Cedar Fair: Fate of Geauga Lake amusement park carousel

BAINBRIDGE -- Cedar Fair spokeswoman Stacey Frole says the historic former Geauga Lake amusement park carousel will be refurbished.

Frole says the refurbishing will get underway early in 2009 and the carousel will be moved to another Cedar Fair park this spring.

Frole says the Sandusky-based Cedar Fair officials already know where the hand-carved, 1926 vintage Marcus Illions carousel is going but declined to make that information public at this time.

The carousel was originally built for the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Exposition in 1926 and it appeared briefly in Birmingham, Ala., before being placed in storage.

It was then purchased by Geauga Lake in 1937 and Illions himself restored the ride before it went into operation at Geauga Lake.

The amusement park closed in September 2007 and most of the rides were auctioned in June and others were moved to other parks.

The carousel and the park's historic Big Dipper roller coaster remain on the Geauga Lake grounds. The Big Dipper was sold at the June auction to an unnamed buyer who had Tom Woosnam of Apex Western Machinery Company, of Akron, make the $5,000 bid.

The Itamin Skyscraper ride also remains on-site at the park but it was sold for scrap at the June auction.