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Pripyat Amusement Park, closed in 1986 after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster

An abandoned amusement park or deserted amusement park is an amusement park that is derelict and no longer in use. Usually such amusement parks contain substantial visible remaining buildings, as well as infrastructure such as roller coasters. An amusement park is often abandoned because the economic activity needed to support it has failed (e.g. decline in visitor numbers or occurrence of accidents). A park may also have become defunct because of natural or human-caused disasters such as flood, war, and fire-related incidents.[1]

Some abandoned amusement parks have become popular places for urban exploration and extreme tourism.[2] Some examples are Pripyat amusement park, Dogpatch USA and Spreepark in Berlin.

Reasons for abandonment

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Economic decline

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Some amusement parks close because they are uncompetitive and make losses. For example, Crystal Beach, Ontario was known for its ballroom; but dancehalls waned in popularity in the 1950s.[3] The ferry service from Buffalo to the park was ended in 1956 and this made it hard to get there, and resulted in parking issues. Visitor numbers fell, rendering it economically unviable to promote the park. It faced bankruptcy in 1983; however, it continued for a few years, and closed in 1989.[3]

Diversions Grano de Oro in Venezuela opened in 2001, but closed in 2018 after Venezuela's economy suffered from the 2014 global oil prices collapse. The local area in Maracaibo became a site of theft and poverty.[4]

Post-war and modernisation

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The Second World War brought temporary, and often permanent, closure for many amusement parks. Josephine Kane writes that, particularly in Britain, "as new forms of entertainment emerged, the parks struggled to substantiate their claims of up-to-datedness".[5] In post-war western society, the growth of technology gave people greater pursuits for pleasure such as car ownership, mass tourism and home televisions. Kane argues that amusement parks struggled to compete with these types of private consumption.[5]

Euclid Beach Park is an example of an amusement park that failed to recover and adapt to societal changes after the Second World War. The Park could not compete with its close competitors, Cedar Point in Sandusky and Geauga Lake Park in Aurora, for visitors. Rising operational costs and racial incidents led to the closure of the park on September 28, 1969.[3][6] In her book exploring racial segregation at amusement parks in America, Victoria W. Wolcott cites racial bigotry as a cause for the park's financial failure as well as an increase in vandalism in the years before 1969.[7] Wolcott's writes "the owners shuttered exhibits, closed rides and generally neglected the grounds as their middle-class white customers sought out Cedar Point, which was now accessible from the interstate highway."[7]

Spreepark opened in Berlin, East Germany, in 1969 and was the German Democratic Republic's[a] only amusement park.[8] When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the number of visitors dropped significantly due to increased competition from other theme parks now accessible in Germany. The state had previously financed the park and was no longer able to do so, and the park was sold to private investor Norbert Witte.[1] Visitor numbers remained low and Witte criticised the council's decision to declare the Planterwald area – in which the park was situated – a conservation zone, preventing the building of additional parking.[9] As a result, parking on the woodland lanes incurred a fine. Spreepark filed for bankruptcy in 2001, and this revealed Witte was in debt of up to €15 million, as well as rides in bad states of repair.[9] The park was closed and abandoned in 2002.

Disasters, actual and anticipated

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The Pripyat amusement park was due to open on 1 May 1986 in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (modern day Ukraine), but this was cancelled after the Chernobyl disaster on 26 April due to the evacuation of people in the surrounding exclusion zone and radiation concerns.[10][11] Areas in Pripyat where moss exists contain the most radiation and can emit up to 25,000 μSv/h, with high radiation levels reportedly being under the Ferris wheel.[12][13]

Some theme parks have been damaged by floods. For example Coney Island in Cincinnati, Ohio was submerged when one of the largest floods in Ohio's history hit in 1937.[3] Hurricane Katrina in 2005 devastated Six Flags in New Orleans.[8] Hurricane Ivan struck Pennsylvania in 2004; this flooded and destroyed Bushkill Amusement Park.[8]

In 2004, a young girl fell 50 feet (15 metres) from the top of the Ferris Wheel at Joyland Amusement Park in Wichita, Kansas. She was critically injured and as a result the park closed early for the season; but Joyland never managed to recover and permanently closed in 2006.[8] Lake Shawnee Amusement Park, West Virginia closed in 1966 after separate incidents in which two children died on the park's grounds.[8]

A welding accident in 1984 at Idora Park, Youngstown, Ohio, damaged one of its main attractions, the Wildcat. The park was unable to remain competitive, and closed that year.[3]

Around the world

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Asia

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Hồ Thủy Tiên Waterpark in Vietnam opened in 2004 but was closed two years later, and remains abandoned. Gulliver's Kingdom is an abandoned amusement park in Japan.

