LeSourdsville Lake / Americana Amusement Park

JohnC 110 posts Jan 18, 2010 4:58 AM	Cut me some slack guys-I haven't lived in Dayton for over twenty-five years, now... When I was growing up in Dayton in the 60's & 70's, one of my favorite places to go was LeSourdsville Lake (this was in the years before King's Island, by the way). I have lots of great childhood memories of the place. I was totally blown away when LeSourdsville Lake showed up on the History Channel TV show "Life After People". Apparently, the place shut down about 2002 and has been left to deteriorate. You could film a movie about the apocolypse there now. It really creeped me out seeing the abandoned buildings and rotting midway. Anybody else have childhood memories about the great Dayton area amusement parks?
Keugene48 88 posts Jan 18, 2010 6:19 AM	My family used to go to LeSourdsville Lake on our summer "staycations". My brother was 9 years younger than I and I used to have to ride the children's rides with him... of course I was mortified. When I was a teenager I went there on dates and the first roller coaster I ever rode was there. It was at night and as the car climbed to the top the full moon seemed almost close enough to touch. My boyfriend was scared to death but I loved it! Every time I hear the song "Palisades Park" I think of that time at LeSourdsville.
Marck1957 100 posts Jan 18, 2010 8:48 AM	JohnC....If you haven't seen the Soutwest Ohio Amusement Park Historical Society's web site, you need to! http://www.soaphs.com/americana. Click on the link that says "What does the Lake look like today".
JohnC 111 posts Jan 18, 2010 11:56 AM	Marck1957- Thanks for the link. You really need to catch the "Life After People" segment on History Channel. The episode is entitled "Sin City Meltdown". It's really chilling and makes you stop and think. Season one is available on DVD and you may be able to rent it from Netflix or Blockbuster.
Mikey 81 posts Jan 18, 2010 12:26 PM	In the movie "Harper Valley PTA" - (filmed in and around Lebanon) - the principles went to LeSourdsville Park on a date. ---------- Mikey, Gatlinburg, TN Last Edited on 5-Feb-2010 10:00 AM
pie8me 80 posts Jan 18, 2010 2:01 PM	Did all of our amusement parking at Coney Island until Kings Island opened their doors. Always wondered if they were an affiliate of the 'real' Coney Island. If not, how did they get away with using the name?
JandyS 9 posts Feb 03, 2010 9:11 PM	Does anyone remember "Fantasy Farm"? It was right next door to LeSourdsville Park which later became Americanna. My favorite was the huge slide in Fantasy Farm which you had to climb the ladder into the barn ... and slide down out of the barn and into the hay. And Tom Sawyer's Caverns ... I loved that park!
Mike C 47 posts Feb 12, 2010 6:48 AM	JandyS- I use to go to Fantasy Farm as a child and then ended up taking MY children there too. I also when to LeSourdesville Lake too before Fantasy Farm was built. One of the nice things about Fantasy Farm was the fact you could sit in one place and your children could ride multiple rides and you'd not have to walk 10miles to do so. Also remember Fantasy Farm built a swimming pool? They could not open it because LeSourdesville had some sort of lawsuit against them about the pool ( at least from what I remember). They finally got to open it and it was a nice pool for children mostly. Fantasy Farm had a kids petting zoo that was pretty neat too. That and that giant slide you mentioned. I'm not sure how well those things would do today seeing how everyone wants to sue over anything. Back then you got hurt doing something stupid it was YOUR fault not everyone elses fault BUT yours. Lots of good memories of both places.
JandyS 10 posts Mar 04, 2010 9:26 AM	Mike C ... Oh wow ... I DO remember that swimming pool ... and the great petting zoo. Ahh, looking forward to experiencing some childhood memories again as we take our new grandson out and about. Guess we will have to make 'new' memories just like those we had at Fantasy Farm. Thanks!~
mem 79 posts Apr 10, 2010 11:17 AM	Always love to go to LeSourdesville Lake. In the 1940s, Moraine Products, later Delco Moraine, had employee's family picnics there. My high school class had our senior picnic there also. Our yearbook has pictures of the picnic included. Rented a canoe and paddled around the lake with some good-looking girls that day. Went off the twenty-five foot platform into the lake but couldn't swim; dumb but fun.
driver62 292 posts Apr 11, 2010 8:45 AM	Although I grew up in Eaton, I had and Aunt and Uncle who lived in Middletown. When we'd go visit, they would take my sister and I to the park. In later years, the hospital, where my wife worked, held their annual picnic there. We also took our kids to both LeSourdesville Lake and Fantasy Farm. Great memories.
roge 15 posts Apr 11, 2010 10:51 AM	was that tomestone territory where that train would end up? i remember that old player piano was sitting in that saloon, enjoyed lesourdssville
JeffN 298 posts Apr 11, 2010 8:24 PM	I used to love the place. We'd go a couple of times every summer.
Curt Dalton 283 posts Apr 11, 2010 10:15 PM	LeSourdsville and Dayton do have a connection of sorts - so the subject qualifies for this blog (although even if it didn't the place was NEAT, so it would qualify anywho...) The connection is the train that took you to Tombstone. It was made by National Amusement here in good old Dayton! Boy, those guys falling off the roofs during the shootout when the train arrived... cheesy, but fun to a kid of ten, which is the age I was at the time. Every now and then I come across those big clear mugs that has the cowboy on it and Tombstone Territory written in red. They're too heavy to use, but I'm in the mood to get one and put it on the site now, so I'll be on the lookout.
mcm53 1 post Apr 28, 2010 11:15 AM	We use to drive from Dayton to LeSourdsville on a saturday night to go to the dinning room there for their all you can eat pan fried chicken, mash potatoes, apple sauce, That was the late 50's,to the mid 60's..We have pictures of our kids, later in life, on the rides at Lesourdsville,that was taken in the late 60's to early 1972.
