Great Lakes Cities

[Steely Dan]

^ yeah, the loss of Crystal Beach for a retirement community is really stupid.

The only silver lining is that the park's classic roller coaster Comet was at least saved and relocated to Six Flags Great Escape in upstate NY, where it continues to thrill new generations.

[ColDayMan]

Aside from the obvious loss of that wonderful park to a...gated community...the loss of the Crystal Beach Cyclone, arguably the greatest long-gone wooden coaster still 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵.


https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/

[Steely Dan]

^ the legend of legends!

Though, to be fair, it was shut down back in 1946, over 4 decades before the park closed altogether in 1989.

For as large as its legend lives, it had a pretty damn short life, only lasting from 1926 - 1946.

Too wild for its own good, I suppose.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Historically there was also an amusement park in Crystal Beach, ON right on Lake Erie, catering to Americans from Buffalo. Opened in 1888, the park operated for 101 years before closing in 1989.


Historically it offered ferry service from Downtown Buffalo to the park, similar to the former Bobo Island Amusement Park in Amhurstburg, ON - close to Detroit.

Canada has a long history of catering to American vices..

The Crystal Beach Park site has since been redeveloped into a rare (in Canada) gated retirement community - a huge waste of a prime waterfront site, IMO.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.8602368,..._ep=EgoyMDI1MDIyMy4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

i hope you realize there were probably hundreds of similar amusement parks and sites around the great lakes in those days that catered to americans, err, vices?

and many elsewhere.

its not like we had long distance air travel back then, we barely had aeroplanes. much less smart phones or whatever else modern amusements that keep us at home. if they were not nearby already short distance travel to these types of places was the common vacation for back then at the turn of the last century.

here's an olde fun view from somebody riding at euclid beach park in cleveland --

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

i hope you realize there were probably hundreds of similar amusement parks and sites around the great lakes in those days

Hundreds of amusement parks with proper roller coasters on the shores of the great lakes back in the day? Hundreds? With an "s"?????

Not a chance.

But there were certainly a lot more way back when.

Crystal Beach, Boblo Island, and Euclid Beach Park have been mentioned already, and they are among the better known because they lasted longer than most (Boblo closed in 1993, Crystal Beach closed in 1989 and Euclid Beach close in 1969).



Chicago had two main classic amusement parks back in the day, Riverview on the Northside and White City on the Southside, but neither of them were located on the lakeshore. White City closed in the '50s and Riverview lasted until 1967.

However, St. Joseph, MI, on the other side of Lake Michigan from the city had a small beachside amusement park called Silver Beach that had a classic John Miller wooden coaster that closed with the park in 1971.


Source: https://silverbeachcarousel.com/about/history/amusement-park

[benp]

Originally Posted by ColDayMan

Aside from the obvious loss of that wonderful park to a...gated community...the loss of the Crystal Beach Cyclone, arguably the greatest long-gone wooden coaster still 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵.


https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/

Thanks for the photo - I've heard stories about the Cyclone but this is the first image I have ever seen. It certainly looks like a wild ride. As a kid I rode the Cyclone's replacement, the Comet, many times, and that was enough for me.

[xzmattzx]

Crystal Beach Amusement Park closed because it was bleeding money. It was partially hemmed in with no place to grow. The success of the town due to the success of the park is part of the irony; Erie Road across the street was packed with businesses that catered to park-goers and beach-goers. Once the park closed, most of the businesses dried up, which ironically could've meant more room to grow the park.

Down the road from Crystal Beach was another amusement park, Erie Beach. It was abandoned long earlier. Crystal Beach killed off Erie Beach. But you can still visit the site, and see ghosts of the rides and other things. Houses are starting to creep up on the site from the east, so in another 25 years some of it might be gone. I covered Erie Beach Amusement Park years ago.

[benp]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Crystal Beach Amusement Park closed because it was bleeding money. It was partially hemmed in with no place to grow. The success of the town due to the success of the park is part of the irony; Erie Road across the street was packed with businesses that catered to park-goers and beach-goers. Once the park closed, most of the businesses dried up, which ironically could've meant more room to grow the park.

