A lot had changed already when Geauga Lake opened for the 1972 season.
A little more than three years earlier, the park had been bought for $1.5 million by a trio of men who had spent the previous decade working at Cedar Point — a lakefront amusement park that itself was on the verge of redevelopment in the late 1950s in Sandusky, Ohio.
“It is our intention to continue to operate the park in the same high moral standard so the community will be proud of it,” Earl Gascoigne, the spokesman for the threesome, told The Cleveland Press, “and bring Disneyland-type fun to the four million persons living within 50 miles of the park.”
The purchase included the park’s 270 acres, plus an additional 70 adjoining acres for expansion. New in 1969 was a monorail, additional Kiddieland rides and a Ferris wheel.
More additions came in each successive year, including new rides, a new entrance and a new restaurant. It was estimated that $1 million was invested annually to upgrade the park. (The park’s growth was aided by the opening of Sea World, across the lake, in 1970.)
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A whole new area of the park, designed to look like the old Western Reserve, was added in 1972. The Western Village included a main street that looked like a 19th century frontier town. The centerpiece of that area was the Gold Rush, a log water ride that culminated in a nearly vertical 40-foot drop.
Also added that year were the Merry Old-Mobiles, a track with a series of three-quarters scaled gas-powered vintage cars, designed with a 1911 Cadillac in mind.
“Don’t be surprised to see Grandpa get a glazed look in his eyes as he gets behind the wheel of one of these Merry Old-Mobiles,” wrote The Cleveland Press in its preview of the park for 1972, “remembering the days when he was courtin’ Grandma.”
The investments worked, and by the end of the 1970s, Geauga Lake had taken its place as an amusement destination in the Midwest.
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