Old Indiana Fun Park
Encyclopedia
Amusement park
thumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...
located near Thorntown, Indiana
Thorntown, Indiana
Thorntown is a town in Sugar Creek Township, Boone County, Indiana, United States. The population was 1,562 at the 2000 census. Thorntown is located in northwestern Boone City, about halfway between Lafayette and Indianapolis.-Geography:...
off I-65 at 7230N 350W. It is now a privately owned property that has been transformed into the state's largest private wildlife restoration project.
Early years (1983-1987)
Old Indiana Fun Park opened under the name "Middle Country Renaissance Festival" during August 1983. It ran for six weekends until the end of the first weekend of October 1983. Construction of a ride park started in 1984 and it opened on June 9, 1985 as “Middle Country USA”. They gradually added rides until 1986, but remained mostly a picnic area and campground with a few attractions. In the spring of 1987 the park filed Chapter 11 because attendance was not sufficient to meet expenses and further development costs. It opened for that season under bankruptcy court supervisionLater years and closure (1988-1997)
On Sunday, August 11, 1996, 4-year-old Emily Hunt was paralyzed from the chest down and her 57-year-old grandmother, Nancy Jones, was killed after a miniature train ride derailed and overturned as it approached a curve. The two victims were crushed under the weight of the cars. Upon investigation, the train was traveling much faster than its design speed of 12 miles per hour (5.4 m/s).
The ride operator claimed to have applied the brakes as the train neared the curve, but it was discovered that many of the ride's brakes were either broken, missing, or not connected, and that most of the anti-derailment devices were missing. The speedometer was broken, along with the governor, which limits the speed of the train. The track was littered with broken ride parts.
The ride passed two state inspections in the 3-month period prior to the accident, before the safety inspector admitted that he was not qualified to inspect amusement rides. A state review of the park's own records showed that the train had derailed 79 times in the 2 months prior to the accident, and as many as fifteen times in a single day.
The owners of Old Indiana Fun Park admitted negligence, but denied knowing anything about the condition of the ride prior to the accident. They later declared bankruptcy, and most of the rides at the park were auctioned on February 22, 1997.
Six Flags years (1997-2002)
Premier Parks was planning to redevelop the park and open it in 1999. They purchased four roller coasters from the closed Opryland USAOpryland USA
Opryland USA was an amusement park located in suburban Nashville, Tennessee. It operated seasonally from 1972 until 1997...
park in Nashville, TN and transported them to the site. No changes to the site came during 1999. During the year 2000 two more roller coasters from the former Riverside Amusement Park in Massachusetts (now Six Flags New England
Six Flags New England
Six Flags New England , formerly Riverside Amusement Park, is a Six Flags theme park, named for the New England region, in which it is located. Located off of Massachusetts State Route 159, Six Flags New England is located less than from the major City of Springfield, Massachusetts, in the nearby...
) arrived at the park and were placed in the old parking lot along with the other four and, again, the park sat with no activity.
In July 2002 Six Flags sold the 330 acres (1.3 km²) Old Indiana property to Trevor Gray, former owner of Sunshine Holdings (containing a tanning bed company, ETS, and a lotion company, Australian Gold) and now of Sunshine Properties, which planned to turn the property into a nature preserve.
Sunshine Properties years (2002-Present)
Six roller coasters were still on site when Six Flags sold the property.When Six Flags sold the property, it included provisions for Six Flags to keep the rides there for a period of four years. This period ended on April 1, 2006 and some rides were still on site as of that time. By June 11, 2006, all of the rides were gone.
The property now contains Indiana's largest private nature preserve owned by Sunshine Properties, in conjunction with JFNEW company. The project, as it is still underway, is the largest private nature preservation project in the state.
The park is a little difficult to find now that all of the signs along the freeway are down. There is a large, painted-over green sign that still stands by the road as you travel south along I-65. Behind this sign is what is left of the park. As you approach from the south, you’ll first see what appears to be a large, grassy field, until you notice the streetlamps dotting it and you realize it is actually a large, overgrown parking lot. To the north you’ll see a few remaining buildings and some support sheds.