12 Bizarre Facts About Chippewa Lake Amusement Park

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Ohio’s Most Beautiful Playground has some of the most bizarre Ohio amusement park stories.

I’ve previously detailed what the famous abandoned amusement park was in its heyday and what exactly led to its ill-fated ending. But, I now want to share some of the quirky side of Chippewa Lake Park.

All of these factoids, bar the ghost stories, are from books and newspaper articles that preserved a great deal of the park’s history.

The paranormal accounts are from locals who live in the park’s old cottages. Because let me tell you, Chippewa Lake folks still adore Chippewa Lake Park and love talking about it. It’s sweet to see every time I’m up there.

So, let’s talk about the often overlooked eccentricities of the grand ole dame, Chippewa Lake Park.

Hauntings, bathroom explosions, airplane engines strapped onto boats to slide across the frozen lake in winters… Just totally sane things.

Related Reading: The Tragic Demise Of Chippewa Lake Park

Bizarre Facts About Chippewa Lake Amusement Park

Sources:

• Chippewa Lake Park — Images Of America
• Chippewa Lake — Images Of America
• Chippewa Lake Park — Diary Of An Amusement Park
• Chippewa Lake Park Chronicles

“Iceboats”

Regular iceboats are sailboat-esque crafts that are designed for traveling over ice.

Then there’s Chippewa Lake Park iceboats–sailboat-esque crafts designed for traversing ice, but with an airplane engine strapped on the back. And as a matter of fact, CLP iceboats weren’t always actual iceboats with airplane gear.

The park would rig their launch, Miss Chippewa, with a plane engine and propellers, tow it onto the ice, and let it fly (figuratively). Parker Beach, the park’s owner, said that Miss Chippewa would hit speeds of 60 mph going across the ice.

Since the park itself was closed during the winter months, this iceboating ‘attraction’ paired with ice skating as recreational offerings during January and February throughout the 1930s and 1940s.

Action Park could never.

Questionable Cottage Names

The park had cottages and hotel rooms that guests could rent for the night, week, or month of their vacation. And with the cottages, a family could go in with the park on the cottage’s cost and have ownership of their cottage.

As such, the names of some of Chippewa Lake Park’s cottages were… unique and varied.

Of course, you had your wholesome “Sunset View,” “Pleasant View,” “Chipp Inn,” “Dew Drop Inn,” and the like.

Some were punny or silly like “Uneeda Rest,” “Behave Yourself,” “Sum-R-Inn,” and “Wanna Kum Bac.”

Then you had the interesting ones like “MaJunk” and “Sun-Ova-Beach.”

But unfortunately, a wee few were more distasteful, with names I’ll omit from taking residence on my blog. Just for an idea of their tune, one was named after a symbol of 1930s/40s Germany. It’s… yikes.

However, Chippewa Lake Amusement Park referred to the cottages by their lot number, so none of the names were officially recognized by the park itself.

Bathroom Explosion

The Starlight Ballroom was the park’s renowned dance hall. The dance floor was on the upper level while a grocery store, workshop, barber shop, and set of bathrooms were on the lower floor.

One night in July 1940, shortly after the park closed for the night, a dynamite bomb planted in one of the bathrooms detonated. While they couldn’t precisely tell which, they presumed it was the men’s bathroom.

Naturally, it did substantial damage to the Starlight’s dance floor, bathrooms, workshop, barbershop, and grocery store. But in peak Chippewa Lake Park fashion, they reopened the Ballroom regardless.

Being that the park had just closed and the night watchman had just completed his first round, no one was injured in the incident.

The culprit was never found, and it was never deduced as to why they decided to blow up the bathroom (literally).

Escape of the Alligators

Back in the earliest days of Chippewa Lake Amusement Park, then known as Andrew’s Pleasure Grounds (yes, I know how it sounds), there were alligators on exhibit.

Evidently, after a night of heavy rain, nine of them made off into the lake. As per the Medina County Gazette, “There will not be much swimming there next summer.”

In two weeks’ time, all but one of them were captured.

