Indian Lake (Ohio) - Sandy Beach Park

Sandy Beach Park

A major part of Lake history is the amusement park and dancehall once in Russells Point, which allowed the Lake to tout itself as the "Midwest's Million dollar Playground". Pappy Wilgus, a Russells Point resident, built Sandy Lake Amusement Park, which opened to the public on May 29, 1924. It was promoted as "Ohio's Million Dollar Playground" and the "Atlantic City of the West." They erected a 2000' "out and back" wooden coaster, built by National Amusement Device Company, known variously as "Coaster", "Thriller", "Big Dipper" and "Silver Streak" through the years. The park even offered a penny arcade, a carousel, a millrace ride, a Ferris wheel, a funhouse, boat excursions, and a boardwalk to Sandy Beach Island for swimming.

A major attraction was the Minnewawa Dance Hall. With two bandstands and room for hundreds of couples, the park claimed it was the largest and best dance hall in Ohio. Famous musicians such as the Paul Whiteman orchestra or Rudy Vallee orchestra packed in the crowds. Sandy Beach was a great success even during the Great Depression, and hosted many dance marathons in the 1920s and early 1930s. The 1931 National Endurance Dance Marathon, held in Minnewawa, lasted an incredible 80 days, 2 hours! When a fire destroyed much of the wooden structures of the park in 1935, the park was sold to new owners who quickly invested $100,000 in rebuilding, including replacing Minnewawa Dance Hall with the Moonlight Terrace Gardens. Crowds continued to come through the 1950s. Over 100,000 attended the 1953 Ohio Sesquicentennial celebration at Indian Lake.

The park and dancehall began to deteriorate and decline in the 1950s. The park was renamed "San Juan Amusement Park" inspired by a vintage neon sign "San Juan Hotel" located near the park's entrance. On the evening of July 4, 1961, rowdies at Russells Point bars across the street started fighting - and before the evening was over, there was a riot involving nearly 500 youths. For nearly a decade, there were repeats of the Independence Day weekend riots, with families choosing to go someplace safer, and motorcycle gangs electing to show up and participate. The park management fought back, increasing their security budget, and when it appeared that they had turned the corner on the violence, they renamed the park as Indian Lake Playland in 1967. An illuminated slowly revolving statue of the Virgin Mary was erected at the park in 1964 adjacent to the lake in an effort to bring families back. The statue,still locally maintained remains there to this day.

But large, modern new parks at Cedar Point and Kings Island, each within about a two hour drive, drew away customers. Seeing the success of Disneyland in Anaheim, California, investors in Sandusky, Ohio made massive investments in Cedar Point in the 1960s. In 1972, the Taft family relocated the rides from Coney Island amusement park on the banks of the Ohio River to Kings Mills, Ohio, where they provided the start for a major new theme park known as Kings Island. The Indian Lake park bought a second roller coaster, one of the popular Ben Schiff "Wild Mouse" coasters, but it was to no avail. The park sold the steel coaster and was replaced by a giant multicolored steel slide before it closed down in 1975. The wooden coaster and other rides continued to deteriorate and sit idle until the park was razed in 1982 after the property was purchased in 1981. Many of the dismantled kiddie rides and other park memorabilia were auctioned off prior to the park's demolition.

The park was divided by a channel, the entrance to the Russells Point harbor, with a bridge connecting both sides. The bridge, now without a floor, is the sole nostalgic reminder of the park and is the "arch" depicted in the accompanying photo.