Dreams and Disappointment.

I had the opportunity to do something today that I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time- shoot an abandoned amusement park. I loaded up my gear and headed out with a friend to shoot the mostly demolished Chippewa Lake Park in Chippewa, Ohio.

First off, it was a good experience. I enjoyed it and would go back if I had the chance. Access was easy enough, and we didn’t see any other cars driving by or any people walking past. Once we were in we were pretty well left alone. The grounds were relatively easy to navigate, considering it was so overgrown and covered in snow and ice.

The remnants of the ticket booth, hidden behind a fence adorned with "NO TRESPASSING" signs.

I had been spending some time researching the park, so I knew that parts of it had been demolished. This included the chair swing, the rollercoaster, the hot dog stand, and several other small structures. I knew that there wasn’t much left, but it was still a bit of a disappointment when we finally arrived. After an hour long drive, we spent about a half of an hour inside the park shooting. All that remained were the ticket booth, Ferris wheel, and “The Bug” tumbler ride. There were several other small structures on the south end of the park, but as we were entering we saw some dogs running around inside the fence so we avoided that side. We didn’t see very much that way anyways, but I can’t help but wonder if we missed anything.

The rusty Ferris wheel stands with a tree growing through it. "The Bug" tumbler ride track lies at its feet.

A present-day view of the park. A roller coaster once stood at the left of the photo. The remnants of the ticket booth stand on the right side, and the ballroom would have stood on the hill behind it.

Besides my disappointment in the lack of photographic material, I have several grievances. Firstly, I was pretty bummed that it was such a dark, dreary morning. I guess I should come to expect that in Ohio in the winter (even though it got sunny after we left). This made for a pretty lame contrast of colors, and this didn’t play well into my new-found addiction to HDR photography.

Secondly, as I said earlier, we saw a few dogs running around inside of the park as we were entering. We decided to try and be quick about our work, just in case there were security guards posted inside of the park. As a result of this, as I’m editing my photos, I’m constantly thinking about how I could’ve made my shots better, or shots that I should have taken that I didn’t because of our increased pace. For instance, in the photo of The Bug’s carts below, I wish I had climbed the old, decrepit stairs and shot the benches or seats inside of the carts. We left a lot of the park unexplored as well, also as a result of our pace.

The Bug's carts gather rust on the track.

Otherwise, I guess there really isn’t much else to say about the experience. It was definitely a treat. I’m still slowly editing photos, but as I finish them you can find them on my Flickr page.

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