Verbatim, no satire, the Medina County Gazette had this to say of the last gator in Chippewa Lake, “The entire military force of Medina county’s handsome summer resort is now patrolling the shore day and night under command of Boniface Hamilton, and the amphibious rascal is to be shot at first sight. And if bullets don’t reach him Jack Frost surely will.”

19th century Ohioans really hated alligators, it seems.

Lightning Strike

Also in the olden days of 1896, a lightning strike caused a bit of chaos for several dozen park guests.

Before the Starlight Ballroom, there was an older ballroom that resided in the same location from the 1870s until the 1910s. And, a train station used to reside next to the ballroom’s location.

So, some folks waiting for a train back to town got caught out in a thunderstorm and went to take shelter in the old ballroom. But, a lightning bolt struck an adjacent tree and knocked thirty people to the ground.

A dozen of this thirty passed out entirely. Four of the dozen weren’t waking up, so a doctor was called.

Three women eventually did come around back to consciousness, but one man did not, unfortunately, and died a few days later.

Just as a note, there have been multiple newspaper clips about lightning strikes around the site of Chippewa Lake Park. So, just keep that in mind if you’re in Chippewa Lake during a thunderstorm.

Ballroom Notice To Dancers 1920

This one’s just a fun one. Differences of times.

“We will not play vulgar, cheap, jazz music.
We will not permit young men to hold their partners tightly.
We will not permit partners to dance with cheeks touching.
We will not permit neck holding.
We will not permit shimmeying.
We will not permit suggestive movements.
We will not permit dances to copy extreme modern stage dancing.
We will not hesitate to eject any objectionable couples from the floor.
If your feelings are hurt blame yourself. No other warning will be given.”

PR departments of today’s companies would balk at that last line.

Chippewa Lake Park was unapologetically blunt. Certainly, a darling feature of the park’s charm.

Not So Merry-Go-Round

Not uncommon to very early amusement parks, the first merry go round was pulled by horses.

Crassly, kids often shot the horses with pea shooters to make them go faster.

Animal ethics was just about nonexistent in late 19th century/early 20th century attractions.

Chippewa Lake Amusement Park’s original merry go round was traded out for a mechanical one in 1900.

Horses & Whiskey

Likewise in CLP’s Andrew Pleasure Ground days, there was an icehouse that was frequently stocked during the winter months when the lake froze over.

On the occasions when a horse fell through the ice into the water, they would take the horse ashore, wrap it in a blanket, and put a quart of whiskey down its throat to sweat it out.

Good old-fashioned remedies.

Monkey Under The Ballroom

Chippewa Lake Amusement Park wasn’t a corporate backed park from a chain. It was run by a family, with many of its offerings run by other families.

So, you’d get classic moments like a Rhesus monkey escaping from Jungle Larry’s zoological exhibit and tucking in underneath the Ballroom.

Being that King of Swing Benny Goodman was due to arrive shortly, it was all hands on deck trying to get the monkey out from underneath of the Starlight. The Beach’s (longtime park owners) didn’t want an unprofessional impression of their park upon the musician’s arrival.

Fortunately for them, after a while of crawling around the inner workings of the Ballroom on broken glass, they caught the monkey with two minutes to spare before Benny’s bus pulled up.

Operating Underwater

Part of Chippewa Lake Park resided on a hill, known as the Upper Grounds, with the rest down below in the Lower Grounds.

One night in 1933, a flood covered the Lower Grounds, where all of the park’s midway resided. So while those attractions were stalled, the Starlight Ballroom was still in swing from where it sat on the Upper Grounds.

Mind you, the Starlight’s motto was/is “dancing every night” and it maintained that no matter what. As elaborated below, it might still be making good on that mantra in spirit.

But since the Ballroom was open, park employees used the park’s rowboat rentals to row to the park cottages where guests were stuck at, not to see if they needed any help, but rather if they wanted to go to the dance hall.

Some 900 people took them up on their offer and enjoyed the Ballroom while the rest of the park sat underwater.