Down the road from Crystal Beach was another amusement park, Erie Beach. It was abandoned long earlier. Crystal Beach killed off Erie Beach. But you can still visit the site, and see ghosts of the rides and other things. Houses are starting to creep up on the site from the east, so in another 25 years some of it might be gone. I covered Erie Beach Amusement Park years ago.

Crystal Beach also had new competition from Darien Lake (now Six Flags), Marineland, and Canada's Wonderland that had newer rides and attractions. Nearby Sherkston Shores also got a lot of the beach business, as they had the quarry and waterslides in addition to the lake beach. I also recall that the Crystal Beach had no general admission, but sold tickets for the amusements, so had a lot of teenagers just hanging out without spending much money.

Regarding development, I just looked at a recent map and saw where our family's former cottage had been (an area called Thunder Bay near Crystal Beach) and saw that the area of former cottages and golf course is now replaced by a subdivision of CA$1M+ homes.

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by benp

Crystal Beach also had new competition from Darien Lake (now Six Flags), Marineland, and Canada's Wonderland that had newer rides and attractions. Nearby Sherkston Shores also got a lot of the beach business, as they had the quarry and waterslides in addition to the lake beach. I also recall that the Crystal Beach had no general admission, but sold tickets for the amusements, so had a lot of teenagers just hanging out without spending much money.

Regarding development, I just looked at a recent map and saw where our family's former cottage had been (an area called Thunder Bay near Crystal Beach) and saw that the area of former cottages and golf course is now replaced by a subdivision of CA$1M+ homes.

Good point about the other nearby bigger parks. Crystal Beach certainly was a smaller park at that point. And, I think it had to compete with Martin's Fantasy Island on Grand Island, which did not require crossing an international border and potentially having to wait in line at customs for an hour each way.

Fort Erie is exploding with homes. Canadians, mainly GTA people, are retiring there because it's just about as far south as you can get in Canada, and it's close to Toronto and the other big cities. It's like how people from Boston are retiring on Cape Cod, or people here in Wilmington are retiring down at our Delaware beach towns, so they can be close to home and the adult kids and whatnot, but get a little better weather and some good restaurants and all.

By the way, our family's cottage was right near Sherkston. So all of these areas are very familiar to me. That's why Buffalo and the Niagara Region are like a second home to me.

[Wigs]

Crystal Beach amusement park was truly a special place. A binational amusement park that was also a testament to the once peaceful friendship between Canada and USA. Those were the days.

I only saw the tail end, but have fond childhood memories. Every year my Dad's employer had a company picnic there and it was a great time. I remember getting butterflies in my stomach from the excitement of getting close to the entrance gates. My cousin was in HS and worked there for a summer and I thought that was so cool as a child.
I still regret being too chicken to ride The Comet (I was only 8 the year the park closed). I rode the yellow coaster, 'The Giant' many times and that was thrilling enough.

My Mom, Aunt, and my Uncle saw the heyday of the 1950s-1970s. My Uncle (82) remembers fun dances with live bands on hot summer nights.

Many Can-Am relationships and marriages were forged thanks to Crystal Beach.

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Found a commercial on Buffalo TV from 1981
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I totally forgot the unique feature of The Comet were some seats faced backwards!
1985 Buffalo TV footage
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[ColDayMan]

The Giant was a great midsized wooden coaster, as was (well, is) the larger Comet. Such a shame.

[benp]

When I was a teenager, Crystal Beach would hold "neighborhood days" catering to different neighborhood and communities in Buffalo. On "North Park Day" (my neighborhood in Buffalo) discount tickets were sold at local businesses, and multiple buses would shuttle patrons from North Buffalo to Crystal Beach and back. There were hundreds of (mostly) teenagers riding on the buses to Canada, no passport or even IDs were required (only ID I even owned at the time was a library card), and essentially our whole neighborhood was at the park.

All summer, every neighborhood and town in the Buffalo area had its own day at Crystal Beach, and I know this lasted through at least the late 70s and maybe early 80s.

One of the saddest changes in my lifetime is the loss of the free and open border between the US and Canada. Our respective friendship and openness was a sense of pride on both sides of the bridge.

