Episode 289 - Fallen

This Memorial Day weekend, let's discuss the parks that we visited during the 125 Roller Coaster Challenge that are no longer with us.  There are six so bow our heads and remember the Fallen.

Transcript

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Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the 125 Roller Coaster Challenge, Trimmed and Staple Podcast. And guys, it is Memorial Day weekend, and I could not think of a more um appropriate topic for Memorial Day weekend than the Fallen. So, what do I mean by the Fallen here? We're going to be talking about the six amusement parks that have died or are fairly dead at this point that we have attended, which we have filmed videos of since we started the 125 Roller Coaster Challenge. There is, sad to say, six of them. And there may be more coming. But before we get started, guys, we are closing in on 10,000 subscribers for our YouTube channel. And I promise, the second we hit 10,000, I'm shutting up. Just like Tom Grassi, the great Tom Grassi, when he hit a million, he no longer asked, can you subscribe? And we're going to do the same thing. But we are so close. We are this summer, that is our goal by the end of the year to hit 10,000. And we need you. So if you're listening to this on uh Podbean or Apple Podcast or Audible or wherever you get your podcast, um jump over to YouTube channel 125 Roller Coaster Challenge or 125 Roller Coaster is our tag. And uh like and subscribe. Simple click for you really means a lot for us here. And remember, wherever you get your podcasts, make sure that you um make sure that you uh follow us because we're we're not on schedule. You know, we dropped one on uh Wednesday. Now this one here is Durham Memorial Day weekend. Who knows when the next one's gonna drop? So make sure you don't miss any episode because we only do a half hour at the most. This might be a little bit longer because this is a more emotional um uh topic and stuff like that. But um make sure you follow us there. Now, now that all that's done, this episode is gonna be discussing our thoughts on the six uh parks that five of them are dead. Dead, gone, dead. It's over, tap out, we're done. One of them kind of dead, but you know, and we're gonna start with that one because uh, you know, we might before we start talking about the corpses, we might as well talk about the one that's on life support. Uh, but this episode is going to talk about the parks, our thoughts on the parks, um, you know, why they are gone, and is there a chance for them to come back? And the first one that we are going to discuss is Lakemont Park over in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Now, this is a community park with roller coasters, okay? That's the best way to describe it. And their highlighted attractions were uh Skyliner, which is ran pretty much right outside the outfield of the Altoona Curves uh minor league baseball team. Uh so it's kind of neat that if you hit a home run, more than likely you hit the Skyliner. Um, and it's also that coaster is also known for having some really aggressive air time, but in the front car. It's really weird. Uh the back seat uh over that area, not that bad. But when you're in the front seat there, when you hit there, you pop the heck out of your seat. And so Skyliner was one of their big ones. The second one was the oldest operating roller coaster in the world, leap to dips. And right now, both of those coasters are standing but not operational. I've been hearing that they've been keeping the upkeep, uh, but I haven't gotten out there in a while. I might go out there this year just to check and see if they're lying to us and you know, boards are falling out. Um, but it's been touch and go since we started this channel, since we started doing the 125 roller coaster. We do have both of those credits. That's how I know Skyliner is crazy in the front seat. Uh, and we did leap to dips. But in the last, so about three years ago, it was so operational where they had people uh running the rides and everything was good, and they had some other rides too that they uh utilized. But two years ago, they made the announcement that it's just gonna be a park. And when we visited this park, it was a shelf itself to begin with. At one point, they had a whole water park section there, they had uh uh different raft rides and all that kind of stuff there. It was a fully functional amusement park competing with Del Grosso up the road. But when we saw it, the water park aspect was completely gone. So we only saw two, maybe three flat rides, antique cars and stuff like that. And then, of course, the two big boys, the roller coasters. And uh every time we went, it was dead. It was dead, and it didn't matter if we went on a Saturday or if we went on a Wednesday, it was dead. Um two years ago, they decided we're shutting down the amusement rides. So, and they sold off a few, uh, like antique cars. I think there might, you know, some of the cars are gone and stuff like that. Um, and they kind of turned into a community park. So you still have Skyliners sitting there, you still have Leap the Dips sitting there, but nobody's running them. They're just standing idly by. Uh, meanwhile, their focus