Nostalgic Showcase Presents: The Defunct Attractions of Cedar Point

This entry is part 21 of 30 in the series Nostalgic Showcase Presents

For the finale of the trilogy of Nostalgic Showcase Presents: The Summer of Gaming articles, I wanted to focus on an amusement park near and dear to families and thrill seekers alike- Cedar Point! Despite living in the area for the past thirteen years of my life, I was terrified of rollercoasters- what was the point in traveling up to Sandusky if I could barely ride a carnival ride without a cold sweat? It took a persistent and competitive friend to get me back on a rollercoaster again two years ago- Cedar Point’s Wild Mouse ride- at twenty-three years old. You’re never too old to face your fears, and I’m a strong believer in that mantra. Before I knew it, he had convinced me to ride the Cedar Creek Mine Ride, Gemini, Iron Dragon, Corkscrew, Maverick, Raptor, and… Wild Mouse, again, my personal request. Our day of fun was cut short by plans made outside of the amusement park, but I left that night with a ripe sunburn and a newfound confidence, eager to try more rides and coasters on my next trip. I was even more excited to learn that Cedar Point had a history reaching all the way back to 1870 and an extensive roster of defunct rides and attractions! Buckle up, keep your arms and legs in the ride at all times, and smile for the camera as we nosedive into the rich history of Cedar Point, and some of the more memorable attractions that have closed through the last 155 years!

Starting sometime in the 1850s, public bathhouses and spa resorts are the latest and hottest trend, with hydrotherapy believing to heal a variety of different ails from the common headache to cancer. The idea was simple- bathe in the healing waters direct from the Earth, and return with a cleaner body and mind. While the water itself may not have been the solution to healing health ailments, the concept of taking time to escape on a vacation for a relaxing weekend in the countryside did help improve moral, and resorts found success providing this much needed reprieve. If there was a clean, running body of water next to an unclaimed plot of land, a spa resort was soon to be established. In the 1860s, on the Cedar Point peninsula, visitors would have a choice of numerous bathhouses lining the coast. Other entertainment attractions started to pop up over the next decade, appealing to a more general audience, including a dance hall, a live theater, a bowling alley, a baseball diamond, and photographer’s studio. Walkways were constructed going down to the beaches, and, following another common pastime across the nation, picnicking was a common occurrence on the shore. By 1890, the area was established as a popular destination and the first amusement ride was opened- a water toboggan ride that launched riders into Lake Erie. In the following year, electricity was installed in the peninsula and to commemorate the new technology, Cedar Point would open its first ever rollercoaster, the Switchback Railway. The Switchback‘s carts would need to be pushed back into the station by hand, reaching a (then impressive) 10 mph top speed, and lasting until the 1901 season, when it was replaced with a bigger and better coaster. Zoom forward nearly 135 years later, and Cedar Point’s newest ride- the intimidating thrill seeker Top Thrill 2– reaches 120 mph in 3.8 seconds, far out shadowing Switchblade by a longshot.

Children’s Amusements and Themed Areas in Cedar Point

An amusement park full of coasters is genuinely useless if you can’t ride the rides. For young children, their height prevents them from buckling into the rides, a safety restriction that any family will come across while trying to include every member in the fun. While the solution to this conundrum may seem like common sense now, prior to 1925, a section of the park dedicated to just kid-sized rides and amusements was uncommon. The first amusement park that was built for kids is the famous Kiddie Land, in San Antonio, TX in 1925, still in operation today; it’s been quoted as inspiring Walt Disney’s first theme park. After the success of Kiddie Land, established amusement parks started to incorporate a dedicated portion to appeal to their youngest of audiences and their families. These kid areas would include basic rollercoasters, carnival rides and games, penny arcades, and live performance stage acts, activities you may find at a boardwalk. Children’s areas in amusement parks increased in popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, appealing to the Baby Boomer generation and their families, often with a fairytale, circus or magic forest theme; this concept truly blossomed with the opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, CA in 1955. The bar was raised with Disneyland whose pre-existing properties were brought to life with dark rides, rollercoasters, parades, and walkaround characters; smaller amusement parks scrambled to license out characters and franchises to market to kids. Six Flags worked with Sid and Marty Krofft on bringing their line-up of iconic characters to the theme parks in the early 70s, working with Warner Bros shortly after, with Looney Tunes themed attractions and costumes added to their chain of parks. Meanwhile, Hanna-Barbera’s properties and characters could be found in Kings Entertainment Company (KECO)‘s parks, and AstroWorld in Houston, TX partnered with DC Comics, bringing Batman and the rest of the Justice League into the park in the 1990s. So what did Cedar Point have to offer?

Kiddy Kingdom. First opening in 1970, this area of the Cedar Park continued to be refurbished and rethemed until the most current iteration- Planet Snoopy. Visitors to Cedar Point’s Kiddy Kingdom in 1970 could experience a variety of fourteen different family carnival rides, many of which have been rethemed through the years, moved around the theme park, or removed entirely over the past fifty years. In the early 1980s, visitors could meet and interact with the Berenstain Bears costumed characters within Kiddy Kingdom. In 1985, a dark ride near Kiddy Kingdom was remodeled to Berenstain Bear’s Country, an immersive and interactive indoors experience. Kiddy Kingdom itself would get a Berenstain Bear retheme, featuring many of the elements and iconic moments in the popular book series and cartoon in an interactive outdoors play space and train ride. In the winter of 1997, Cedar Park L.P. bought Knott’s Berry Farms in California, and with the transaction, the licensing rights to Charles Schultz’s Peanuts; less than a year later, in October 1998, Berenstain Bear Country closed its doors for the final time. In the following year, the building that once featured the Berenstain Bear‘s indoor attraction would be gutted and reworked into a gift shop for Peanuts merchandising. The outside play areas refitted into a generic Peanuts Playground, replacing nearly all mention or landmarks of the Berenstain Bears themed area. In 2007, the play area would be closed down again, and open up in 2008’s season as Planet Snoopy, complete with seven new kid’s rides all themed to Snoopy and the Peanuts gang. All that remains of the Berenstain Bears section of the park is the Bear Cave Fountain, running in the middle of Planet Snoopy to this day.

