News: Bell's Amusement Park begins dismantling Zingo

Posted at 4:25 PM EST (2125 GMT)

Feb. 27th, 2007 -- Since the middle of January, Bell's Amusement Park in Tulsa, OK has been dismantling its rides and midway in preparation for a possible relocation.

The park's most iconic attraction, the 39-year old Zingo wooden roller coaster, will be dismantled in a time frame of 12 weeks and an estimated five months to rebuild in its new location.

Park owner Robby Bell said his father paid $240,000 in 1968 to build the ride and to have a modern day replica of the ride built today would easily cost $3 million. As a result, the ride is being dismantled piece by piece like an erector set with most of the roller coaster's structural parts retained for storage, while the ride's trackbed (laminated track sections) will be discarded.

With so much work left to do and the nearing deadline of March 8, Bell hopes the fairgrounds will allow for an extension.