Europe

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Abandoned ferris wheel at Spreepark, taken in 2017

Spreepark in Germany has been abandoned since 2002, and it is a popular site for urban explorers to visit and photograph.[14] Writing about Spreepark in a 2015 article for The Guardian, Philip Oltermann argues that people visit the site, and others similar, because "there is romance in decay."[9]

Pripyat in Ukraine was scheduled to open on 1 May 1986, but after the Chernobyl disaster the park was abandoned. It has since become a popular site for extreme tourism.[15]

In the United Kingdom, Crinkley Bottom, a Mr Blobby-themed park, opened in 1994 in Somerset. It closed down in 1999 and the buildings were left derelict before the site was completely demolished in 2014.[16]

Loudon theme park in Scotland opened in 1995 but was closed and abandoned in 2010. After an incident when a young ride-operator died after falling from a roller coaster in 2007, the park's reputation was damaged and Henk Bembom Parkware Ltd said in 2010 that the park was "no longer economically viable".[17] The park grounds are private property and remain derelict with a few rides and structures remaining abandoned.[18]

North America

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Disney World's Discovery Island River Country in Orlando has been abandoned since the late 1990s. It was brought to the attention of the mainstream media and public notably when urban explorer and photographer Seph Lawless published pictures in 2016 of the abandoned area of the park.[8] In an interview with BBC News, Lawless criticised Disney saying "no billion-dollar company should be powerful enough not to clear up their own mess". However, when there was a potential outbreak of Zika virus in 2016, Florida's governor emphasised the importance of attending to standing water. Shortly after, Disney entered River Country and drained the abandoned pool in the park, covering it with cement.

Dogpatch USA was an amusement park in northwest Arkansas which opened in 1968 and closed in 1993. The park was a commercial success and investors planned to capitalise on this success by building a sister park with a planned ski resort and convention centre but when this venture failed, the park closed and fell into disrepair.[19][20]

South America

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Diversions Grano de Oro was an amusement park in Venezula opened in 2001 and closed in 2018. The site has since become a target for looters and rusty frame of rides and playparks remain.

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Film locations

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The 2020 documentary Closed for Storm focuses on the Six Flags New Orleans amusement park which was abandoned after Hurricane Katrina.[21][22] Six Flags New Orleans was also used as a filming location for the 2015 science fiction action film Jurassic World.[23]

Spreepark was used as a film location for the 2011 action thriller film Hanna.[24]

Games, media and literature

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Pripyat amusement park has been featured in the video games S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Chernobylite.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Formal name of East Germany

References

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  1. ^ a b Beddington, Emma; Gilbert, Sarah (2023-11-14). "Shock of the old: eight abandoned and appalling theme parks". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  2. ^ Wood, Jason, ed. (2017). The amusement park: history, culture and the heritage of pleasure. Heritage, culture and identity. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-4724-2372-6.
  3. ^ a b c d e Samuelson, Dale Osborn (26 October 2001). The American Amusement Park. Voyageur Press. ISBN 978-0760309810.
  4. ^ "Sinister history of abandoned theme park and what it looks like after 20 years". Metro. 2024-02-27. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  5. ^ a b Kane, Josephine (2013). The architecture of pleasure: British amusement parks, 1900-1939. Ashgate studies in architecture series. Farnham (GB): Ashgate. ISBN 978-1-4094-1074-4.
  6. ^ Nasaw, David (2000). Going out: the rise and fall of public amusements (2. print ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-674-35622-1.
  7. ^ a b Wolcott, Victoria W. (2012). Race, riots, and roller coasters: the struggle over segregated recreation in America. Politics and culture in modern America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-4434-2.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Lawless, Seph (2017). Abandoned: Hauntingly Beautiful Deserted Theme Parks. New York: Skyhorse Publishing Company, Incorporated. ISBN 978-1-5107-2335-1.
  9. ^ a b c Oltermann, Philip (2015-01-07). "Save the dinosaur: the rollercoaster story of East Berlin's forgotten theme park". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  10. ^ Higginbotham, Adam (2019). Midnight in Chernobyl: the untold story of the world's greatest nuclear disaster. London: Corgi Books. ISBN 978-0-552-17289-9.
  11. ^ Johnston, Chris (2014-11-29). "Chernobyl's eerie desolation revealed by camera mounted on drone". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  12. ^ "Chornobyl Exclusion Zone | Graham Gilmore Photography". Graham Gilmore | Fine Art Landscape Photography. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  13. ^ "Eerie abandoned theme park is full of rides that have never been used". LADbible. 2024-03-03. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  14. ^ Fahey, Ciarán; Fahey, Ciarán (2019). Ruinen und Relikte in Berlin und Umgebung: = Ruins and relics in and around Berlin. Verlassene Orte Berlin (4. Auflage ed.). Berlin: be.bra Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8148-0208-4.
  15. ^ O'Connell, Mark (2020-03-25). "Why Would Anyone Want to Visit Chernobyl?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  16. ^ Cock, Thomas; Malloy, Tomas (2021-11-09). "The remains of derelict Mr Blobby theme park in Somerset". Somerset Live. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  17. ^ "End of the ride for theme park | Evening Times". 2014-02-26. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 2025-03-29.
  18. ^ Smail, Alexander (2023-03-21). "Inside the abandoned Scottish amusement park with a tragic history". Daily Record. Retrieved 2025-03-29.
  19. ^ Morton, Ella (2014-05-21). "Dogpatch USA: The Hillbilly Theme Park that Lies in Ruin". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  20. ^ Dogpatch, USA: An Average Stone-Age Community. (2017). Directed by Jeff A Carter. United States: Jeff Carter Productions
  21. ^ "Home". Closed For Storm. Retrieved 2025-03-29.
  22. ^ "Closed for Storm | Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2025-03-29.
  23. ^ Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (2014-06-05). "Jurassic World to film in abandoned US theme park". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-03-29.
  24. ^ "This abandoned amusement park casts a Halloween spell". CNET. Retrieved 2025-03-29.
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