Back in the day, Geauga Lake Amusment Park was bustling and busy, and home of many a fond memory for northeast Ohio natives.
But since the park (which switched to the name Six Flags in 2000) closed some seven years ago, it’s become a mere shadow of its former self and, today, the old park looks more like something straight out of The Walking Dead than a fun-for-the-whole-family thrill park.
Here are some photos of the old abandoned park, many pulled from this awesome Facebook page. We want to know: what was your favorite memory from the park by the lake?
This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2014.
Omg… so sad this was my first part time job at 14
We went every year when I was a kid my dads worked for Lincoln Electric they had their picnics there omg what a blast from my past lol always loved the old wooden coasters The Big Dipper was the best
so sad… I use to live at this park all summer long. maybe one someone will come back reinvest and make it a amazing park again
My favorite was The Wave
What bothers me the most is that I feel like they announced that the park was closing a week before it happened. I never had time to go back for one last visit! Seriously, so sad. Besides my traumatic experience of almost drowning in the wave pool when an obese lady with a baby in her arms on an inner tube floated over me and dragged me along the bottom of the pool, I loved this place. Raging Wolf Bobs, Demon Drop, “Batman” and The Villain were my favorites. I miss walking to Sea World and climbing the nets too!
It’s so sad…reminds me of idora park hearing of its demise…
Lovr that park went there every yrs it so sad they havr to close it it was fun park
Wow many memories .. kinda sad to see it now….
I remember working there from 1992-95. I was a ride operator (worked mostly on the coasters the last 3 years) and seeing the people laugh as they came off the ride, put a smile on my face. Sure, there a few idiot people who wanted their kid to ride, even though they were too short, so I became the bad guy, overall, it is still my favorite place to have work. I wish I could turn back the clock to relive that experience again.
I remember the music by the original wave pool.. hey Mickey, Walk like an Egyptian… they always played the best songs. Now when.i hear those songs I go back to Geauga Lake get kinda sad that it isn’t there. It was a great park and loved all the rides. Texas Twister was one of the best rides as was the Mind Eraser. Please revive this park 🙂
I remember taking the kids to Halloween at the park. My youngest tried to be brave but the haunted houses scared the crap out of her and she would run from the Zombies as they came for her. She cut so many people in the ride lines and it wasn’t because she was being mean. LOL.
My family went every year. I don’t know why it closed but could not have be from low attendance because it was always packed. Hours and hours to get on rides! Well worth the wait. So sad!!
I went there just about every year with my family. Had some wonderful memories there. Loved the raging wolf bobs and shipwreck fall. They were the best rides to me.
Since there was no mention of the person having permission to enter the park for the photographs, I guess you condone trespassing?
THE ROTOR MAN!
It was great that you could hit Geauga Lake and Sea World all in the same day if you wanted to. Wow, I’m sitting here having flash-backs of my childhood and early teenage years. Those times really were great. Whales, otters, dolphins, the Double Loop, Big Dipper and Texas Twister … enough said. What the heck happened to NE Ohio since we were kids? All it takes is the right people with the right motives and amount of money to revamp places like this. For the sake of my fellow Ohioans, whom I’m now separated from, I hope it happens.
This is soo sad I loved this place growing up
Such a shame! Rebuild it, bring it back to how it used to be, seaworld and all!!!! What a waste …
So sad to see such a great place in such shambles. I use to go there all the time as a kid and as an adult. I hope some day they can bring the good ol’ place back to life. It brings tears to my eyes to see that place like that such a shame. But nonetheless I have great memories…..
Oh man it was the best. My big sister would take me and my friend Jayne to the park. She would go on the wooden roller coaster with me get off then go on with Jayne, then get off and do it all over again with both of us.
I loved looking over at Sea World wanting to go there next. I miss both of those beautiful old parks.
It appears that the Scene Magazine has no problem stealing photos to put on their website. There is not proper attribution and I am not sure that these images were released by the rightful owner.