is on their basketball courts. Uh they have you know, picnic roves, uh, they have a little snack bar, food area, and stuff like that. Yet again, if you go to a YouTube channel, go to our um Lakemont Us, you're seeing we did a full walkthrough after they close. Because everybody, once they closed those two rides, uh the coastal community was like, okay, bye, see ya. Crickets. I was like, you know what? Let's walk through and show people what they still got because do a little bit more um love with their park and stuff like that. Maybe there's a chance that this park is going to come back. I can't guarantee it, it may never happen, but at least there would be a shot if people would actually support the park. So that was our thinking on that end there, uh, when we did the uh walkthrough and stuff like that. So um, you know, we don't as of the time that we are recording this right now, uh, truth be told, I don't see this park ever getting those two coasters uh going again. Um I'm hoping I I think Skyliner's dead. I really think Skyliner uh is completely dead at this point. But um, you know, maybe some park would pick up Leap the Dips just because of the historical aspect of it. Umly time will tell. But the park is not dead dead like the other five that we're gonna talk about, but yet again, it's never going to go back to its glory, and I see it just as a community park now. I don't see it ever becoming more than that. All right, so that's Lakemont Park. So the next ones are going to be, these five are going to be in order of um pretty much uh the impact it had on my life. You know, am I heartbroken? Do I care? Um you know, that kind of stuff. So number five is going to be Cognac Lake Park. Now, this is located right outside of Meadville, Pennsylvania, in western New York. Uh Pennsylvania, sorry, western Pennsylvania, uh, between Erie and Pittsburgh, closer to Erie. It's about an hour away from Erie, uh, Pennsylvania, you know, between Waldemar and Kennywood. Um now this was another community park. And this was a park yet again. I saw it probably 25 years ago was the first time I went, because my ex actually was from the Meadville area and they took us there. And I remember going there and them having the kitty rides going. Um their big draw was the blue streak, which is a wooden coaster. Uh, I remember riding it, it wasn't bad, it was in good shape. Uh, they had a carousel that was pretty good, and they had a dark ride. And I remember going there 25, 30 years ago with my ex and being like, oh, this is a cute little amusement park. Okay. I it's like a county fair, but you know, it's right on uh Cognac Lake, uh, which is a tourist, you know, destination and stuff like that. And I remember thinking really good. So then when we did the 125 roller coaster challenge, uh Cognac Lake was still open, and uh I went there with uh it's the first year, and I went there with uh Devin, and uh it was not the same. Uh the rides were all shut down except for Blue Streak. Uh there's a couple things going on by the lake, but we got there and we jumped on Blue Streak, and it was the jankiest thing we were ever on in our life. It was shaking and it was there. It was so bad that I always said, Hey, I'm gonna go jump on it again. And Devin looked at me like, I'm not getting on that thing again. We barely survived the first time. They the upkeep from the community was horrible. So that was the first year of the 125, uh 2017-2018. Um no, no, no, I'm sorry, 20, yeah, around there. Around there, actually. It was before the pandemic. And then the following year, it closed. And that was around the time it was sitting dormant, it was going through so many bankruptcies and all that kind of stuff there, and the township was looking to sell it off and you know, that kind of stuff there. And around the time that Gene Staples was coming in to save Clementon and coming in to save uh Martin's Fantasy Island, there's a local gentleman who bought the property, and everybody's hope was that this guy was going to be a Gene Staples and he was going to revitalize this property. He was going to invest in it, he was going to get the rides going, and it was the exact opposite. So the second year of the 125, or you know, whenever we started filming uh video, I was at Waldemere, and I remember filming for Waldemere, talking to people and all that stuff, and then I said, hey, listen, I gotta go, I gotta go to Clem uh Kinaic Lake Park. And they looked at me weird, and I was uh I was I don't I didn't catch at the time, but everybody was looking at me weird, like what do you mean you go to Connecticut Park? So I hop in my car and I go down there and then I park and it's just empty. It's empty during that time between when it was shut down, this guy bought it, he apparently went away, and there was a fire broke out and burned down Blue Streak. Completely. He was out of town. It couldn't have been him, right? Nah, it definitely wasn't him, you know, not getting rid of the ride that he didn't want to deal with or anything like that. So when I get there, it's gated, the whole area is gated off, but the gates are open. So, and I saw people with golf carts going through it. So I was like, you know what? I'm going in. If I get arrested, I