Geauga Lake: The Worlds Largest Abandoned Theme Park 

I grew up with my parents divorced. My mom's side regularly went to Cedar Point, and my father's side regularly went to Geauga Lake. I live in the Sandusky area now, so I'm super close to Cedar Point, but my heart breaks when I think of all the memories we had at Geauga Lake. I remember the very last time I was there, I was walking across the long bridge that runs across the lake. The Beatles were playing over the speakers, and I stopped and just took it all in for a second. What a beautiful park, I thought. The happiest place I could think of. It was almost like a heads up from the universe, "Take it all in while you can!"

I was a ride operator there from 1997-2000... I worked the Texas Twister, Raging Wolf Bob, a site controller for the sky coaster, and Double Loop before they switched to Six Flags. Then I did the Batman Night Flight.

I grew up in Akron and have so many memories of this Park. We used to go for the Chrysler picnic every summer

"In 2000... When I was born." Thanks for making me feel super old. 😂

I loved that park so much! Being from Pittsburgh, it was only a few hours away, and I enjoyed going there, and Cedar Point, and Kings Island… I went to all three all the time. This park did not deserve what was done to it. I was so upset when it closed.

I feel you left out a big reason the park failed, *the closing of the sea animal area/seaworld section.* That was the unique draw to the area that brought the families. There are other theme parks in the region (Cedar Point, Kings Island, Kennywood, etc) but it was the only seaworld like park until you hit Florida (unless you want to count the trash can that was Marineworld in Canada). When Cedar Fair, not wanting to deal with animals, closed that section it caused an unrecoverable, catastrophic drop in attendance. With the plummet in attendance they couldn't justify investing in the park to fix the infrastructure problems from the rapid expansion, nor adding new attractions to draw people back. Cedar Fair very likely bought the park with the goal to downsize it to more like what it used to be before premie bought it (to be more sustainable, and also less competition for Cedar Point). But they underestimated the damage that dropping the animal section would cause.

I believe it was in the late 90's. I think 1999. I went with my sister,her husband and their children. The reason for our trip was we all had 3-day passes for Cedar Point. We couldn't get a hotel right by Cedar Point, but we got one close. It turned out it happened to be very near Geauga Lake and SeaWorld. We made the decision to stay 2 extra days to enjoy those two parks. We spent one whole day at Geauga Lake and we had such a good time. My brother-in-law and I are both roller coaster enthusiasts, so we rode each coaster at least three or four times. I have very, very fond memories of Geauga Lake We spent the next day atSeaWorld We really enjoyed Seaworld. We got to see an Awesome Dolphin show. We spent Our Last 3 days/Evening Cedar Point. Untli it closed.

I grew up outside of Cleveland and loved going to Geauga Lake in the 70's. I also remember a school field trip to Sea World.

This was incredibly well done. Good job, boo. I had no idea coming in to it that I'd end up in tears. So much of my childhood memory is entangled in this local treasure.

The park did well as a second fiddle to Sea World. Once Sea World left, the traffic ended in Aurora. Geauga Lake was a side show, and a great one! But the main attraction was the only Sea World in the north.

This video just came across my feed. So glad it did! I enjoyed the memories! Thank you!!

I grew up a half hour away. Season passes in the summer(02-04 I believe) it was my childhood. Wish it was still around.

What a great park I only got to visit once. Had a terrific time. Such a loss.

I remember sitting at Sea World, bored, looking across the Lake at the double loop

I live Down by canton and never got to experience this park but my mom, dad, grandma and grandpa all told me they loved it here and it’s where they all rode their first coasters and that it was a nice and local place to go. I drive past the lot now sometimes when I’m in the area and just look at it and I just get sad

In the late '70s through the 90s Geauga Lake was a great affordable park for families that had a great selection of rides and didn't break the bank as much as Cedar Point. It also drew a large crowd from a lot of union and company picnics there on the weekends. (It was easy to spot them as they would often wear matching t-shirts) I remember my family bringing a cooler and picnic basket and placing them on the picnic tables around the Double Loop and then going and riding rides and then we would meet at the picnic table for lunch and dinner. I have a lot of good memories there. Geauga Lake's Corkscrew was the first roller coaster I rode on with my dad. Geauga Lake's mistake was that the management didn't stick with this successful formula and tried to compete with the bigger parks and be something they were not capable of being for some of the reasons mentioned in this video.