The Big Dipper was my first coaster. My best friend and I had to psyche ourselves up for it, and afterward, we got right back on. Grad night was here, too. It makes me so sad to think that it is gone.
why doesnt sumone buy it and open it back up i know i would go no matter what how bout anyone else
So many wonderful memories from this place. Does it strike anyone else odd that cedar fair (the owners of cedar point) bought this park and let it die?
Cedar Fair (the owners of cedar point) bought this park and Kennywood in PA, and deliberately closed Geauga Lake to drive business to Kennywood and Cedar Point. FACT
This place was my first job. I even have a scar on my left leg when I feel into that brakes on the Big Dipper. I even had sex for the first time in that park ;)… Oh the memories.
Yes the Cedar Fair people ruined all of this for everyone. When I heard who bought it I knew it would eventually be shut down. Those are terrible people which is why I refuse to go to cedar point or kennywood.
I don’t understand why they closed… it was an awesome park when I was growing up. Now it is all wasted and just sitting there! They should have not closed it, just have it open on the weekends! I wish somebody would buy the park and reopen it. ; (
well I wrote that too fast before I read the other post. I did not know they bought it over! Oh that is wrong !
I still have the souvenir photo of me on the Big Dipper circa June ’97.
I grew up going here. Now I wanna film a horror movie in it. 🙂
I hated the place. When Six Flags and Cedar Fair owned it, they obviously tried to update it and make it cool. I think the biggest mistake was not taking a bulldozer to many of the carnival rides they still kept, along with the roller coaster made of lumber wood holding hands by the water. I think Cedar Fair should bulldoze everything that’s left on the property and build an entirely new park.
I went there w my older bro’s company picnic for CEI every year my favorites were the carousel and tramp ride all over the park my oldest bro came w us too and won me a blue smurf from the concession stands .
Dear chinaclipper… please research the definition of the word fact… as cedar fair does not nor has ever owned kennywood.. please double check your sources before spreading gossip as gospel
Part of the reason GL closed was six flags pumped too much money into it in an effort to compete with cedar point. Six flags was already a financially unstable company at that time so when GL didnt turn a profit quick enough they sold it to Cedar Fair. Six flags didnt realize that GL catered to a certain market.. they tried to make it a thrill park which they couldnt do on the level of CP. When I wanted thrills I went to CP.. when I wanted a fun family park I went to GL. I hate the way dick kenzel closed the park without announcing it before the season was over so people could get one last ride.
And as I stated before idk where the rumor came from but Cedar Fair does not own Kennywood.
Long live GL
I grew up this park as well, my dad worked for American ship building and the company picnics were usually held here, if they had a decent year, bad years we went to Chippewa lake which was so small we did the whole park in about an hour.. 🙁 If we were really really lucky once in a blue moon it was cedar point.. It was great when I was able to take my own kids there and relive my childhood fights with them.. My youngest daughter Is afraid of coasters, the only one we’ve ever been able to get her on (& she’s 24 now) was the big dipper. I guess it didn’t seem so menacing as most of today’s coasters to her.. but we did bribe her with a very tall fuzzy blue hat that she wanted from a shop there in GL.. lol.. so sad that it’s gone, now my grandchildren will never share these experiences..
I lived less than a half hour from here in Portage County and often went to GLP. I took one of my guitar players on one excursion and he had ‘prepared’ too exuberantly. It took the poor GLP maintenance crew 20 minutes to clean out the first ride he went on. Still feel sorry for them and still laugh thinking of Marty’s face when he crawled out of the ride.
So heart-breaking !!!!!!!!!!!! I was there back when I was a teenager, visiting relatives in West Virginia and had a blast !!!!! 46 years-old now, but remember it like it was yesterday. Disappointed that the wave pool wasn’t working at the time, but still had plenty of fun. Wish they would have just torn it completely down instead of letting it sit there and wilt away in despair. A lot like Opryland U.S.A. in Nashville, they sold-off all the rides and tore down the rest. Then they built a mega-freaking shopping mall………just what we needed, another mall ??? R.I.P. Geauga Lake……..maybe one day someone will breathe life back in to you ???
