7 Ohio Amusement Parks That Closed Forever

Ohio has long been a center of amusement and recreation, filled with roller coasters, fairground lights, and the echoes of summer laughter. For decades, its parks defined leisure in the Midwest. But time, economics, and changing tastes brought many of these places to an end.

Some sites were redeveloped, others simply left to nature. Here are seven Ohio amusement parks that once entertained generations before closing their gates for good.

1. Geauga Lake

Geauga Lake, located in Aurora, was one of Ohio’s most storied amusement parks. It opened in 1887 as a simple lakeside resort and grew over more than a century into one of the largest regional parks in the country. Generations of families came for wooden coasters, carnival games, and the charm of the surrounding lake. In its early days, the park was a picnic ground and swimming spot. By the mid-1900s, it had become a full amusement park complete with thrill rides and shows.

Ownership changed hands several times, including a period when SeaWorld built an adjacent marine park. Eventually both parks merged under Six Flags in the early 2000s, creating a large entertainment complex. But competition, high costs, and overexpansion led to its decline. The amusement-park section closed in 2007. The adjacent water park, renamed Wildwater Kingdom, continued operating until 2016 before closing permanently.

Today, much of the land has been cleared or redeveloped, but some remnants still hint at its past, concrete foundations, traces of the midway, and the memory of the Big Dipper roller coaster. Geauga Lake remains a symbol of Ohio’s amusement-park era, remembered for its scale and longevity.

2. LeSourdsville Lake Amusement Park / Americana

LeSourdsville Lake Amusement Park in Monroe began as a modest swimming lake and picnic ground in 1922. Over time, it expanded into a full amusement park with classic rides, arcades, and lakeside attractions. By the 1940s, it had become one of southern Ohio’s most popular destinations. Families came for its old-fashioned wooden roller coaster, Ferris wheel, and friendly atmosphere. Its design and tone were reminiscent of early Americana, simple, family-oriented, and built on nostalgia rather than speed or size.

The park’s history was uneven. Fires, ownership changes, and rising maintenance costs hurt attendance. A major fire in 1990 destroyed several rides and facilities, leading to years of decline. Attempts to revive the park under new management in the early 2000s briefly rekindled hope, but it never recovered its former popularity.

Eventually, the site was redeveloped for other uses. For many residents, LeSourdsville Lake remains a fond childhood memory, a reminder of a time when Ohio’s amusement culture centered on lakeside charm rather than corporate thrill parks.

3. Chippewa Lake Park

Chippewa Lake Park, in Medina County, was one of Ohio’s oldest amusement parks, operating from 1878 to 1978. Originally called Andrew’s Pleasure Grounds, it started as a picnic and boating retreat before evolving into a major regional amusement destination. By the early 20th century, the park featured roller coasters, a dance hall, and boat rides on the lake. It thrived through the 1950s as a family-friendly getaway known for its natural setting and intimate scale.

When the park closed in 1978, it was largely intact and left to decay. Over the years, its wooden structures and steel rides were slowly overtaken by trees and vegetation, creating one of the most photographed abandoned amusement sites in the country.

For decades, the skeletal remains of the coaster and Ferris wheel stood as eerie monuments to a bygone era. In recent years, redevelopment plans have begun to reshape the area, but for many, Chippewa Lake Park’s haunting beauty and century-long history still capture the imagination. It stands as a relic of how amusement once blended with nature before both were overtaken by time.

4. Olentangy Park

Olentangy Park, once located in Columbus near the Olentangy River, was one of the most popular amusement centers in central Ohio during the early 1900s. The park offered scenic gardens, theaters, boat rides, and one of the largest dance pavilions in the region. For many city residents, it provided an escape from urban life, a place to stroll, dance, and enjoy simple pleasures without leaving the city limits.

The Great Depression dealt a severe blow to attendance and operations. By 1938, the park closed, marking the end of an era for Columbus entertainment. The land was later redeveloped for housing, and little physical evidence of the park remains.

Yet its legacy lives on in local history archives and personal recollections. Olentangy Park reflected a time when amusement parks served as community gathering places more than thrill centers. Its closure represents the shift from local recreation toward larger commercial attractions that defined the mid-century amusement boom.

5. Summit Beach Amusement Park

Summit Beach Amusement Park, often called “Akron’s Coney Island,” was a lively destination on the shores of Summit Lake. Opening in the early 1900s, it became known for its energetic midway, funhouse attractions, and water-side scenery. Families from across northeast Ohio visited for picnics, concerts, and rides that ranged from gentle carousels to small wooden coasters. During its height, the park was a summer tradition, complete with fireworks, dances, and lakefront festivities.

By the mid-20th century, competition from newer parks and changing leisure habits began to erode attendance. The park struggled through the 1950s and eventually closed toward the decade’s end. Its closure was felt deeply in Akron, a city whose working-class families had long relied on it for local recreation.

Though no rides remain today, photographs and postcards of Summit Beach continue to circulate among collectors and local historians. The park’s memory lives on as part of Akron’s social history, a reminder of a time when a day by the water and a handful of rides were enough to define summer.

6. Moxahala Amusement Park

Moxahala Amusement Park in Zanesville opened in 1927 and became a central piece of community life in Muskingum County. It was a traditional amusement park built on a small scale, offering a mix of rides, games, and picnic areas that drew local families each weekend. For much of the mid-20th century, it was where birthdays, reunions, and county celebrations took place. Its roller coasters, funhouse, and midway provided the kind of simple entertainment that characterized pre-theme-park America.

By the late 1970s, rising costs and declining attendance made continued operation impossible. The park closed around 1981. Without upkeep, the grounds quickly fell into disrepair. Over time, vegetation covered the site and only faint traces of the park remained.

Local photos and recollections keep its story alive, though few physical remnants exist. For Zanesville residents who grew up during its prime, Moxahala remains a point of nostalgia, a small, homegrown park that embodied the community spirit of a bygone era.

7. Fort Rapids Indoor Waterpark

Fort Rapids, in Columbus, represents a more recent chapter in Ohio’s amusement history. Opened in 2006, it was built as part of a hotel complex offering a western-themed indoor waterpark experience. With large slides, pools, and play structures, it became a popular destination for families seeking year-round recreation, especially during Ohio’s cold months. For a few years, it stood as a bright spot in the state’s modern amusement scene.

The success was short-lived. The property faced repeated health and safety violations, structural maintenance problems, and legal disputes between management and the city. In 2016, the waterpark was shut down due to numerous code infractions, and the hotel soon followed. Since then, the complex has remained vacant, its bright murals and slides fading behind closed doors.

Photographs of the abandoned interior circulate online, symbolizing both the promise and fragility of modern leisure developments. Fort Rapids’ quick rise and fall underline how costly it can be to sustain amusement operations in a competitive and heavily regulated industry.