I didn't get much of a chance to visit before the Six Flags takeover, with mime being a Great America family. But in 2003, I got a Six Flags Season Pass, and that scored me a few visits. One thing I found interesting for the park was introducing a Q-bot line system to not wait in lines. At the same time, if you didn't mind the initial walk to scan everything to never wait in line or stop riding.

I grew up going to Geauga Lake, mid 50's to the late 60's. Every start of summer the school I attended had Geauga lake day, usually the last week of school before summer break. I can still see the Dutch Shoes just after entering the park under the coaster. The Dodge em cars were just to the right of the main entrance and loved driving them while watching their antennas drag on the expanded metal above sparking like crazy. The old Fun House that reeked of the roaring 20's with the old Fortune Teller in the glass walled box. The mirrors that distorted you body in reflection and the spinning barrel, trying to go throught is without falling. The tehthered rocket ride going in circles and then lunch in the old pavallions lakeside. Great times! Was able to take my kids to GL, once before it closed. The closing was a sad affair as many great memories of family and fun were made there.

I grew up in Aurora. Lived there from 1980 to 1992. We had season passes every year. We went there and to See World all the time. We moved to Pennsylvania, but I still made the 2 hour drive twice a month to the park. My favorite rollercoaster was the Batman. X-Flight was awesome too. I remember watching my parents ride the Double Loop over and over again when I was little in the 80s.

I lived north of Pittsburgh and my family loved this park. I especially loved the Big Dipper and the vintage park atmosphere. The last time I went was sometime in 2003 or ‘04 for the Halloween event.

Awesome first video! Thanks for putting all this together!

great video! Would love to see a video ranking all of the former Geauga lake rides

my family worked for what we had, so we didnt do much traveling growing up. We lived about 30 mins away, so this was my disney world.

Great video, I really miss going there. Lived about 40 minutes north and spent many summer days there.

Villain was an amazing,highly underrated ride and technically a reverse RMC hybrid.

I live right around the corner from GL. I had so much fun!

Great video man! I use to make documentary style videos like this and the hardest part was always find the footage but I can tell you put a lot of effort into this, good stuff 🔥

Awesome documentary on the park. Thanks for sharing

So excited to have a new channel to watch!!! Great production quality, came from Tiktok 👍

It is amazing to see how much material goes into those really tall wooden coasters. You could build a highway bridge across the Mississippi with less!

Have not yet watched the video to completion, but my favorite memories involved being in the first or last car of the Big Dipper when I was tall enough. Made it a point for some reason to ride silently. Anyway at the front car you would get everything first, the back car would toss you around a lot as in you probably be bleeding somewhere. The safety bars were not very good so not holding them could probably toss you out of your car. I always raised my hands anyway, I was a kid back then. I started to only use the last car as most people wouldn't so I would have the car to myself.

So sad! I grew up in Cleveland and Euclid Beach and Geauga Are we’re parks we visited all the time. My dad’s union had their annual picnic in Geauga Lake. I loved that old wooden coasters but I left Ohio in 66 so misses some of the more recent rides. It’s too bad it shut down so suddenly! Sounds like mismanagement there. It used to be a really nice area but not so sure of it now. Would’ve loved to ride some of those other coasters!

Was there as a kid and back as an adult. Still amazing

This place was huge for me in my childhood in the 80s and early 90s. My main complaint about sf was that the ride side just wasn't designed for huge crowds. I really enjoyed it as sixflags Worlds of Adventure. It was cool to visit both parks as 1. I think the park would still be here if SeaWorld bought it or if CF didn't buy the paramount parks. I'm not sure about Aroura not being able handle the crowds I'm pretty sure Geauga and SeaWorld brought similar combined attendance. Great video!

My childhood! We use to go to this park all the time before 6 Flags took it over.