Former park owner, Parker Beach, later told the Medina Gazette that it was the smallest crowd the Ballroom ever had, but it was still 1/4 of the hall’s capacity despite the flood.

Park Hauntings

This one is sourced from several locals who have lived or still live in the park’s cottages.

Chippewa Lake Park’s cottages were originally owned in the park and rented out to guests in conjunction with the park’s hotel. While the hotel burned down, the park’s cottages still remain, with one cluster being alongside the midway/hotel/ballroom area and the other near where the coaster used to stand at the front.

Chippewa Lake Amusement Park has been said to experience residual hauntings. Residual meaning that the paranormal activity is more of an echo of events, sounds, or sights replaying whereas the other type of haunting, termed intelligent, is when there’s an entity consciously stirring up activity.

The Coaster

Locals who have lived in the cottages by the site of the coaster, The Dipper, described hearing the distinct sounds of a roller coaster car ascending the chain lift and traversing the course of the ride.

This was reported when The Dipper was still standing (it was razed in 2010), but long, long after its abandonment and trees had grown though the tracks. It was explained to be an in frequent occurrence (the reality of most hauntings) but not a one-off event.

I haven’t heard from any locals of the coaster being heard again since it was demolished.

The Ballroom

Folks living in the cottages near the Ballroom have reported hearing old big band music from the site of the Starlight over the years. And, this instance was first noted before the phantom sounds of The Dipper was.

The interesting bit with this one’s is that it’s been heard both before the Ballroom burned down and afterwards.

The account whose experience dated to the turn of the century (21st, not 20th. I know, CLP is old.) said that they looked around the park for the source of the music and ultimately found that it was sourcing from the empty, abandoned Starlight Ballroom.

The other’s account was from recent years, and they expanded on the music’s sound in that it’s definitely 1920s-1940s sounding and not anything more modern (the Ballroom was open until 1978). They also said that whenever it’s been heard, it sounded in “waves,” fluctuating in volume between faint and loud.

It seems to be an unparalleled commitment to its motto “dancing every night.”

Abandoned Roller Coaster Rides

Considering that Chippewa Lake Park closed because its owners and the local government sat in a stalemate, trying to call each other’s bluff, internal expectations were that the park would eventually reopen. And hence, everything was left as it was in operational condition.

Of course, arsonists took to the park before the stalemate gave way, but you can read my post about the Tragic Demise of Chippewa Lake Park for further details on how it became the ruins it is today.

Said arsonists couldn’t burn a metal roller coaster, so the park’s Wild Mouse was left unaffected by the park’s abandonment.

This was to such degree that people snuck into the park and would ride the Wild Mouse.

People would manually push the cars up the lift, climb in, and ride the abandoned roller coaster down the track. And apparently, this went on for a hot minute before officials realized and acted on it.

So in 1999, sections of track was removed to deter people from riding it. Then in 2013, the Wild Mouse was demolished entirely.

A car from the Wild Mouse sits outside of the abandoned amusement park today.

More Chippewa Lake Park

Chippewa Lake Amusement Park had a lot of personality to go with its title of Ohio’s Most Beautiful Playground.

In the 20th century, it was outdoing parks like Cedar Point and Geauga Lake. It was up there in the industry alongside Elitch Gardens and Kennywood.

But, strife between Chippewa Lake’s government and Chippewa Lake Park’s final owners kickstarted its downfall, abandonment, and demise.

You can read more about what Chippewa Lake Park was in its prime as well as the destruction of the park. I’ll likely do another CLP post centered on what the abandoned amusement park is like today.

But until then, share your quirky Chippewa Lake Park stories below!

And enjoy any of these Chippewa Lake Park books that have a ton of material about the park: Images of America Chippewa Lake Park and Chippewa Lake, Diary Of An Amusement Park, and Chippewa Lake Park Chronicles.

For more Chippewa Lake Amusement Park on the Carousel, you can also check out:

• The History Of Chippewa Lake Park
• The Demise Of Chippewa Lake Park
• 13 Haunted Amusement Park Rides
• A Trip To Medina & Chippewa Lake OH

Thanks for reading!