Trip Report: Six Flags Old Indiana Fun Park
Thorntown, Indiana - 06/30/2001

Today, we're still waiting. Premier Parks got a little sidetracked by buying Six Flags, and Old Indiana seems to have become a sort of Six Flags corporate boneyard. The property is visible from IR-65, nd a mile or less from the Thorntown exit. Since I would drive right past there on my way to Indiana Beach, I decided to take a look. I got off of IR-65 at Exit 146 (IN-47) and turned West. There is no sign of the place from that road, and I remembered that the park had been visible from the expressway. So when I got to the first road that went North, I turned right. Ah. That's better. A couple of (rural) blocks up, I found the driveway. There, a bit of weedy, cracked asphalt provided a small plaza in front of a row of boarded up tollbooths. A large sign proclaimed, " ". A smaller sign proclaimed, "CLOSED. Beware of guard dogs." A group of even smaller signs forbade trespassing, hunting, fishing, or trapping, but the property owner contact information had not been filled in. A low tubular steel gate blocked access to the parking lot.

Now, before I go any further, I should point out a few important points. First of all, except for the gates at the vehicle access points, the parking lot is unfenced, but surrounded by a low weed-covered berm. For that reason, I think it is probably safe to assume that there are no guard dogs roaming in the parking lot area. The park itself is fenced. Second, while absolutely nothing inhibited my access to the site, and I did not see any other people during my visit, it is posted private property, and I had no legal purpose for being there. Because I was only planning to spend a short time on site, because I respect private property, because I just wanted to get a few photos, and because I'm a lousy botanist who has a terrible allergy to certain weeds, I limited my incursion into the parking lot to the previously-described asphalt plaza and a couple of spots along the berm. In other words, I DID NOT enter the one-time parking lot. If you should decide to visit the site similarly uninvited, I encourage you to limit your exploration in a similar fashion.

From the plaza I could see that the grass parking lot is being maintained, in that it's being mowed on a semi-regular basis around the stored ride pieces that are rusting away. There is a lot of 4x4-gauge weathered lumber, which may be pieces of the Arrow mine train coaster stored on site. There is also a bit of grey mine-train track with a spine beam which might be another recently-departed Arrow mine train. I saw several arch trusses which I recognized as loop support structures. A white one sits at one end of the lot, while a black one...presumably from the Riverside Black Widow...sits right across from the entry plaza. There are many unidentifiable forms present which I suspect may be hulls for Shoot-The-Chute boats.

I drove on down the road. From the parking lot exit gate I got a better view of an unidentifiable flat ride structure and some Fiberglas sections that appear to be log flume sections. Nearby is a lift structure that appears to be for a rapids ride. What I did not see any of on site were rolling stock. No trains were apparent, nor rapids ride boats. My guess is that those parts have been distributed to the various parks that can use them, or they were simply stored out of sight. I was momentarily confused by some enormous semicircular steel segments until I remembered that I was probably looking at the Screamin' Delta Demon.

I thought I had spotted the Ranger tub I'd heard about, then I realized I was mistaken. The Ranger, which Mark Brunner claims came from Kentucky Kingdom, is sitting right next to the road. I made a third stop and took a couple of pictures. Then I decided to see if I could see any more of the park. I drove down the "dead end" road leading to the campground I had forgotten about. But I only went as far as the driveway leading to what was once the park's service entrance. A building has the Old Indiana logo on the side, but the logo is slowly being obscured by trees growing in front of the building. A driveway led back into a fenced area with a big gate alongside an apparently-abandoned security booth. The building was apparently the Old Indiana administration building. A sign on the most obvious door indicated that it led to a private residence; I suspect the sign is a leftover from the park's operational days.

What got my attention back here was a ride tub sitting just behind the fence, apparently in good condition. It looks like a Kamikaze tub, but a closer inspection reveals that it is equipped with lap bars rather than shoulder bars. And it is most certainly not a Ranger tub. I have no idea what it is from, or why it is separated from the other ride parts and left inside the park instead of out in the parking lot.

Update: Jason Hackley visited this page and is pretty certain he knows what this is:

"That gondola came from the Vekoma Sky Flyer at Elitch Gardens. There should be two gondolas. Also those brown rectangular things are the counterweights that were opposite the gondolas. It is odd that the gondola made it to Indiana while the ride structure and control panel is collecting dust at Elitch's employee parking lot. By the way, the only operating Sky Flyer in the country is at Worlds of Fun, it is called the Omeggatron."

Thanks, Jason, for that insight!