CHIPPEWA LAKE AMUSEMENT PARK

CHIPPEWA LAKE, OHIO 1898–1969

This is one of the oldest abandoned theme parks I have ever visited. It operated for precisely a century—albeit under a different name for a portion of the duration—before its untimely demise. It used to be a very popular theme park, with more people sharing with me their yearning memories over the years than any other abandoned theme park.

It was a place my parents spent their childhoods. I remember hearing them reminisce about the good memories they had at the park. They even brought me here several times as a child in my early years, but I was too young to have any real nostalgic memories other than the old film photographs in my family scrapbooks. The old photographs, some even in black and white, are now covered in thick dust and show only a glimpse into what this park once looked like—and it was glorious.

I visited here several times since the park became abandoned. Each time, it felt as though I was almost searching for a cause of death. At times, I even brought with me old film photographs of the park, trying to find the area in which an old photograph was taken, but sadly, it became unrecognizable.

There is a spooky, Scooby Doo kind of atmosphere here, with the skeletal remains of the wooden rides resting against the stillness of the lake at dusk.

Everything is gray here. Everything is dead.