People having fun at Idora Park -Youngstown, Ohio, USA. Some of the rides. Filmed in 1983-1984. Idora never recovered from the fire in April of 1984. A welding torch was being used to repair leaks in the metal waterway of the Lost River ride. During lunch, fire started from a spark! Nobody noticed the fire until it had grown out of control. Patrick L. Duffy Jr., Idora president and manager, announced the closing on Aug. 28, 1984. With the loss of the Wildcat coaster and the Lost River (mill chute) ride, park attendance plunged. " Although we lost only two rides, people somehow got the idea that most of the park was destroyed by the fire, so they quit coming ", said Duffy. " The fire only hastened the inevitable. Like every other business in the valley, we were hurt bad by the steel mill closings. The loss of 50,000 jobs really broke the local economy. We've operated in the red the last two seasons. We were going downhill fast ", said Duffy. Before the fire happened, he believed that Idora Park could rebound. Even though part of the Wildcat was saved, the lowest bid he got to rebuild it was $900,000. " And it would have taken a million and a half to replace the Lost River. We couldn't have recovered that on our attendance, which was down to 200,000 in 1983. There just wasn't enough money in the settlement to rebuild even one of the rides; not with the way costs are today ", said Duffy. The rides and equipment were auctioned in October of 1984. The park's ballroom remained open to fulfill bookings until mid 1986.
7 окт 2024