AllenN71 7 posts Apr 29, 2010 8:35 AM	Remember the jingle? "If you're looking for fun in the moonlight or sun, come out - to LeSourdsville! Ride the rides, swim and get tanned; Dine and dance to your favorite band! If you're looking for fun in the moonlight or sun, Come out to LeSourdsville Lake!" That theme played constantly from Memorial day to Labor day. Even today it gets stuck i my head worse than "pop goes the weasel".
texangal81 6 posts Aug 02, 2010 8:03 PM	Who remembers the sandpit at Fantasy Farm that had coins buried in it?
icsalum 45 posts Aug 03, 2010 10:06 AM	Loved the big sign at the front of LeSourdsville - a big clown welcoming you. Anyone have a picture?!
Mike80 7 posts Aug 04, 2010 3:14 AM	I did a little surfing and found this. Very depressing but still,,, brings back great memories. http://queencitydiscovery.blogspot.com/2007/10/lesourdsville-lakeamericana-revisited_29.html
DebCB 6 posts Aug 04, 2010 8:42 AM	The Queen City Discovery site is very interesting and I just packed away a set of six glass mugs from LeSourdsville that I bought in 1970. I've never been able to part with them even though I've never used them. Wonder if they're worth anything?
HENRYR10 10 posts Aug 08, 2010 5:03 PM	I was just by there today. Very depressing. We used to go down for teen dances in the late 60's. Pay one price, all the big rides were open.
RIVERDALE RAT 432 posts Aug 14, 2010 12:27 AM	I remember one summer; my Parent’s were going to take me there and changed their mind due to my misbehavior. I got the bright idea to sneak away and go by myself. I went to the old Greyhound station at 3rd & Wilkinson and bought a ticket on the old Ohio Bus Lines (The only bus that ran down there) if memory serves, it was 85 Cents each way or a buck seventy round trip. My caper went off without a hitch, until I overstayed the last Bus back. I went into panic mode and knew I had better not call home for a ride, I got the bright idea to hitchhike, after about 15 Minutes a middle aged man in a Buick stopped and gave me a ride, He was really friendly but began asking me a million questions about my age (13) and how I came to be stuck way down there after dark. I made up some excuse about how I came down with a group of friends and they took off and left me. After about 6 Miles, he showed me a Centerville Police Badge and told me that he was not buying my story. Long ending cut short; He took me to the Centerville Police Station and called my Parents. Can you say GROUNDED for 6 Month’s?
newsnot 188 posts Aug 15, 2010 8:18 AM	my favorite two things there were the penny arcade and the fascination game. does anyone remember how fascination works? it is kinda for people who like to play bingo.also liked the skee ball games. they were only 5 cents to play. could play a long time for a few dollars and come home with some nice prizes.
RIVERDALE RAT 505 posts Aug 25, 2010 5:28 PM	newsnot: I cant remember much about fascination, although I do remember the game itself. My favorite skee ball was at old Coney, but I wont get into that since it's too far away from Dayton and off topic for our board.
newsnot 200 posts Aug 26, 2010 6:57 AM	riverdale, fascination worked like this. you would sit in a padded chair. there were a series of tables about 18inches by 30 inches. sereral people would play at the same time. there were 25 holes arranged 5X5 at the front. you would roll a ball down into one of the holes. when you went thru the hole you lit a corresponding lite on an upright mirrored back glass. then the ball would come back to you.every one would keep this up until one person got five in a row. that person would receive one coupon for each person playing. you saved the coupons for prizes of which there were many to pick from. they had a similar game called pokerino but that was located in the penny arcade. newsnot
AllenN71 62 posts Aug 26, 2010 8:52 AM	Hey Rat, if I had pulled that stunt I would have been able to sit on a coin and tell you if it was a penny or a dime! And you're lucky it was a Centerville flatfoot you ran into instead of some Skeezy Sam. Times might have been different then, but they weren't all that different in that regard.
RIVERDALE RAT 510 posts Aug 26, 2010 7:07 PM	AllenN71 Don't worry, I got into plenty enough hot water to last me all through my teen years, not to mention the 45 Mnute lecture the cop gave me after we got to the station about how stupid kids like me make his job harder and on and on about how I screwed up his 2 day's off by making him come to work because he didnt want to read about me being found dead in a ditch somewhere, Yada,Yada, Yada. Looking back, he was just a Father himself and a good cop trying to keep some idiot kid safe from harm, but it sure didn't seem like it at the time. at first he thought I was a runaway and I think he got even more upset when he found out the truth.
Alyce52 1 post Aug 30, 2010 11:40 AM	i was in shawn acres and every year we went to LAKESIDE or FRANKIES FORREST PARK---THIS WAS IN THE MID 50'S
beachboy51971 1 post Sep 08, 2010 1:41 PM	Here's the link from the History channel showing the deteriorating Americana park. Very sad to see. I grew up going to Americana with family, friends, even took my own kids just before final 2002 season. I miss the train, western town, carp swimming in the lake that ate everything, Screechin Eagle, the pool. Americana was the perfect place....seeing it now is very sad and unfortunate. They have even drained the lake now..... http://www.history.com/shows/life-after-people/videos/sin-city-meltdown#sin-city-meltdown
mjr1960 22 posts Sep 08, 2010 3:48 PM	Just watched the history channel video, Would someone explain why someone would purchase a park and let it go that way, Sad just sad. Its also sad in a way that many families in this area of the state can't afford to take their families to kings Island for 5 to 6 hours of fun. Americana was moderatly priced and a good time was had by all. Last time we were there was 1999 and indeed we all had a good time. I believe Mr couch's original intentions were correct. But when he relized he couldn't operate it he should have chosen other methods especially with the eagle.