Iconic (Defunct) Rides

I already talked about Switchback Railway, but there were plenty of other rollercoasters and amusements that have been removed or replaced at Cedar Point, for better, faster, and more enjoyable experiences. Throughout Cedar Point’s long history, numerous rides have stood the test of time and none are more iconic than the park’s numerous carnival rides. These rides- Calypso, Dodgem, Monster, Troika, Wild Mouse, Atomic Scrambler, and Matterhorn – make up the park’s Boardwalk today, their bright, saturated color schemes and lights catching the attention of any passerby. Yet nearly every single ride on that list had been relocated or moved around the park sometime in the past, or removed entirely to be added back in a later season. For instance, my favorite ride on the Boardwalk, Wild Mouse, is not the first iteration of that ride at Cedar Point- an earlier ride of the same name operated from 1959 through 1963. The Wild Mouse coaster that you can find in Cedar Point today was opened in 2023, as a part of the new Boardwalk, featuring artwork of an unnamed cartoon orange cat, a nod to another defunct Cedar Point coaster, WildCat (1979-2011), swiping after six distinctly different mice. This rollercoaster is also the first freeform coaster in the world – each of the seven carts (fit with a different mouse design, and one cheese design cart) has different pre-programmed maneuvers on the track, which already takes visitors on spins, twists, and unexpected turns through the ride.

Rollercoasters are always pushing the thrill factor, breaking records and proving which theme park has the biggest, fastest, or more impressive ride. In 1991, Cedar Point’s newest ride, Mean Streak, would break numerous rollercoaster records- tallest wooden roller coaster in the world (161 ft), fastest wooden roller coaster in the world (65 mph), and the longest drop on a wooden roller coaster (155 ft). Although these records would be broken by the next year (awarded to The Rattler at Six Flags Fiesta Texas), the Mean Streak attracted crowds for years to come, but slowly degraded through decades of operation. In 2016, Mean Streak closed for the last time, replaced by Steel Vengeance in 2018. Steel Vengeance would also break 10 records during its opening; tallest hybrid coaster in the world. (205 feet), fastest hybrid coaster in the world (74 MPH), steepest drop on a hybrid coaster (90 degrees), longest drop on a hybrid coaster (200 feet), longest hybrid coaster (5,740 feet), most inversions on a hybrid coaster (4), fastest airtime hill on a roller coaster (74 MPH), most airtime on a hybrid coaster (27.2 seconds), most airtime on any roller coaster (27.2 seconds), and world’s first “hyper-hybrid” roller coaster. Earlier this season, two rides opened officially for the first time- Top Thrill 2 on May 25th and Siren’s Curse on June 28th. Top Thrill 2 had been delayed significantly, originally planned to open in the 2024 season but the manufacturer needed to be brought in to modify the coaster’s trains. When Top Thrill 2 reopened in 2025, however, it broke numerous worldwide coaster records- world’s tallest triple launch coaster (420 feet), world’s fastest triple launch coaster (120 MPH), the first roller coaster in the world with two elements over 400 feet, world’s fastest backward launch (101 MPH), and it was the tallest operating roller coaster in the world in 2025, with a peak height of 420 feet. Siren’s Curse opening also experienced a couple hiccups during it’s opening launch, with two rides getting stuck on June 28 and July 2 on the first vertical drop, leading to temporary closures. Since then, both Top Thrill 2 and Siren’s Curse have been riding smoothly, providing new and exciting rides to park visitors. Siren’s Curse also broke three records, awarded as North America’s tallest (160 ft), longest (2,966 ft), and fastest (58MPH) tilt coaster.

For the folks who need a little less of a thrill, Cedar Point has historically provided an alternative for more leisurely visits to the park. In the 1870s through the 1890s, more a focus was on more active and interactive pastimes, including a bandstand, a bowling alley, and numerous activities on the beach including a pony track, diving platform, water toboggan, horizontal bars, water trapeze, bicycle boats, a carousel, and a cable swing. Live performances also entertained visitors inside a theater, and the bandstand held numerous concerts. In the 1900s, the focus of the resorts were less on the spas and more on the many amenities offered on the beach and developing boardwalk, which had started to make use of the installed electricity to generate power for more rides, more fun, and more entertainment. If folks needed a reprieve from the heat, they could either swim in Lake Erie, get a bite to eat in different restaurants on the boardwalk, or visit the penny arcade or movie theater. Cedar Point survived through two World Wars and the Great Depression, continuing to attract visitors through resort closures and fewer attractions. For a brief period in the mid-1950s, the State of Ohio was considering purchasing Cedar Point to convert the land into a state park, later a housing development; this would be shot down in 1956, as many fans and visitors to the park protested this idea across the state. Ultimately, this fanfare caused the parks to see a boom in attendance, leading to developing and opening more rides and attractions over the next few decades, solidifying Cedar Point’s title as the Rollercoaster Capitol of the World.

Final Notes

I hope you learned just a little bit more about the history of Cedar Point, and the rides that entertained visitors over the past 155 years! I wasn’t able to touch on every ride that operated in the park or its attractions in this article, but if you’re interested in reading more about our closest amusement park, check out WPPL’s Local History section the next time you’re in. I hope you’ve enjoyed this final edition of the Summer of Gaming! We’ll return in September with another deep dive into one of our favorite animation studios- and check out NSP Presents: Saturday Morning Cartoons on September 24!