A Look Back & a Peek Ahead:
Geauga Lake Amusement Park
An Essay by Mike Olszewski
A few months ago, I was driving down Route 43 in Aurora and glanced toward a wide expanse of land where earthmovers cleared weeds and overgrown trees, pieces of a concrete parking lot peeking through the debris.
It’s a jarring, ignoble end for Geauga Lake amusement park, which closed in 2007, followed by the adjoining Sea World/Wildwater Kingdom in 2016. Straddling both Aurora and Bainbridge Township, the property soon will have apartments, retail stores and homes.
“Let’s pick up our friends and do amusement parks USA” -The Beach Boys
Geauga Lake’s history as an amusement park goes back to the late 1800s. As people became more mobile, trains
brought crowds of Northeast Ohioans to the dance halls, picnic areas and cottages that lined Geauga Lake. The park even hosted an occasional professional baseball game, featuring the Cleveland Forest Citys.
It wasn’t long before a carousel went up, drawing long lines and nudging the owners to add new attractions. They installed an Olympic-sized pool where world-class swimmer Johnny Weismuller (later the star of the Tarzan movie series) set a 220-yard freestyle record in front of 3,000 spectators.
When the famed Big Dipper roller coaster opened in the 1920s, Geauga Lake was no longer a romantic getaway. It was on its way to becoming one of the nation’s legendary amusement parks.
“The amusement park rises bold and stark” -Bruce Springsteen
Geauga Lake soon became a traditional summer stopover with traffic often jammed for miles, backing up to the center of Aurora, thanks to company picnics, church outings and crowds of fans who packed the park daily.
From the time you entered the gate, you were immersed in the total park experience: The sound of the slow clack of cars climbing the roller coaster’s hills followed by a tsunami of screams as it raced to the bottom. The air smelled of French fries, popcorn and cotton candy, its sugary aroma so sweet, it made your teeth gritty.
Kids raced from the Raging Wolf Bobs to the bumper cars, later dragging reluctant parents to the souvenir stands.
In the late 1960s, more than 100,000 people were at the park when radio station WIXY 1260 held its Appreciation Day concert featuring The 5th Dimension, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, Every Mother’s Son, and — in his Northeast Ohio debut — Neil Diamond. Arguably, it was the biggest outdoor rock concert audience until Woodstock, though how many were there just for the rides is unknown.
“This used to be my playground” -Madonna
The park had a lot of life left in it as rival Euclid Beach Park closed its doors and Cedar Point attracted fans with
elaborate roller coasters (though it was a long ride to Sandusky). SeaWorld across the lake helped attract crowds with a one-two punch, but it wasn’t enough.
The only constant is change, and entertainment trends are no different. Various owners poured money into the park as crowds continued to shrink. By 2007, Geauga Lake ended its long run as one of the area’s prime attractions. The traffic jams, fireworks and roar of park attendees gave way to open roads, clear skies and relative silence. Buildings came down, rides were sold off to other parks and people looked at the acres of weeds growing through the parking lot pavement and wondered, “What’s next?”
“Welcome to the future” -Brad Paisley
It took careful planning and the promise of plenty of funding to bring us to where we are today. Some of the area’s most prestigious developers announced plans in 2020 for retail space and housing with street names honoring its past as an amusement park. Construction is expected to begin later this year on the initial phase of the project.
The earthmovers and construction equipment at the site today are the first steps in that ambitious project stretching into both Bainbridge and Aurora. An Ohio landmark plaque marks the site outlining its rich history, but as is true when things try to represent memories, a plaque can never recreate the enthusiasm, excitement and energy shared by the thousands who spent time at Geauga Lake.
All vintage photos courtesy The Cleveland Memory Project