I used to go on roller coasters as a child all the time we would go to Florida, cedar point all different places as a family. And I stopped riding them forever ago and just got back into going to amusement parks in 2020. I wish I never stopped since so many rides I would have loved to ride I missed out out. Seems like I’m the near future we are going to lose a lot more parks/rides. I hope not. Going to a theme park with family or friends just doesn’t get any better. I hope more people take interest into amusement parks.

I worked there in 2004! It was a summer job just for a bit of extra money. Raging Wolf Bobs and the Double Loop were my favorites!

Grew up in Western PA. Our elementary school had an annual trip their for 6th grade. With my Mom being heavily involved in PTO stuff, I was able to go to Geauga quite a few times. Great memories.

I remember going to GL in the late 1960's when it was still the old family style part. Loved the rocket ride. Later in the mid 1980's we went to Sea World at time or two.

When you grew up in aurora ohio and seasons passes where 50.00$ you spent your whole summer here

I'm not sure I'll ever forgive CF not necessarily for shutting the park down [which wasn't solely their fault that it became less profitable of course and also it could be argued the park had over-expanded and the local infrastructure just wasn't up to the task] but rather the way they went about it. No announcement, no last visits or last rides, just bam, season's over and by the way the park's closing for good. Also leaving Big Dipper to rot. I'm not a big roller coaster guy but even I can see the charm and historical value in preserving that machine for future generations and they let it rot until it became a public safety hazard and had it unceremoniously ripped down. Haven't been to Cedar Point once in my entire life as a result, Geauga Lake was my family's summer trip park. We started going in 2003 and only had a few years to get more visits in but I'll likely remember them for the rest of my life, shame that so many people who grew up with this park now can't share it with their children and younger relatives. Thanks for making this video, it's a real 'sore spot' for a lot of people in Ohio which is an underrated state in general and I'm glad to see so many other people had the opportunity to make great memories with this park. EDIT: Also you are absolutely right to say security was tight after it was abandoned, myself and a group including my girlfriend at the time were big into urbex/abandoned stuff and got in one time, got run off by a guy in a golf cart who was very angry. People got arrested for trespassing and I remember hearing they had motion sensors and trail cameras set up which seems... a little excessive perhaps? But yeah, hands down a difficult urbex site.

A season pass was like 70$ way cheaper than a babysitter so my dad would drop me off like every day in the summer before work and pick me up at night. In 2000 and 2001 when it was 6 flags.

We lived just 5 miles from both Geauga Lake and Sea World in the mid 70’s. I enjoyed both. Sad that it went away.

The park closed the same year I was born... Never heard of it until a few years ago...

Thank you for making this video. I grew up going to Geauga Lake every summer being a resident of Pittsburgh PA. I would love if you did a history video on Luna Park and Kennywood Park in West Mifflin PA.

I loved Geauga Lake.

I still somewhat believe Cedar Fair closed Geauga Lake simply because it was competing with Cedar Point and they wanted more people to go there instead. I am glad some of the rides got installed at other parks and I'm also glad they're going to be building some sort of recreation area on the lakeshore again rather than it being an overgrown eyesore.

literally never seen a 6 flags ad before that didnt have the Du du du du du duuuu duuuu guy dancing in it. Would love to visit some of these 6 flags parks that are still going strong one day

I went here often in the 80’s and 90’s just for fun and also with my moms Chryslers company picnics. I thm for my first official job there in 1990. I worked KFC that had just taken over “The Wharf” I loved this place and have so many great memories. Thanks for the video… and yea I remember rotorman he always creeped us out

Ya did a Fantastic job our Friend 👊 Like your Father for you. You brought back some terriffic memories for us. That's what its all about 🙃✌️😀 .. Makin those memories. Kudos and Thank you 😊😉

pretty sure i have been on every ride in this video

Good stuff Austin!

I used to love riding the Mind Eraser! Always wanted to ride Mr. Hyde’s Nasty Fall but never worked up the nerve before it was removed 😬😄

Once they debranded that place was a ghost town. They said they closed in 2007... I thought it was way before that.

Who remembers Rotorman?

Imagine RMC raging wolf bobs :/ I'll never really be ok with knowing this place is gone. There is some subconscious thing that always gives me a feeling like it might come back. Even thought I know it won't.

