Edgewater park

**Koe313** · February-14-10, 02:53 PM

I was just wondering how long Edgewater stayed standing after it closed in 1981. I remember seeing a closed down amusment park as a young child, but i may have been dreaming.

**Downriver Gal** · February-14-10, 03:27 PM

There's a lot of good info about it here:

http://www.waterwinterwonderland.com...?id=301&type=2

My Dad used to work for Great Lakes Steel, who would rent the park for one day each summer for its employees. It was great fun. The rickety, creaky "Beast" roller coaster was the first one I ever rode and was utterly terrifying for a young kid.

**R8RBOB** · February-14-10, 05:15 PM

My family moved to the northwest side in 1976. I remember that it was cool that we had an amusement park right down the street. My father used to take me and my sister to Edgewater. I was sad to see it go back in the early 80's. It was always sad to walk past that land and see it empty.

http://r8rbob.wordpress.com

LodgeDodger · February-14-10, 05:27 PM

Originally Posted by Downriver Gal

There's a lot of good info about it here:

http://www.waterwinterwonderland.com...?id=301&type=2

My Dad used to work for Great Lakes Steel, who would rent the park for one day each summer for its employees. It was great fun. The rickety, creaky "Beast" roller coaster was the first one I ever rode and was utterly terrifying for a young kid.

Wow, the memories. We really did grow up in a great city. There was so much for kids to do back then.

**pffft** · February-14-10, 06:25 PM

We really did grow up in a cool city for kids...

The beauty of Edgewater Park was that it was inside the city ...it was close to neighborhoods. WKNR broadcast from there, and it was a short drive for most of our parents, on a boring summer day [[or a bus ride).

It's not like today when you have to drive 8 hours to some mega-park...

There was so much for kids to do, I feel bad that we let so much of that slip away for them.

**Hermod** · February-14-10, 06:35 PM

Edgewater Park, like Eastwood Park, and Jefferson Beach Park were "electric parks". The streetcar lines didn't get the commuters on the weekends, so they tried to have a "traffic generator" at the end of the line that would cause people to ride the streetcar on their days off. sometimes these were just parks for picnicing and with a dance hall. Often they were "electric parks" with the rides powered by the streetcar lines power house.

**softailrider** · February-14-10, 09:17 PM

Originally Posted by Downriver Gal

There's a lot of good info about it here:

http://www.waterwinterwonderland.com...?id=301&type=2

My Dad used to work for Great Lakes Steel, who would rent the park for one day each summer for its employees. It was great fun. The rickety, creaky "Beast" roller coaster was the first one I ever rode and was utterly terrifying for a young kid.

I could swear the coaster at Edgewater was called "The Wild Mouse" I could be wrong though.

**eno** · February-14-10, 09:28 PM

Originally Posted by softailrider

I could swear the coaster at Edgewater was called "The Wild Mouse" I could be wrong though.

The Wild Mouse was a separate ride from the roller coaster. It was more compact than a roller coaster with sudden drops and sharp turns.

**d2dyeah** · February-14-10, 09:32 PM

Edgewater park was a Detroit kids "Disneyland".....When we were young kids in the 50's, our parents paid per ride with an individual ticket admission, and we only got a few rides.....When we were a little older, in the early 60"s, they started the "POP" deal, [[pay one price) and we would stay at the park all day in the summer, until our parents picked us up.....It was a great deal for $1.50....For less than 5 bucks we had a blast, food and junk included. Riding the "Wild Mouse"..The "Bug", that terrific 2 level fun house, the best "Dogem' car ride ever, and of course the Roller Coaster....It was beautiful back then, well maintained and one of the best treats a Detroit kid could get.

**R8RBOB** · February-14-10, 09:49 PM

Originally Posted by LodgeDodger

Wow, the memories. We really did grow up in a great city. There was so much for kids to do back then.

See that's the part that breaks my heart. I remember a Detroit that was simply great as a child. I remember the Christmas Carnival at Coho Hall, going to the beach on Belle Isle, sliding on the Giant Slide, Edgewater. I remember when Detroit had a real Parks and Recreation dept that would send I guess you could call them a park organizer to the parks during the summer and conduct activities with the kids and they would bring out the fire hydrant "sprinkler" to get the kids wet on a hot summer day. The libraries would show movies and have reading clubs for the kids and they would take the kids to the Main Library for participating. I suppose that is what saddens me most that kids today don't have the perks we had as kids and we wonder why they are heading down the wrong road.

**56packman** · February-14-10, 10:38 PM

I was at the auction for Edgewater park, It was in 1982 if I am remembering correctly. There wasn't much, I remember that the roller coaster brought $2,500. The auctioneer got a big laugh when he got to the merry-go-round, stating that "all of those nasty wooden horses that give you splinters have been replaced by these nice modern fiberglass horses", the joke being that each wooden horse, if it was still there would be worth thousands of dollars each, the whole thing went for around $2,000.
Before you get to teary about the loss of Edgewater and what that meant to the city you have to take into account that the park had been attracting a less than desirable clinetele and it wasn't what a previous generation remembered, that clientele made management's job hard, and the decision to sell off probably came easy.I lived a short bike ride from Edgewater and was not allowed to go there from the mid 60s afterwards because of "trouble makers".
I saw the same thing happen in the drive-in theaters.
Places like Cedar Pointe and the Disney parks learned one thing fast, price the undesirable elements out, return part of that steeper ticket price into the park daily to make it a quality experience that can sustain itself. The nickle-and-dime operation of places like Edgewater ran their course and it was over.

