"Every city should have one of these!"
Right there in the city limits of Lafayette, Indiana, there is an interesting city park. It features a swimming pool, a zoo, and a small collection of amusement rides. These include a Sellner Tilt-A-Whirl, a Chance Twister, an Eli Bridge Scrambler, a dark ride (innovatively called, "Dark Ride"), a Herschell "Iron Horse" train, a collection of kiddie rides, and a Herschell kiddie coaster, unfortunately with a 53" maximum height requirement. The park's rides are not in the greatest shape, but it is a nice little park, and obviously quite popular with the locals. I wonder how many of them take Columbiana for granted and don't know what a treasure such a park can be.
"Hop on...the last ride of the day is free!"
I was hoping that I would arrive in Logansport before the park closed. Two years ago, on my way to Indiana Beach, I spotted a sign on US-24 identifying a "Dentzel carousel". I checked it out and found a fully-restored all-standing carousel with a ring machine sitting in a crummy little round building. At the time, the Cass County Carousel organization was raising funds to construct a new carousel building. My apologies to anyone I led astray at the ACE Spring Con last year since the carousel was in storage at that time. But the new building is now complete, and it is beautiful. The carousel is a particularly rare model because it is an all-standing machine (as is the one at Williams Grove). And it is made even more rare in that it has a working ring machine!
The remainder of the park is simply a city park, but it does feature a miniature golf course. Logansport is right down the road from Indiana Beach, and it's worth stopping for a few minutes.
Of course, a few minutes is all I gave it, since it is about a 5-hour drive from Logansport to Sandusky. Onward to Cedar Point...
Next trip: Cedar Point
--Dave Althoff, Jr.