get arrested. You know, at this point the gates open, and I I saw one of the golf golf cart people go by, and I was like, Can I come through? And he was like, he just looked at me and shrugged, like, yeah, go ahead. So I did. I don't know who the guy was, probably had no authority whatsoever to tell me that, but and I filmed uh the new Kanye Lake Park, and it's actually one of our most popular videos on the YouTube channel. Uh, you don't even have to go to the Kanye Lake um playlist, you just look at our most popular videos, and there it is, Kanye Lake Park. And it was weird because you could tell that there was a mini golf course that was fairly taken care of. There's one or two flat rides that looked like they were getting maintained, but the carousel was locked up, which thank God, because people idiot people tend to destroy these things. Um, and the dark ride, you can tell wasn't in good shape. Um, but the park's dead. And it's a tale of two um two things here. The people with Gene Staples were elated because the gentleman, you know, Gene Staples put money into Clementon Park and Martin's Fantasy Island, which uh sadly I'll be talking about that later in this episode. Um, meanwhile, this guy, it looks like he grabbed the land to help his nightclub out, and the community hates him. Everybody bashes him online. Um, you know, he basically took what people were expecting him to revitalize, and he basically I I'm hoping he he sells the carousel to somebody that will maintain it. I'm hoping that dark ride gets saved. Uh, but really the land at this point is to see it from 25 years ago when the community came out and there was fireworks and there was um kids' rides and there was you know all these different things to seeing it now. I mean, the kid coaster is basically sitting there rotting. Um, I may go back because I I am looking at possibly hitting Waldomir this year. And if I do, I'll do a follow-up. But the sad demise of Lake uh Kondiac Lake Park uh is a sad one, but yet again, it did not hit me as much as these other ones that are going through. And if you're looking for ZDT and those, I never went to. We're just talking about the parks that I've been to during uh my life that are now gone. The next one, Marine Land. So, Marineland in Canada, I went to once, and it's basically right on the other side of Niagara. Apparently, that area cannot support amusement parks. We're learning that. Um, but Marineland uh is a huge trek-land up uh on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, and since I've been um doing these coaster stuff here, Marineland was always getting beat up because they had marine animals. Um, in particular, a lot of beluga whales. I remember uh when I did my trip, I only went once, spent uh probably about four or five hours there. Uh 90% of that time was walking. But I remember going around this corner and seeing this giant pool. And I'm like, I started walking up to the pool, and all of a sudden, all these white beluga whale heads started popping up and looking at me. I was like, holy crap, that is a lot of beluga whales. Um, but they they basically, in its heyday, I never saw it in its heyday. Um was basically they had dolphin shows, sea lion shows, that kind of stuff there. It was a typical spin-off of a SeaWorld Park. Uh, of course, Blackfish came out. Um, you know, love the documentary, hate the documentary. I'm not a big fan. I think it's uh overhyped. I think there's a lot of um leadway they did with stuff, uh the tug of the heartstrings, but hey, it's a documentary. You know, actually, I don't think it's a uh I it's hard to call it a documentary. I call it a uh here is what I want to prove. Let me find or play the entire narrative to prove what I think. I always think documentaries should go in there blank and then let the story tell you where it goes. Um, this one had an agenda from the beginning and just found what he needed to find there. But since that magnificent work of cinema came out, um aquariums, um, SeaWorlds, and all those, I've just been getting beat up. And this one was getting destroyed. So when I went there, it was in the middle of all the controversy. It was on a Tuesday or Wednesday, so it wasn't a big crowd. But what really caught me on this, I was there to get Dragon Mountain. Dragon Mountain is one of the last arrow uh roller coasters, and I wanted to get that coaster credit. Now I also got Ladybug and all that, but I thought it's a very interesting park because um when you come in, you've got a kid area right there, you got where the dolphin show used to be, and it was all like right there. But then to get to the other attractions, you walked. You walked, you walked, you walked, you walked, you walked. I never shut off my explore, uh, my my camera for explorers. I had to there because there was just so much dead walking time to get to the Baluka Wales, to get to the splash pad, to get to some of the flat rides, and of course to get to Dragon Mountain was a hike. Um, some of the other attractions, besides Drag Dragon Mountain, they had one of the tallest um drop towers, but it was also on a 200-foot hill. So, you know, but I didn't do it because I'm not a big drop tower fan, but from there, I hear you can see Niagara