https://ndsmcobserver.com/2020/02/indiana-beach-gone/
For several years I got Indiana Beach tickets through my work, and would take my kids, and sometimes their friends, there. Later Emily and I went, once taking the grandkids. Like the local drive-in theater I've talked about before, it seemed like it was becoming a multi-generational thing.
Now, although there are efforts to keep it going, the almost century old Indiana Beach Amusement Park seems gone for good.
The last time we visited was in rainy, dreary weather, which maybe I should have taken for a sign.
I took the news personally, because I just finished changing the title and doing a few corrections to my so-far unpublished young adult mystery, Summer Jobs Are Murder (formerly Red Is For Ick, but I'd rather we all forget that.)
The story's protagonist is a teenager who investigates a murder while also working her first job--at an Indiana amusement park. Since Indiana Beach is the only amusement park of its size within easy driving distance, I used it as an inspiration and model for my fictional park. Details were changed, of course, to protect ... well, me. I'm getting ready to send that manuscript back out on the agent hunt, so I'll let you know.
This isn't my first time stealing, as the basic layout of the town of Hopewell, in my published novel Coming Attractions, is based on Kendallville, Indiana. In the immortal words of Thomas Edison, "Why invent, when you can steal?" (Kidding!)
So I'm taking this loss a bit hard, and I hope against hope someone will step in to get the park running again. Meanwhile, I'll continue my efforts to show non-Hoosiers that there is still more than corn in Indiana.
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I know the feeling. The amusement park in Council Bluffs was the only one I knew as a child. I could brag about riding the roller coaster. I was really upset when I realized it would be no more. Of course, then the reality set in. I didn't live in Iowa anymore, had no intention of returning. It still is a fond memory.
ReplyDeleteIf I moved south I'd probably come back to Indiana to visit all the time ... well, all the time during summer.
DeleteI grew up with an amusement park that was the traditional spot for Memorial Day student tickets every year. The best part was that my parents went to the same park when they were kids, and had some hellacious stories to tell! I think it had the last wooden rollercoaster in the country and was scary rickety, which of course made it more of a dare to ride. Sometime after I moved out of state to earn a living it closed, and now there's condos there. Hope that doesn't happen to yours. But they couldn't get anyone to work there, and the cost of repairs went up as well as minimum wage, so no hope for mine.
ReplyDeleteI'd imagine the cost of upkeep and manpower is a big factor in this case, too.
DeleteI remember Cedar Point used to have a wooden roller coaster--I gave it up when my back started acting up, because it rattled me so much.
I hadn't been familiar with this place.
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty much a regional attraction--I was surprised when some national news outlets picked up the story.
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