ThrillNetwork member Katie attended the Save the Dipper meeting this past weekend and comes to us with this report. 

Let me just start off by saying the Save the Dipper town hall meeting I felt was a very good start to what will be a long and winding road to get where the Dipper should run again or at least be memorialized somewhere. 

We drove to Aurora to the VFW, early Saturday morning to help set up what we could for the town hall meeting. I was very surprised at the memorabilia that was presented to the public. People had everything from scrap books of old pictures and newspaper articles all the way up to Geauga Dog’s head (from the costume) and ride wheels and harnesses. 

The turn out was a lot more then I expected. I thought, maybe 50 people would care enough about the park and coaster to show up (most I thought would be from GeaugaLakeToday.com). No, I was proven wrong!!! There were a lot of older people that came wanting to know what happened to the park they used to frequent back in the early days before The Cedar Fair era, Six Flags, or even Funtime!

There were three guest speakers at the town hall meeting. One was Charles Jacques. You might recognize him from the TV special in the 80’s called Kennywood Memories. He also has authored two books. One is about Kennywood and the other about the defunct WestView Park located outside of Pittsburgh. He is now working on a book about Geauga Lake with a working title of “The Fun is Back!” He spoke very fondly of his memories of Big Dipper and other rides at the park. It seemed as if he was really saddened about what had happened. 

Jim Futrell was also at the meeting. He gave a wonderful presentation of the Funtime era of the park from capital expenditures to rides and into the acquisition of the park to Six Flags Inc. It was very interesting to see what the owners back then thought of the park. Dipper was really its anchor back in its heyday. Jim Futrell is the author of many books including Amusement Parks of PA, NY, NJ and so on. You can find any of these books on Amazon.com. 

The ACE preservation Director Howard Gillooly also did a presentation about what the Dipper can be used for for future development. They made suggestions such as mixed usage (shops and amusement rides), family entertainment centers or as a non-profit organization. There were a few other options, but these three really would be the best bet for this coaster to have a future in my opinion. 

One thing the meeting lacked was the lack of any government officials in the meeting to see what could be done, there was no question taking, nor any real solutions as to what could happen with the Dipper or the land surrounding it. It really seemed like preserving the memories rather then a meeting to figure out how to start preserving this coaster and finding out if the owner (who still has not been identified) is going to do anything with his purchase. 

It is really hard to ask questions in this kind of situation with no one real person to answer them. Cedar Fair as well as the coaster owner’s representative (Tom Woosnam) was invited to join in, possibly speaking on behalf of either party, but I saw no one from either side to ask any questions to. 

I do honestly hope in the future that local officials, as well as Cedar Fair and the coaster owner would really open up to the public as to what they want to do with the coaster and land. Maybe that would ease the mind of the locals as to what happened to their beloved  park where they had so much fun and which lasted for over 118 years. 

After the meeting, my family and I drove around the park to get one last look before they started any more demolition. Big Dipper is still very much intact, like it was waiting for the patrons to come through the gate at any time. The front part of the park was left quite a mess of concrete (where coaster footers were) and almost left for abandonment. There were very only a few buildings still standing. 

We drove around to the back, still seeing a ton of abandoned rides and such. Raging Wolf Bobs is still standing except the track they ripped apart from the station to the lift hill. It was a very sad site to see in all honesty. It seemed like the park wanted people to come in, but with all the nothingness that seems to be around I just know in my heart that it will never be. 

Click here for Katie’s photos from the event.

Tags: Big Dipper, geauga lake