A Changing Landscape

Originally published 9-2-2018

Author's note: The original edition of this article featured many wonderful and thorough photos documenting this area. My younger self deleted those photos from his phone after he uploaded them to the blog, thinking they would be preserved forever on the blog. As mentioned in my preface to the current site, the original blog was unfortunately deleted, wiping those photos from the world completely. As you'll see, some of these photographs from the original article were able to saved. Others were not. I deeply regret not saving all the photos, and apologize. 

 Kings Island announced they were bringing back the Antique Cars on August 16, fourteen years to the day the Coney Mall side closed.


Construction is slated to begin next week. I stopped by the park Friday evening, August 31, to document in photographs an area that will look very different next season.

Walking past the KillMart building, the first structure to be demolished will be Coney Drinks. This building was added with the first big expansion to Coney Mall (then called Coney Island) in 1975. I can't remember the last time I saw this stand open.




The Flight Commander area will be removed as well. The hill was added in 1975 as the home of the Zodiac double Ferris wheel, which closed after the 1986 season. Flight Commander was added in 1990. It closed in 1995. After Flight Commander closed, it housed attractions such as a bungee jumping attraction, called Launch Pad and the Dinosaurs Alive! Party Pavilion, which could be rented out for private parties. It has been vacant for several years now. A currently unsubstantiated rumor has it that Drop Tower was originally slated for that spot.

In 1991, a guest was killed when she fell 60 feet from Flight Commander and landed head-first on the hillside. An investigation blamed a design flaw in the restraints.

Cincinnati Enquirer photo
Then vs. Now--June 10, 1991 vs. August 31, 2018











This is one of the most charming light fixtures in the entire City of Mason.

The queue structure from Flight Commander still remains with the interior walls still bearing their paint. The inside tunnel with the stairs with which you would access Flight Commander has been filled in with cement for a while.

This section of midway will be taken out along with the Peach Basket game stand. The entrance to the Kings Mills Antique Autos will be where the Peach Basket stand is currently.


The area is too wide to fit into one shot with my camera. Here is the best I could muster.


Adieu Coney Drinks, Peach Basket, and Mount Flight Commander. Hello Kings Mills Antique Autos!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Untold Story of Kings Island's Fatal Lion Mauling

Image
Originally published 1-5-2018   In 1974, Kings Island opened their season spectacularly with an entire new land and a  100-acre large  star attraction. The land was called "Lion Country Safari" and the star attraction was the Safari Monorail, which took guests through multiple wildlife enclosures. While the story of the safari is fascinating, today we will be focusing on an often glossed-over and forgotten story from the safari, for in 1976, the safari was the location of Kings Island's first fatality. In the 1960's and '70's, drive-through safari parks were all the rage. Lion Country Safari Inc. operated a grand total of six safari parks in 1974 (located in West Palm Beach, FL, Atlanta, Dallas, Irvine, CA, and Kings Dominion and Kings Island). But unlike most other drive through safaris, Kings Island's was unique in that you rode a monorail through the massive preserve.  "We needed something that could handle many more people here," said Warren
Read more

The Truth Behind "Tower Johnny"

Image
  Originally published 4-25-2018 It is a story recounted in breathless whispers around campfires, in line at Kings Island, or on online forums. A high schooler, "Tower Johnny," was killed in some sort of freak accident on Kings Island's Eiffel Tower in 1983 and his ghost remains. The exact details change depending on who is telling the story, but the bare bones remain the same. The story is frequently brought up, but does this it have any actual truth to it? John Wesley Harter was born May 27, 1965. He grew up in Delaware, Ohio, which is a town located 30 miles north of Columbus. John Harter attended Delaware's Hayes High School, where he was captain of the track team. Sheila Sferrella Martin, who was a close friend of Harter's during high school, recalled that  "h e was always trying to improve his PRs at track meets and talked about being in the Olympics." "[He was]  such a lovely person...I don't know anybody that didn't like him," r
Read more

Kings Island's Ghastly Girl in Blue

Image
Originally published 12-27-2017 Late one summer night at Kings Island, a tram driver has just dropped off his last batch of guests. It's been a very busy evening for him and he is relieved to be finished. However, he decides to take one last sweep through the parking lot to make sure that no one is left. He turns around and begins driving back around through the lot. Just a few cars are still left. Behind him, the Eiffel Tower lights up the otherwise dark sky. The driver begins to pass through the Barney Rubble section of the parking lot, which is what the farthest section to left is called at this point in time if you are standing on Kings Island Drive facing the park. To his right, he can see one of Kings Island's best kept secrets: the ancient, tiny cemetery located between this section of the parking lot and what is then the campground. This driver has heard many stories about this cemetery from other tram drivers...that is, GHOST stories. He slows the tram down to a crawl
Read more