Falls perfectly beautiful, beautiful from there. But about two years ago, the park ownership finally called it quits. They're like, we're getting beat up, nobody's coming because of the bad press, uh, we can barely maintain what we need to do. But I do enjoy the irony of this because they won. The protesters won. You killed the park, the park is dead. Enjoy the Amazon warehouse, whatever it's gonna be. You know, that land's now gonna be rezoned and it's gonna become something completely different. Fantastic. Cheer yourself, pat yourself on the back. What about the animals? What are you gonna do about the animals? Most of these animals were born in captive captivity, they have no skill set to survive outside of that park. They don't know how to hunt, they don't know how to, you know, get food. And I was over at uh, I believe it was Seaworld Orlando, and I saw the Blue Eagle whale uh uh area that they had there, and I was talking to the guy, oh yeah, remember Marineland, and they all popped up. And he's like, Yeah, we're we're they're trying to give us a couple of those and they're trying to find homes for all these blue whales. Because yet again, the free willy moment doesn't exist when it comes to these animals. Most were either rescues where they were saved from the ocean, you know, they might have got wounded, they might have got hurt, there was an issue, they were saved. Or they were born in captivity and never got the life skills, just like your the babies. If you put a baby in a cave for five or six years, you know, it's not gonna it it doesn't have the skills to survive, and that's what these animals are, they don't have the skill set to survive. So, yet again, congratulations, blackfishies. Um, you killed the park, and and yet again, I'm I'm not saying the park would survive even if it wasn't for the blackfish, but I think that definitely had a role in it. And now, um, do you have a big enough bathtub to take them? Because at this point, you know, Atlanta Aquarium might get some, uh, SeaWorld might be able to take some. Another place you're trying to shut down SeaWorld. So, yet again, um, marine land. I saw what it could be. I enjoyed the coast. Now, here's the thing: the main the coasters were maintained, the flat rides that were operational, the splash pad looked amazing. It's sad to see this park go on that aspect. Number three on wow, that really sucked, was Gillion's Wonderland Pier. Now, this is over in uh Ocean City, New Jersey, not Maryland, that's the Jolly Rogers. And when you go to Ocean City, on one side you have Playland, Castaway Cove, uh, which has uh Gale Gale Force, and then on the other side you had Gileon's Wonderland. This one, when I first went there, they did have a couple coasters. Um, but when the over the years, scaled back, scaled back, scaled back. It had a log flume, which I enjoyed. Uh, I would go there every summer because Ocean City, we always would stay at Avalon uh Sea Isle. So I remember it. And I remember the kids, uh, baby Devin and baby Kylie years ago uh riding the train that looked like Thomas, but wasn't really Thomas. It was Tomas, I guess. I don't know. But um and the inside area that had all the kids. So when you go there from the pier, you would walk through this castle-looking facade, and it'll be this big under you know, in the shade area, and it was filled with games and it was filled with kids' rides. And then you would go to the other side, and that's when you would get to the haunted house, that's when you get to the log flume and stuff like that. But I remember, you know, the kids you know spending a lot of tickets there, getting some custard over at Kohl's. Um, and then of course, you know, they they had the the logflume in the back and all that kind of the carousel and all that. It was not a thrill park. Um, roller coaster-wise, I think near the end they only had like one or two kid coasters. It wasn't a credit area to go. If you're looking for more thrills, you would go to Gillion's. I mean, not Gillion's, go to Playland. But it was always something there. It was it was something that the community embraced. And about two years ago, and I know uh exactly when the announcement was made, because all of a sudden I got a spike in people seeing the let's explore Gillion's Wonderland because I filmed the entire place, and it was, you know, when parks die, I guess, you know, one of the only benefits is I do get a lot more people um checking out the videos. But I remember when it died, uh there's a plan in place, and as of recording this, uh, from what I remember, the plan uh may fall apart. There's gonna be a developer who's gonna build a huge hotel there, which the locals don't want, but he was going to incorporate maybe a few of the rides, like the carousel and stuff like that, in that plan. Well, it looks like the community might win and not get that giant hotel, which then on my end is like, well, what's gonna happen to these rides? I would love, but I don't think the the finances are there. But when you go to Playland Castaway Cove, that area seems congested. It seems like there's way too many attractions and way too. Small of a space. And in a dream situation, I would love for the community to work out a deal with