**sumas** · February-15-10, 05:01 AM

I was only at Edgewater Park once. It was my cousins birthday party.I don't like rides, even swings make me ill. Motion sickness I guess. My Mom bribed me to to do the roller coaster with my cousin. I think I was 10 years old, got off of the roller coaster and smacked him. Still feel bad about that!

**Hermod** · February-15-10, 05:16 AM

My parents didn't take us to Edgewater. I went to Eastwood a few times before it closed. My folks favorite was Jefferson Beach. The coaster, the fun house, the Whip, the Dodgems. As said, you could buy a "value ticket' that gave a lot of rides. Does anybody remember the year they tore down the amusement park and Jefferson Beach became jut a beach?

**mallory** · February-15-10, 09:46 AM

I went to Edgewater once. It was a sixth grade field trip. I cracked my head open on the roller coaster, at the bottom of the first drop. I got off and felt something on the back of my neck. What I thought was sweat was actually blood. They took me to the park office and put some white goo on the crack and sent me on my way. Too bad we weren't as litigious in the 70's as we are today. I still have a little bump where I hit it. I'd do it all over again!

**royce** · February-15-10, 11:01 AM

My father took me on the roller coaster there. It was my first grown-up roller coaster ride. It was scary and fun and the same time. I've been crazy about roller coasters ever since. Also, there was this other ride there called the Roto or Rotor. It was that ride that spun you around and then the floor dropped, sticking you to the wall. As of today, it's the only ride to make me sick and cause me to hurl. I think I only went there twice. I lived on the eastside so going to Edgewater seemed like a long adventure. I remember driving pass there when I first got my driver's license in '79 and didn't realize how far I had driven. It's interesting to note that Detroiters had Edgewater and Bob-Lo at the same time. Bob-Lo and the boat ride were great, but memories of that are for another thread.

**Hermod** · February-15-10, 11:59 AM

Boblo, Edgewater, Walled Lake, Eastwood, Jefferson Beach Detroit had a lot of amusement parks..

Cass1966 · February-21-10, 10:46 AM

I remember that Lee Alan used to broadcast his show live from Edgewater Park, it was WXYZ at 1270 on AM I think. He would work out of a small booth and he had a horn that he made a song about. Had to be around 1964 or 65.

**noggin** · February-21-10, 04:36 PM

Old WKNR radio commercial

http://keenerpodcast.com/airchex/EdgewaterPark.mp3

**lizaanne** · February-22-10, 08:37 PM

I used to BEG my parents to take me to Edgewater in the early 70's but they never would [[I'm 45 now). Something about it not being a very nice place to take a small child - [[they were only early 20's themselves at that point). I remember like it was yesterday, being in the passenger seat and driving by and staring longingly out the window and nearly crying because I wanted to go so badly. :-[[

I really think it was because they just couldn't afford it - being teenage parents is never easy. But they did a good job of it in the long run. ;-)

**gibran** · February-22-10, 10:22 PM

I remember the smile on my dads face as we rode for a second time the rollar coaster....that was his favorite and mine too. The wild mouse [[similar to the one on Boblo) was fun but nothing like the roar of a wooden rollar coaster...the spook house and slide were also fun...but to this day it was the rollar coaster that keep me going back to parks...I look forward to the day when i tak emy grandaughter [[or son maybe) on her rollar coaster...I will be the old guy with the smile.

**jiminnm** · February-22-10, 11:19 PM

Originally Posted by Cass1966

I remember that Lee Alan used to broadcast his show live from Edgewater Park, it was WXYZ at 1270 on AM I think. He would work out of a small booth and he had a horn that he made a song about. Had to be around 1964 or 65.

Lee Alan did a few shows from Edgewater, but he did a ton of shows from the Walled Lake Casino [[before it burned down). That was a long hike from NE Detroit. Check out:
http://www.detroitradiolegends.com/ .

**reddog289** · February-23-10, 02:25 AM

I do remember the place before it closed, seemed to be open for privete parties only. Can't give exact dates. Having practically spent every weekend at my Grandparents house who lived down at 7/Evergreen, I saw the place open,closed, and demo'd. Never went there,But always wanted too.

**Thruster315** · February-23-10, 03:35 AM

Sneaking in the back way via the Rouge River was always a ploy for us. We were so young though- once inside we still didn't have much money to enjoy some of the other things in the park.

**detroitbred** · February-23-10, 08:12 AM

Edgewater was great fun when I was growing up...my dad was DPD and every year they would book the entire park the policeman's field day. It did get rough towards the end, and seem to remember like reddog that it was a private party thing before it closed. In comparison to the places today like Cedar Point, etc, it is small potatoes I guess, but back then it was terrific.

**Hermod** · February-23-10, 08:29 AM

Originally Posted by detroitbred

Edgewater was great fun when I was growing up...my dad was DPD and every year they would book the entire park the policeman's field day. It did get rough towards the end, and seem to remember like reddog that it was a private party thing before it closed. In comparison to the places today like Cedar Point, etc, it is small potatoes I guess, but back then it was terrific.

It wasn't just Detroit. Most of the urban area amusement parks closed because of rowdyism and gang violence. The rides were also getting old and decrepit and investment was needed.

.