?The barn at O’Neil Woods is said to be haunted.

And they leave it at that.  Anyone know any local legends or other haunting information for the barn.  Just leave a comment below if you know any information on the barn.

LAFAYETTE TWP. — Her bedroom window faced Chippewa Lake Amusement Park, and every summer morning Cindi Rudes awakened to the clacking of the rollercoaster chains.

“It was a great little place back then,” said Rudes, 57, who still lives in the township. “You just don’t want to give up on the memories.”

Rudes and other park enthusiasts have been meeting for six years to share those memories, most recently at the Village Inn, 5875 Longacre Drive.

They were brought together by an Internet group that started with Rudes posting photos of the park on Yahoo.com. Eight years ago, a friend suggested she start an online group to share photos and memories of the park. Since then, the group has grown to more than 400 members across the United States.

“Some of the people are younger and are intrigued by what the park used to be, and find it spooky or intriguing, and other people are like me — it was my childhood. I lived with the park in my backyard,” Rudes said.

The park opened in 1878 and closed in 1979. All remnants of the amusement park will be gone by the end of the year as developers prepare to demolish the site and make room for Chippewa Landing, a hotel, spa and resort project that will break ground this summer.

But those who loved the amusement park plan to keep it alive by sharing photographs, memorabilia and memories.

Chippewa Lake resident Bob Gardner, 66, collects old postcards that were written by people visiting the park.

Gardner began working at the park at age 14 in 1963 at Refreshment Stand B in the pavilion.

He said some things never change: People back then complained that beverages were overpriced, just as they do at amusement parks today.

The prices then were 40 cents for a Budweiser, 35 cents for a burger, a quarter for a hot-dog-on-a-stick and a nickel for a pack of gum.

“You’d have a solid group of people coming through all day until you were about to go nuts,” he said. “Sometimes you’d go through more than 100 cases of beer in one day.”

His parents and two brothers also worked there. The job didn’t pay much — Gardner recalled making about $20 a week at first — but it had its perks.

“I got off work and didn’t go home. I stayed to hang out and talk with my friends,” he said.

Along with the sounds of the rollercoaster, Rudes recalled falling asleep to the bands playing in the ballroom. Over the years, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tommy James and the Shondells, Pat Boone, Jimmy Dean and Alice Cooper performed there.

Jim Smith, 53, a Wadsworth native who now lives in Rittman, said concert venues today can’t quite capture the sound the way the old ballroom did. Watching bands perform there was one of his favorite things about the park.

“You’d see these people on ‘American Bandstand,’ and the next week you’d see them at Chippewa Lake,” he said.

He had been out of high school for three years when the park closed. Years later, he returned to the park for a tour and teared up as he was reminded of his late father taking him there as a child.

“A young kid was with his mother, and they said, ‘There’s nothing here,’ ” he said about the day he toured the park. “I said, ‘I’m sorry you missed it.’

“I don’t know — there’s just nothing like that around anymore.”

Contact Lisa Hlavinka at (330) 721-4048 or lhlavinka@medina-gazette.com.

All rights reserved by irisheyes24 on Flickr.  Images cannot be used without written permission.

The Big Dipper roller coaster was demolished earlier this week (shown above) along with Stand A.  I heard that the hotel was also planed to be demolished this week, but I haven’t heard anything to confirm this.

So this is it, a final goodbye to Chippewa Lake Park.  Be sure to tell all of your friends about this so they too can get one last look!

If your planning on attending, let us know at our Facebook event page!

FYI, everyone, the park will be open for tours one more time, possibly the last, on May 15 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. or so.  Depending on just when construction begins, this could be your last chance. They expect to bring in the dozers pretty soon.  Once work begins, it will be called a job site and there will be no visitors.  I’ll see what I can find out about the track sections, but I don’t think they have made up any at this time.
-Gayle (Chippewa Lake Park Group)

If you have never been to a Chippewa Lake tour, here is an overview…

1. You can take pictures and walk around freely in a roped off area.
2. 1978 cups and roller coaster rails are for sale for $5 each (2 cups for $5).
3. Free that I know of, may have changed.
4. Unlimited access tours may be available for $10 a person.

If your planning on attending, let us know at our Facebook event page!

Tour Info

When: Saturday, July 3, 2010

Times: Open from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Location: Northeast Corner of W. 25th Street & Detroit Avenue, at the west end of the bridge.

Parking: Limited FREE parking is available at the County Engineer’s Bridge Garage, which is located at the tour’s entrance.

Cost: FREE

There are no reservations and torus are self guided tour with volunteers on hand to answer questions.  The bridge is wheelchair and stroller accessible, just use the entrance on the other side of the bridge.  Cameras and tripods are welcome and other attractions include films, trolley displays, streetcar, and a unique view of the area.  All ages are welcome!

I actually went down into the canal to get a few pictures that are hard to get from the trail.

Like Lock 11 which is hard to get a good picture of because of the bridge they built.

Next, it was on to the newly uncovered Lock 5 which was once under the parking deck of The Civic Theater.

While I was down there, which is now officially open to the public, I found this…

…this is a mark left behind by Jeffrey Maximovich, a canal historian with his own, very detailed, website guide to the Ohio & Erie Canal.

Above is a picture of him at lost Lock 5 a few years back when it was still underground.

This new Lock 5 area (called Lock 4 by the city) is a nice extension of Lock 3 park.  You should go check it out because I now hear that it’s open to the public unlike when I went and had to sneak down.

Andrew Borgen

Andrew Borgen