Cedar Point

Cedar Point is a 364 acre (1.5 km²) amusement park located near Sandusky, Ohio on a peninsula jutting into Lake Erie. Besides amusement park rides it offers beaches, water park, marinas and hotels. It opened in 1870 and is the second oldest amusement park in North America (Lake Compounce being the oldest). Cedar Point has the world's second tallest and fastest roller coaster, Top Thrill Dragster.

Around the turn of the twentieth century, businessman George Arthur Boeckling spent several decades expanding the park by planting flower gardens, adding a boardwalk and rides, constructing lagoons, and opening several hotels including The Breakers Hotel which opened on June 12, 1905, and still operates today. Cedar Point continued to expand over the course of the century, adding a series of new rides and roller coasters. In 1929 The Cedar Point Cyclone was built by legendary designer Harry Traver, who also designed the Coney Island Cyclone. The Great Depression had an adverse affect on Cedar Point, and it did not fully recover until the 1950s when businessmen George Roose and Emile Legros bought the park. When they first bought Cedar Point, Roose and Legros planned on tearing down the existing park and turning it into a residential area. With this in mind, they built a marina and constructed a causeway leading from the amusement area to Sandusky. Once the citizens of Sandusky found out about Roose and Legros' plans, they wrote letters to the governor of Ohio urging him to intervene. With the uproar occurring and the sudden popularity of Disneyland in California, Roose and Legros decided to end their plans to tear down Cedar Point and instead announced their plans to turn Cedar Point into the Disneyland of the Midwest.

The park continued to expand rapidly through the next 50 years. Many of its roller coasters were record setters when they opened. The Cedar Creek Mine Ride opened in 1969 as one of the very first run-away mine train style roller coasters. In 1976 Corkscrew was the first roller coaster to turn its riders upside down three times. In 1978 Gemini debuted as the tallest and fastest roller coaster on earth. In 1989 Magnum XL 200, designed by the now defunct Arrow Dynamics, opened as the tallest, fastest, and steepest fastest roller coaster in existence, as well as being the first full-circuit roller coaster to be taller than 200 feet (61 m). In 1991 Mean Streak opened as the tallest and fastest wooden coaster. Raptor, designed by Bolliger and Mabillard, opened in 1994 as the tallest, fastest, and longest inverted roller coaster with the most inverting elements. Mantis, also designed by Bolliger and Mabillard, opened in 1996 as the tallest, fastest, and longest stand-up roller coaster with the most loops. In 2000, Cedar Point and Intamin AG unleashed Millennium Force, which at the time was the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster and the first coaster to top 300 feet (91 m) in height. Cedar Point continued its record breaking tradition in 2003 with Top Thrill Dragster, also designed by Intamin AG, which features a four-second launch to 120 mph (190 km/h) and a 420 foot (128 m) hill with a vertical ascent and a 270 degree spiral on the vertical descent.

In 2005, Cedar Point built a new ride called maXair. This Giant Frisbee, manufactured by Huss GmbH, ride will swing riders at 70 miles per hour while spinning them.

It is said that if you have the courage, you can see all the way out to Canada if you look out at the top of the hill on Millennium Force, or Top Thrill Dragster. While you cannot see mainland Canada—it is much too far—a good eye might be able to spot Pelee Island, a Canadian island in the middle of Lake Erie, 21 miles to the north.

Cedar Point is tied with Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California for having the most roller coasters at any park; they each have 16 as of 2005.

In contrast to many parks that have completely modernized, Cedar Point has retained some older rides as well. It has several antique carousels which retain their original wooden animals, many smaller carnival-type rides, as well as county-fair style booths and games and a variety of musical shows. This section of the park is known as Frontier Town.

The beach on Lake Erie is wide, and both it and the shore have a generally gradual slope. The sand is the right texture for making sand castles.

Cedar Point has been voted "Best Amusement Park in the World" for 7 years running by Amusement Today newspaper (1998 - 2004). Cedar Point currently retains 3 of the top 5 Roller Coasters (in terms of height and speed) in North America, and two of the top 3 world-wide. Cedar Point also has 68 different amusement rides, the most world-wide.

Some past employees who have gone on to fame include Sam Warner, Arsenio Hall, and Knute Rockne who worked as a lifeguard at Cedar Point in 1913 and invented the forward pass with teammate Gus Dorais on the beach during their off-time.

Cedar Point is operated by Cedar Fair, L.P., a consortium that also owns Knott's Berry Farm in California, Worlds of Fun in Missouri, Cedar Point and Geauga Lake in Ohio, Michigan's Adventure in Michigan, Dorney Park in Pennsylvania, Valleyfair in Minnesota, and several waterparks.

See also

• Power Tower

External links

• Official Cedar Point Site (http://www.cedarpoint.com/)
• The Point Online (http://www.thepointOL.com/)
• Cedar Point Forums (http://www.cpforums.com/)
• CedarPoint.Org Portal (http://www.cedarpoint.org/)
• Portal To The Point (http://www.portaltothepoint.com/)
• Pointbuzz (http://www.pointbuzz.com/)
• Coasterbuzz (http://www.coasterbuzz.com/)

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