Was here or the Sea World side, before being combined, almost every summer from 1983-1995. Last time was 2002-2003. Can't hear Huey Lewis & The News without thinking about Geauga Lake. As far as failing, the loss of General Motors, Packard Electric, and other big employer's leaving. Taking all that money with them. That took a good chunk of repeating business after they left. In opinion. Great video, thanks for the ride.

I'm from Northeast Ohio and you know everybody says jug like the Park closed in 2007 but the wild water Kingdom stayed until September 5th 2016.

Turtle beach was my favorite as a kid. When i say it I can smell what it was like to almost drown in that insane wave pool that used to make one huge wave instead of a bunch of little ones. Once my dad had me on his shoulders and it malfunctioned and created a wave so big it went over my head while sitting on his shoulders. I had my mouth open in aw, me on his shoulders his arms gripping my legs so i wouldnt get pulled off him by the wave. I dont know how he kept his footing, we weresubmerged for a good couple of seconds.

Used to go there in the 70s.

Let’s go 👏🏼👏🏼

I live near King's Dominion, and had no idea the Dominator was from this park.

10:32 Cedar Fair hadn’t yet purchased Kings Island in 2004.

😢 it is truly missed

I’m 43, born and raised in Ohio. I had no idea this park existed till recently. Been to Cedar Point probably a hundred times though. I wish I would have known about it.

I live in southern Ohio and when I saw the commercial for six flags and new rides I told my fiancé we were going. I remember loving Batman and X-Flight but Superman was closed. When we were a few miles away from the park my fiancé thought I was lost because it was so hidden. Regardless I was bummed when it closed. Great video!! Love this stuff!!

I would take Geauga Lake, Knoebels, SDC, Dollywood or any small to mid size park over Cedar Point or Six Flags.

Another defunct park to look at would be Williams Grove

Pretty sure that was the “Double Loop”………..

X-Flight was my favorite newer coaster.

Cedar Fair did not kill the park it was Six Flags. The park was meant o be a family park and Sox Flags changed that. Cedar Fiar just bought a struggling park.

Turning over to 2005, 1 year later Katrina killed an amusement park that had so much potential but failed and never reopened, this park was jazzland/sfno (six flags New Orleans) and sadly they never reopened because of Katrina, I hope the park gets revived one day, with the condition it’s in idk if it will reopen anytime soon but mega zeph looks amazing surprised a few of the rides are still staying up such as mega zeph and Zydeco Also this isn’t the largest abandoned park wonderland Eurasia is

Never made it out to this park sadly

I would get the seasons pass. Me and my children would go every weekend. The sad thing about this park is parents would drop off their kids and leave them there. When we had our picnic area these kids would steal people's food. It was sad. I could see it go downhill. No rules!

Six flag overinvested went broke sold to Cedar Fair, cedar fair saw as additional competition against Kings Island. Then paramount sold out of the ammusement industry.

What was your favorite memory or ride at Geauga Lake ? 👇🏼👇🏼

You mention the only park in the world to have two looping coasters.... idk how true it is but when i worked there we were told double loop was the tallest and only double looping coaster at opening

Instead of adding $40 million in rides, they should have fixed their sewage system. Having to walk through shit water to get to the exits was not cool.

After CedarFaire bought Kennywood Park near Pittsburg, they did a study that showed Geauge Lake was drawing off patrons from both Kennywood and Cedar Point. Both of those parks charged more per patron and gave them a better return on investment. It was after that study that the decision was made to close Geauge Lak.

Cedar fairs bought it and killed it intentionally.

Why was there such a decline in attendance? I don’t understand as that is a massive drop in guest.

Why would six flags counter offer to buy sea world orlando?

Your not going to get people at the park. When it's raining or cold outside. And you don't want to repair any rides. And building a huge water park in a part of the country. Where you have three months of good weather. Where you can go swimming using the water park.

Alot of what ypire saying is wrong really. Wolf bobs didnt derail the track broke.... so i giess it essentially did derail , but it was because of villains train being used on it. Ill stop replying now tho dominator didn't open at kings dominion in 2004.... the name was changed at the same park tho....

Sorry to comment again but u said year 2000 when i was born.... then have the nerve to say ypu grew up riding the rides at geauga lake. 🖕