Today we have some recently un-published photographs from the QCD team's visit to the now defunct Americana/Lesourdsville Lake Amusement Park. These photographs were omitted from the
October Article. The photographers were originally invited to photograph the park in April 2007, but were asked to leave 15 minutes into the session due to rain. They would return to photograph the park in July. The following photographs and text are from the April visit:
The Screeching Eagle was the park's signature attraction. This highly regarded wooden roller coaster has sat idle since the park's closing in 2002. Here it is seen looming over the abandoned and quiet midway. With the blessing of the property owners, myself and photographers Dane Thomas and Ryan Suhr of www.kicentral.com were permitted onto the property to document the park in it's [then] current condition.
As we quickly made our way along the midway trying to take in what we could before the clouds above unleashed their fury, we peeked into the tarp covered games booths. Seen here is the "Roll-A-Ball" game. Similar games can be found today at the nearby Kings Island.
Seen here is the park's Sky Ride structure. [The cars would later be found during out second visit in July 2007]. The Sky Ride once ferried riders up and over the now drained lake. Similar attractions once served guests at nearby parks like Coney Island and Kings Island but over time both of those parks lost their sky rides. Americana was the last Cincinnati area park to operate one.
The second largest of the parks three roller coasters was the steel tracked "Serpent." Seen here is the station for the ride which had two trains still sitting on the tracks, they had been waiting for new riders for five years. [The Serpent was later relocated in Fall 2007]
With the skies overheard growing darker we made a quick dash for the station of the Wooden Roller Coaster, the Screeching Eagle. While we were unable to locate the trains for this highly acclaimed coaster, mother nature has slowly began to grow back from underneath.
The rain began to pour, so we decided to try and wait it out in the empty and quiet queue line of the once great coaster.
After the rain subsided the work crews inside determined it was time to go home. We were asked to leave with them, but were invited back to return when there would be better weather.
Photographers from QueenCityDisco and KICentral.com would eventually return in July 2007 to document the entire park. The full article was release in October of that year and can be found
here.
Over the years, several of QC/D's urban exploration stories have focused on abandoned amusement parks: View all of the stories
Update | Sept. 21, 2017:
- In 2011, the Screechin' Eagle roller coaster was demolished and over the years, several rides were sold off. The swinging ship and Electric Rainbow can now be found at the semi-private/open for special events only Stricker's Grove park in nearby Ross, OH. In 2015, the Couch RV Dealership on the property closed. In 2017, local technical school Butler Tech purchased a portion of the property with the intention to redevelop it into a new campus.