Playland Castaway Cove and let them expand out that way. Let them have the Gillian space, even get some of those rides that are still functional there and expand out that way. Maybe take two or three rides off of Playland and move them over there to basically space them out better. Now, that's a pipe dream. I got no information on that whatsoever. I know uh Playland's doing what they're doing with an upcoming roller coaster, uh, going through the arcade. Yep, I can say it now. They told me to be quiet for a year. Um, because the arcade burned down. Uh, but uh so they're rebuilding that and it's gonna be a coaster that goes through it. But in a dream world, that would be great. Um, I understand why they don't want a giant hotel there. Ocean City is family-friendly, and that kind of hotel isn't really needed. The people rent the houses on that property. But yet again, that one is a little bit more than Lake Con, because Cognac Lake you knew was going to go down. Marineland had too many things going against it. But Gillian's was something that every summer for 30, 40 years, even if we didn't go, because we would always go to Playland, I would at least stop by there, grab a custard, and uh walk through the pier. The next two, there's two more left, and these two really hurt. They really hurt. And coming up with this list, it was really difficult to figure out which one sucked worse because both of them could have been avoided if people cared. And I'm gonna put this on the local community, especially for the one. Uh, the other one I'm gonna put on um the value of the land. Number two has to be Six Flags America. This is a huge park that was located uh outside DC and Maryland area, in an area that is becoming more and more valuable every year, the land. This was originally founded by Ross Perot and investors as a nature preserve. It was literally um, you know, it had nothing to do with amusement parks, and they expanded over the years, started doing um, you know, started bringing amusement rides in there, then Six Flags acquired it, the old Six Flags. And it basically was it got a bad reputation. When I first started, the reputation was already there. It was called a ghetto park, it was called trash, it was it's dirty, it's all that. So when we started doing the one, two, five roller coaster, when we first did the first year, we did our first two rides were Wildcat and Trailblazer over at Hershey Park because they were historic for us. I didn't know her how bad Wildcat was until after we started doing the one, two, five roller coaster challenge. We're like, oh wow, Wildcat's kind of rough. But Trailblazer was always my first coaster and both of my kids' first coasters. The next place we went was Six Flags America. We went into this thinking we're gonna go there, we're gonna get the credits, this place is gonna suck, and we're never gonna go back. We left there that day saying, What the hell are these people talking about? We loved Six Flags America. We would continuously go, and even when Ari went off to college, I would go to Six Flags America two to three times a year. We are at the time we were located between Six Flags America and Great Uh Adventure, and I made our home park, Six Lags America. We loved the uniqueness of the ride layout. We loved um it was never dirty. It was never dirty. Every time they're like, oh, it's a trash park, it's dirty. It's not, it never was. Everything was clean. The rides, yeah, there might be a ride down, but we never got to a place, we never went there, and we went numerous times throughout the year. End of the season, early in the season, mid-season, weekday, weekends, and we never had more than two rides broken. You know, when you hear people like, oh my god, the rods are always down. They weren't. They weren't. It was it was a lie. It was a lie. I had seen it. And the water park there, fantastic. Um, they they when we were there, they put in the Wahoo River uh since we went there. Um they had the uh last two years ago they put in the water coaster, which is probably still sitting there and needs to go to Dorney Park, um, or King's Dominion, either one of those two. Great adventure got a lot of stuff already. Um and the fact that they called a ghetto park, I'm gonna call it here, and I don't really care. It's racism. Because 98% of the staff was African American. That's what it was. Because when they're saying it was a ghetto park, it wasn't ghetto. And every one of those workers, we never, never, I'm gonna say it one more time, never had a bad experience with any of the staff members. And in fact, they were the opposite. I remember moments at Six Flags America that I love forever. Um, I talked about it before, but I'll talk about it here. I remember uh me, Kylie, and Devin were sitting on the one corner. It was a slow day, and there were two ride attendants, and they were spaced apart pretty good. And this is when Pokemon Go was a thing. And the one um ride attendant yelled over to the other one, hey, you know you got Pokemon in your stand. And she's like, What are you talking about? He's like, You got Pokemon in your stand. She goes, I don't want no damn Pokemon in my stand. What do you mean there's Pokemon in my stand? And they're going back