Famously, up through the 1950s it was the Crystal Beach Ferry that would bring Buffalonians back and forth, but ceased after "riots" of fighting teenagers, which were basically neighborhood ethnic gangs fighting each other (Buffalo was big on gangs through the early 70s of all races and ethnicities). Buses kept the neighborhoods segregated, and smaller groups were easier to deal with than 1500+ on the ferry.

Crystal Beach Riot - Buffalo Stories

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by benp

Crystal Beach also had new competition from Darien Lake (now Six Flags), Marineland, and Canada's Wonderland that had newer rides and attractions. Nearby Sherkston Shores also got a lot of the beach business, as they had the quarry and waterslides in addition to the lake beach. I also recall that the Crystal Beach had no general admission, but sold tickets for the amusements, so had a lot of teenagers just hanging out without spending much money.

Regarding development, I just looked at a recent map and saw where our family's former cottage had been (an area called Thunder Bay near Crystal Beach) and saw that the area of former cottages and golf course is now replaced by a subdivision of CA$1M+ homes.

Originally Posted by ColDayMan

The Giant was a great midsized wooden coaster, as was (well, is) the larger Comet. Such a shame.

It was a shame, but as benp stated there was too much competition.

This post is hella long w/classic commercials so I placed it behind spoiler tags

IIRC, Canada's Wonderland opened in 1981 with bigger more expensive roller coasters including 2 great wooden ones ( Mighty Canadian Minebuster and Wilde Beast). I always loved the original logo of the park.
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Darien Lake (Six Flags) in Western NY opened The Viper roller coaster in 1982?
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Marineland also built what they claimed was the world's largest roller coaster in 1983 (my Uncle from France thought it was impressive in size and ridiculously long). I loved the corkscrew and double loop of that one but it was so long it wasn't as exciting as it could be.
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The marine animals need to be removed ASAP. Best comment on the park :


Then there was Prudhommes Landing/Wet n Wild between St. Catharines and Grimsby just off the QEW along Lake Ontario that had a wave pool and much better waterslides than Crystal Beach's kiddie sized ones.


On Lundy's Lane in NF where the outlet mall is, White Water (later Typhoon Lagoon) had opened with 5 even more impressive white waterslides and the best wave pool.


Ontario Place, the provincially owned parkland /amusement park in Toronto on the waterfront even built a nice log flume and decent waterslides with the epic Hydrofuge that spun you around a vortex until you dropped into the pool through a hole in the middle adding more competition. One of my best memories as a child was going to Ontario Place a few years after Crystal Beach closed.
Short overview of the park
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Another waterpark, Wild Water Kingdom/now Wet'n'Wild Toronto also opened in 1986 in Brampton.
TV commercial
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All of these (including Sherkston Shores expansion) took business away from Crystal Beach which had enjoyed a near monopoly on summer fun for decades.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed the retro clips

[Innsertnamehere]

loving these storeys. Definitely lots of amusement parks through the years of varying sizes. Crystal Beach and Boblo are probably the largest that are no longer with us directly on the lakes, but there were definitely others including some already mentioned.

There used to be a smaller one in Hamilton as well:

https://local-news.ca/2022/03/30/burling...ach-amusement-park-remembered-by-locals/

It catered more exclusively to locals with a much more modest offering - following the opening of the Burlington Skyway above it slowly declined in attendance before closing in 1978.

[xzmattzx]

There is still a toddler amusement park in Olcott Beach in Niagara County, New York, basically across the street from the Lake Ontario shore. Rides are 25₵ each.

[mrnyc]

Cleveland Flag Project reveals winning design for ‘people’s flag' - Here’s how to get one

Published: Mar. 07, 2025

https://www.cleveland.com/business/2025/...r-peoples-flag-heres-how-to-get-one.html

[Steely Dan]

^ SOLID!

let's hope both Milwaukee and Cleveland can officially replace their current stupid city flags with their far superior people's flags.

[Docere]

The flag of Metropolitan Toronto (the upper-tier municipality until 1998):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_To..._Toronto,_Canada_(1954%E2%80%931998).svg

[mrnyc]

mark barker doing its thing around the cuyahoga —


https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHIoRwmgOJE/?igsh=Y216OGt2YzVlYzB2

[Tom In Chicago]

Not sure I ever knew about this or if it's been referenced here before, but thought it was worth noting. . .

Ship breaking on the Great Lakes. . .

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. . .