I remember a bunch of fat out of shape girls working here when I visited. Now all I see are a bunch of FAT HOGS wishing they could go back, & slob on a corn dog… GREAT!
My parents would take me there every summer. We would stay at a hotel and spend one day at Geuaga Lake and one day at Sea World. Great memories. I remember you could see the roller coasters from across the lake at Sea World’s ski show. Geauga Lake was were I overcame my fear of roller coasters. I ran the whole table at the age of 9 and I was so proud of myself. My dad and I rode the Raging Wolf Bobs last and I remember how much it would throw you around. We went there for the last time in 2000. We had no idea it would be the last. I miss it very much and these pics make me very sad.
I was a deputy sheriff assigned there at post 3. A lot of very fond memories there and so sad to see it like this. I was there during the six flag days
Omg I didn’t even know they closed down..I went there so many times as a kid..this is very sad..someone should reopen this park really..
Well its stupid that they’d buy it and let it die to drive business to the other two parks. I live right by Kennywood and have been there a million times and now its boring. I’d rather drive two hours this go to Geauga Lake. So on a day that I feel like going to the park, I’ll probably just find something else to do because Kennywood is expensive now for what it is (not worth going more than once a year anymore), Geauga Lake isnt there anymore, and Cedar Point is just a little too far away for a day trip. So.. To close one park to try to drive business to another might work if they were close to each other, but in this case it was a stupid idea and they really just lost potential business. Bring back GL (or SF)!
Wow!! Was such a staple of summertime entertainment!! Went every summer with my season pass as a child. Worked as a lifeguard at The Wave and the slides when I became older. It’s a shame that they closed it! Someone needs to bring it back!
I drove from Sandusky, Ohio to go to Geauga Lake because it was raining in Sandusky. Needless to say it ended up raining there too. I myself didn’t really care for Geauga Lake, it was too small, felt like I was at the fair.
I whet there a lot it suck its not there they sould bring it back have some one come in and fix it up or buy the lot and make something there its a whast throw all that lot away
Kennywood is not owned by Ceder Fair nor was it ever owned by them although I do not dispute the fact that Ceder fair bought Geauga Lake just to shut it down so it would be less competition for Ceder Point
Loved going there. Last time we went my daughter was just 4 in 2003. She can’t even remember it! Lol
I too worked there – the summer after 10th grade through my first summer home from college. It was such a fun place to work because of all the other kids from nearby high schools who I felt more free to be myself around than the kids at my own high school. My favorite memory – so many but probably Terri (can’t remember her last name) coming up to me during the 1974 staff party and planting a huge kiss on me in front of everyone on the deck of the Wharf. I didn’t really think girls liked me much during high school so that was a huge ego boost and Terri was pretty cute too! Kevin Hennessy, summers of 71-74
We use to stay over night in the campgrounds the night before going into the park . The first time we stayed none of us could sleep so we stayed up all night and still had a blast at the park ! I remember carving my initials on the wood of the roller coaster while waiting in line just like everyone else . I can also still hear the Beach Boys playing by the water park !
i am a 9 year old and I have gone to wild water kingdom with my mom and saw one of the ride hills still standing that’s sad to you guys and me I think I would’ve had fun there
Miss this park so much. Grew up all my life going to this park. Worked there in 90 & 91 as a water attandant. Time of my life! What’s up to Sisson, Spocoilli, and gang….Chris
My mom’s best friend worked for ltv steel, and they had their company picnics there as well. Every year we got to go, have so many memories there, and is a shame to look like it does.
Loved going here as a kid..both parks, one day, such simple times.
I luved Geauga Lake. Every summer we took my daughter there and we had a blast. It was a one day riad trip that would become a very important memory. My daughter is grown with children of her own and I always thought we would be coming back as s family year after year to make more memories. It’s so sad I wish they would bring it back. Signed a mom and a grandma( Terri Stallsmith)