and forth, and we are the only ones hearing this, and we are laughing her head off because she's thinking like Pokemon or maybe a mouse or something like that, not you know, Pokemon Go. And then my favorite story about Six Fights America has to go with Joker's Jinx. So we're standing in line for Joker's Jinx. It was a good crowd that day, and we're waiting in line, and the train's getting ready to go. We're still in the station, and the ride attendant starts going, na na na na, na na na na hey hey, and launches it. Goodbye. And I'm laughing because I'm hearing this and I realize she's still going, the train's already gone. And she saw me laughing, and the kids are looking at me like that, what the hell are you laughing about? And she just looked at me and she goes, they always think that you're gonna wait till the end. And it just made my day because you don't see that kind of fun at Hershey Park. You see it sometimes at other Six Flags parks, but Hershey Park, corporate, you know, the smaller parks, they try to maintain the thing there. Six Flags America, they let their staff be their staff. And there was nothing ghetto about it. Nothing ghetto about it. It was an amazing park. Now, attendance-wise, I did go there a couple times. There was actually a time I went there on a Saturday because I wanted to do something real quick, and I went into the parking lot, drove through, there was no parking, drove through, wrapped around again, still no parking, and this was a big lot. And I realized I might as well just go home because if there's a lot, if this many cars are here, how busy is the park? And I'm not a big fan of shooting with massive crowds when I'm at a park. And it just so they got some attendance, but yet again, it was not what Six Flags needed. And I think the death thing for Six Flags America wasn't the negative reviews and wasn't that. It was the land under that park is too valuable with FedEx Field being redone. There's going to be more traffic over there. Uh, it's on some major highways, it's in a good area near Bowie and stuff. The land value of the 200-some acres is worth more than the amusement park was generating. And they even said the community said, we want something that's more year-round, not a seasonal park, so we can get revenue from that land year-round. And it looks like um, I forget, I think it's Kevin Durant, uh group or something like that, has purchased the land, and of course they promised that. So I am glad it's not going to become Amazon warehouses, but I am sad that we lost Six Flags America. And the reason why we lost Six Flags America is the land under it was too valuable. This last park is the one that hurts the most. It's Niagara Amusement Park. Now, it's not completely dead. Somebody can come in and save it, but I kind of go with the philosophy, why would you save it at this point? And hear me out. So this was Martin's Fantasy Island. And it's at, uh I remember Ari went to Niagara University for a little bit. We would drive by on Grand Island, and we'd see it on the right-hand side: the Ferris Wheel and uh the Serpent Coaster. And it was just sitting there and it was graffitied up, it was it was trash. Um, years before then, we were at Canada's Wonderland and we were heading towards Darien Lake, and somehow it passed us right by and I'm like, hey, there's an amusement park here. And I remember pulling in with Devin, and the guy was like, $20. I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, $20 to park. And I looked at Devin and I'm like, well, I don't even know what the hell this park is. And I was like, uh, can we just wrap through? And he's like, yeah, go ahead, you can wrap through. So we went went through the parking lot and came out the other side because we were like, we don't know anything about Martin's Fantasy Island. It was before we knew anything. And I'm like, $20 just to park. I don't even know what the emission price is. We're on our way to Six Flags. All right, I'm just going to go to Six Flags. And then the park closed, and we were like, oh shit, we're never going to get Silver Comet. Well, Gene Staples, IB Parks, came in and bought Clementon Park, Hole, and Martin's Fantasy Island. And these are the twins. Yeah, he has Indiana Beach Park, and now he's picked up uh Sierra Sam's and he's picked up uh Lake Winnie. He has some affiliation with them. But these were the two that he did. And truth be told, he invested a hell of a lot of money in the Niagara Amusement Park. When after I heard it was there, because Devin's in that area, Aries in that area now. I went there when it first opened up, and the only thing open was the water park. And the way pool was down, it was just a lazy river and a couple things. No, nothing on the dry park there. Um, it was just the water park in the beginning. You open and a service entrance is how you walked in. Then later on that year, he opened up Kitty Land. He got all the kitty rides going there. Every time I would go to Niagara Amusement Park, there was something new that opened up. The last time I was there last year, um the serpent uh roller coaster was operational. I got that credit. He opened up Flying Witch, which was a dark ride from Playland Rye. He came in there. That thing