Retro Photo TR: Geauga Lake

More pics from the vault. These are of Geauga Lake mid 80's pre Six Flags takeover and destruction.

Corkscrew. They were notorious for letting the ride run with the restraints locked but not pushed down!

Corkscrew and Big Dipper

Double Loop

The Wave. at the time one of the largest wave pools in the country

Big Dipper

Niiiice!! Corkscrew ran with harnesses in the up position? Never saw that happen before. Thank you for sharing. Still miss the park a lot, especially on days when I want a quick coaster fix.

Wow, very cool. I never went to this park (at any stage of it's existence) but it's always awesome to see old pics.

Thanks for sharing.

This is good stuff, thanks for sharing. I visited GL in '07, it's last season of operation and it was sad to see the Sea World side of things sitting abandoned. I'm glad they decided to keep Wildwater Kingdom open as it seemed to be popular when I was there.

Like these retro park reports. Nice!

Classic Arrow transition right there!

 

Classic Arrow transition right there!

I see nothing wrong here. *goes back to playing with coat hangers*

Great pics John. I grew up going to GL starting in the late 80s so I remember a lot of this.

Awesome! I grew up at this place... The POV views of corkscrew are like dejavu... Thanks for sharing!

That Big Dipper looks really special. I wonder if anyone ever stepped up to try to save it.

I seriously think that somebody should save what they can of Big Dipper. Of course, sitting for over 5 years without any maintenance work isn't very good.

Thanks for the classic pictures of Geauga Lake. I first went there in 1999 when it was Six Flags over Ohio, then a year later when it was renamed Six Flags World of Adventure. My last time was in 2005 when Cedar Point took over and renamed it Geauga Lake once more. That last visit could've been considered a sad-event-yet-to-come because the park was nearly deserted. Little did I know that three rides from that park would be transferred to Kings Dominion: Dominator, Americana, and another ride in which I cannot remember what it was called, but it sucked mud water and I'm glad they put Windseeker in it's place.

But it's still sad that Villian, Double Looper, and The Big Dipper couldn't be transferred.

I didnt realize the Big Dipper had ever been painted white

I miss this park. I went in 1998. I absolutely loved Big Dipper. It was such a good ride. Double Loop was pretty fun too.

^ To the best of my knowledge, I think it's still standing. It was such a great ride with thick padded seats and lots of airtime! I really miss it!

Thanks so much for these photos! I remember going to this park in the year Raging Wolf Bobs opened. Funny how I saw those two Arrow rides as so intimidating at the time ( I didn't ride a looping coaster until I was 15).

That aside, I love how both double loop and corkscrew were painted simple black, instead of the multicolored mess that double loop got towards the end of the park's life. So 80's in its own wonderful way.