moved out of Boomtown as it became the generic "KidWorkz" with fountains of the characters disassembled and Bugs Bunny's carrot house standing as an awkward reminder. Sea life topiaries and character references were removed left and right as remaining animal habitats were left vacant. Hurricane Harbor was hastily re-branded Hurricane Hannah's (an obvious de-branding). Around the park, themes were dropped and names were changed as the feeling of the park turned to something new.

That was enough to bother locals. But then came some of the worst. Cedar Fair had no interest in running a zoological park.

The SeaWorld / Wildlife side of the park was shuttered immediately, leaving only [Shamu’s] Happy Harbor (a play area of climbing nets, midway games, and family flat rides) as well as the park’s motion simulator and a “4D” theatre on the northern side of the lake. Still, the stadiums and aquaria of the marine park continued to stand empty, walled off from guests – a very certain reminder of what had been for any visited the park. After decades as a treasured local attraction, the marine park / zoo that had been SeaWorld was closed forever, yet was still standing behind fences. Ouch. 

In 2006 – just a few years after taking control of Geauga Lake – Cedar Fair purchased the Paramount Parks chain for a staggering $1.24 billion. Interestingly, that deal gave them complete control of Ohio’s four parks, which had previous been Paramount’s Kings Island, Six Flags Ohio, SeaWorld Ohio and their own Cedar Point. Monopolizing Ohio’s line-up, Cedar Fair was no doubt proud. But the purchase had also plunged them into staggering debt.

Waves of change (2006)

The new Geauga Lake was making no fans in the local community who stared at the skeletal remnants of SeaWorld on each visit and failed to warm to their favorite rides being hastily renamed. So in their second year at the helm, Cedar Fair leveled much of the ghost town SeaWorld had become and began to install a new water park. The complex officially changed its name to GEAUGA LAKE & WILDWATER KINGDOM in 2006, as the itty-bitty new water park co-existed with the remnants of Six Flags’ Hurricane Harbor (de-branded as Hurricane Hannah’s) that continued to operate back on the Six Flags side. Yep, two small water parks. 

 

As Cedar Fair balanced its budget sheet, decisions were made. For one, Geauga Lake started to come apart, literally. In 2006, a publicized “Phase II” expansion of Wildwater Kingdom failed to take shape. Only a wave pool opened at the still-miniscule water park, coinciding with the closure of a wave pool and the rest of Hurricane Hannah’s on the dry park side (a net loss if you’re counting).

Much, much worse, X-Flight and Steel Venom, two of the park’s signature coasters from the expansion just six years earlier, were removed and relocated to Kings Island and Dorney Park, respectively, touted as new additions at each. (They continue to operate as Firehawk and Possessed at their respective new homes).

Cedar Fair, in fairness, was undertaking a necessary evil: reverting Geauga Lake back to the local-based family park it used to be. But of course, that’s not how it felt to fans who already had a distaste for the company's treatment of the wildlife park and the de-branding of the park's stories and themes. (Many also noted that dismantling two of the park’s signature rides lessened competition with their own flagship Cedar Point, just a few hours away – coincidence of course… right?)

A forgotten farewell (2007)

2007 proved even worse. The park’s historic Raging Wolf Bobs wooden coaster closed early in the season, which had already been restricted to summer-only, eliminating the Halloween and spring events that had become local traditions. And that was bad, but it was nothing compared to what happened next.

The park finished off the season on September 16, 2007, shutting down for a well-deserved winter break.

Five days later, on Friday, September 21, 2007, Cedar Fair announced that Geauga Lake would never open again. Literally less than a week after the park closed for the season, its fate was announced. There were no goodbyes. No last rides. No apologies. No final tours or memorial events. No last chance for photos. Nothing. Cedar Fair would later argue that they simply hadn't made the final decision until after the park's seasonal closure, but fans still argue (justifiably) that they deserved some warning; some chance to make their last memories in a park that was 120 years old.

Imagine that. Imagine if your local park closed for the season, and five days later, you were told it would never open again. It wrenches the hearts of those who grew up here, and whose great-great-grandparents had been the first visitors. Truthfully, it's a lasting wound that will never close completely. That's why the very mention of Geauga Lake still draws painful looks from those who know the industry and the park that was.

Six years after becoming the world’s largest theme park, only a fraction of the property around Geauga Lake would re-open in 2008 – the water park Cedar Fair had built on the remains of SeaWorld. Cedar Fair’s spokesperson nervously reported to local news that Cedar Fair had determined that “the market demand wasn’t there to support the park as structured. … We believe the park will be most successful operating exclusively as a water park.”

Geauga Lake wasn’t just closed. It was scrapped. Any relocatable coasters were moved, finding new homes at Kings Dominion (Batman: Knight Flight, as Dominator), Carowinds (Mind Eraser, later Head Spin, as Carolina Cobra), and Michigan’s Adventure (Serial Thriller, as Thunderhawk). Flat rides, too, found their way to the chain’s other parks. The Villain – just seven years old – was sold as scrap to the tune of $30,000. So was the Raging Wolf Bobs coaster. The park opened its gates just once more, as chronicled in this heartbreaking album of photos taken at the auctioning of the park's remaining resources.

Then everything from food stands to gift shops were ransacked and cut to their foundations, with copper, plumbing, and infrastructure torn out. Obliterated. The iconic red-brick entry with its decorative teal towers was reduced to the turnstiles alone, seemingly only to spare Cedar Fair from the backlash of seeing those towers crumble on their own.

Image: Jeremy Thompson, Flickr (license)

In its 120th year, Geauga Lake was no more.

The park was, quite literally, bulldozed. To fly over it today is to see its paths, still arranged into its themed lands, making their way around concrete building foundations and ride footings among overgrown wilderness. Not even a restroom remains standing. The only attraction left is the Big Dipper, still upright from 1925. It was the third oldest operating roller coaster in the U.S. when the park closed. As for the remains of the water park? Here's the real kicker.

 
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Comments

it is pronounced gee-aw-guh, not gee-ah-guh. i've never heard anyone pronounce it that way. never.

Cedar Fair also debranded King's Island after they bought it & stopped sending brochures to the interstate info centers. They are slowly killing it too.. Sad I always preferred the old King's Island to Cedar Point

The size of this park is greatly exaggerated. The only thing that is for sure is the pond is 60 acres. Now look at the park maps. Why would a 60 acre pond take up half of the map?

We lived in Bedford as a kid from '68 through 1973 and to us kids back then, Geauga Lake/Sea World was as close as you could get to paradise. It's a crime, what they did to our park.

This article is grood but a am incomplete story, the end of the story really, that includes Euclid Beach Park, Puritas Park, and Chippewa Lake Park. Someone needs to tell the whole story why Cleveland has no amusement parks any longer.

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