Geauga Lake was an amusement park in Aurora, Ohio, that traced its roots to 1887, when a lakeside picnic ground beside the town’s namesake lake evolved into one of the Midwest’s oldest amusement destinations. Over more than a century it grew from a modest trolley-stop attraction into a full-scale theme park, adding its first roller coaster, the wooden Big Dipper, in 1925.
By the early 2000s, under Six Flags ownership, Geauga Lake and the neighboring SeaWorld Ohio were merged into Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, briefly stretching to roughly 550 acres and, for a time, billing itself as the largest seasonal amusement park in the world. Combined attendance peaked at an estimated 2.7 million visitors in 2001, but Cedar Fair’s 2004 purchase led to a steady decline, and the amusement park closed for good on September 16, 2007, while the adjoining water park held on until 2016.
Stats at a Glance
- Location: Aurora, Ohio
- Operator (final): Cedar Fair (previously Six Flags and Funtime, Inc.)
- Opened: 1887 (first ride added 1889)
- Closed: September 16, 2007 (Wildwater Kingdom water park closed 2016)
- Peak size: About 550 acres
- Peak annual visitors: About 2.7 million (2001, combined with SeaWorld Ohio)
- Signature attraction: Big Dipper wooden roller coaster (built 1925 by John A. Miller)
A Century of Changing Hands
What began as picnic grounds operated by Sullivan Giles grew steadily through the 20th century, passing to Funtime, Inc. in 1969 and expanding with new rides and attractions. Premier Parks, later Six Flags, acquired the park in 1995 and rebranded it Six Flags Ohio in 2000, adding several new roller coasters. The following year Six Flags bought the adjacent SeaWorld Ohio and folded both properties into a single park, Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, before Cedar Fair took over in 2004 and restored the Geauga Lake name.
Closure and What Remains
Cedar Fair shut the amusement park down permanently in September 2007, relocating several of its newer steel coasters to other chain parks rather than let them sit idle. The Big Dipper, one of the last surviving John A. Miller-designed wooden coasters and the seventh-oldest coaster in the United States, was auctioned off in 2010 but never relocated, and it was ultimately demolished in October 2016. The water park limped along for a few more seasons before closing in 2016, and the long-vacant site has since been redeveloped, with a Meijer supercenter and a city-owned lakefront park now occupying parts of the former grounds.
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Roller Coasters at Geauga Lake
Every Geauga Lake coaster ThrillZing has covered — stats, ride experience and history for each:
Geauga Lake FAQs
Why did Geauga Lake close?
Attendance collapsed after Six Flags’ expansion overextended the park, and new owner Cedar Fair found it more profitable to shut the amusement park down in 2007 and shift its newer rides to other locations than to keep operating it.
Is anything left of Geauga Lake today?
Almost nothing of the original park survives. The last major structure, the 1925 Big Dipper wooden coaster, was demolished in 2016, and the site has since been redeveloped for retail and public parkland.
What happened to Geauga Lake’s roller coasters?
Several newer steel coasters were dismantled and relocated to other Cedar Fair parks: Thunderhawk moved to Michigan’s Adventure, reopening there in 2008 under the same name, and the floorless coaster Dominator moved to Kings Dominion, also reopening in 2008. Older rides like the wooden Big Dipper were scrapped instead.
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Photo: Chris Hagerman / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.