was beautiful. They did a lot of tender love and care. I hope that that moves to another park because they spent a lot of time on there. They had Midway Mayhem being built, which was a ride, a pendulum ride that you could find over uh, I think it was Six Flags America, uh, Great America had it. Um, Silver Comet is a top 25 coaster for us. It was running beautifully. The maintenance crew knew what they were doing. And they even had Kraken, which I never saw before, that was getting ready to open last time I was there. He invested a ton of money into Niagara Amusement Park. He rethemed it. It was Martin's Fans Island. He has t-shirts. I'm wearing the hat right now. He invested a ton of money in this. The community did not embrace it. Simple as that. The community did not embrace it. Now, don't get me wrong. I saw things online where the Grand Island people are like, what's going on with Niagara Amusement Park? Oh, they're not taking any uh uh uh applications for kids. And they get the lady there, my grandkids work there every summer, and then this has to open up. No, you did not support the park. And how do I know this? I would go. I would go there two to three times a year. It was some every time I visited Erie, I would stop at Niagara. And you know what? We have the videos to prove it. We've got four years of what's new park walkthroughs. Every year he's doing a park walkthrough because he kept expanding it. He did Kidyland, then he opened up over towards Silver Comet, then he opened up the whole back area, giving you access to the water park back there. And he even got the anti-cars, the Ferris wheel, and Serpent going. He invested money into this park. The community did not support the park. I would go there on a Tuesday, Wednesday, and it would be dead. He had shows going every day. He even had, we're gonna, you know, a uh bank, a train robbery uh bit that they would, you know, one of the train rides throughout the day would be robbed by the bad guys. They did this entire aspect. He put the money and time and love into it. And if you would have said, here's $100, which park is going to close, it would have been Clementon. Because last year, Clementin, most of the rides were not open. The only thing that kept them afloat was the water park. I would have put all my money, you know, the the Neptune, King Neptune was not going. Hellcat is getting RMC'd, you know, getting uh getting retracked and all that stuff. I would have said he gave up on Clementine, he's putting all his money in Niagara. And he he did. So why do I think this park is dead? Because there's nothing more that Gene Staples could have done. There really is nothing more that Gene Staples could have done to keep that park. Well, he didn't advertise and know that, and he should have advertised on TV. You knew it was there. I saw billboards driving up. There was enough average. If I knew about the park in central Pennsylvania, then the people who drive by it every day, because Grand Island is not huge, knew about that park. So do not tell me that if you only advertised more, that park would have been saved. No. You guys knew about it. He did spectator passes, so people just go in and watch the shows. He did special nights and stuff like that. And because of that, I'm pretty sure that Niagara Amusement Park isn't ever going to come back. Because who would invest in it? You think Herschel's going to come in there and put money into that park when the community doesn't embrace it? The only hope they have is that the community buys them out and then they run it and they run it well. Don't do a Lakeman. You need to actually invest in your coaster. You need to make sure the maintenance is up on those coasters. So I really think Niagara is dead. So, guys, once again, this is a bummer episode, but I figure Memorial Day weekend was a good time to do it. Because we need did need to do it. And once again, you know, the six parks. Um, you know, the one that's on life support is Lakemont over in Altuna. Uh, like I said, if you're local there, you know, rent out the cabana. Maybe if there's enough community love there, um the coasters can come back. Uh, then you've got uh Kinec Lake Park. Uh that one's gone. The guy destroyed it. Um there's no coming back from what he's done to it. Uh hopefully they sell off some of the classic rides. Yeah, because he already burned down. I mean, sorry, they had an accidental fire um and killed their main attraction, Blue Streak. Uh Marineland, uh uh yet again, Blackfish killed that. And um, you know, I don't see that land becoming anything else besides Amazon warehouses. So uh on that end, you know, I don't I don't see that. Um Gillians, I'm hoping Playland Castaway Cove can jump over there and expand. I think that would be great for the community. Keep the memory alive. Uh Six Lives America, you know, Kevin Durant's group is now doing what they're doing with it. Hopefully, uh they were able to maintain, save some of the rides. And um, you know, it's never going to be what it was, but at least it might be something besides a warehouse uh Amazon and uh Niagara, you know, he did everything he could. So um pour one out today for your homies. And uh guys, can't wait to see you in the queue in 2026.