Idora Park: There's nothing left...

[PrincessAriel2sing]

awesome vid but crappy song

[MarkCox73]

went to Warren last summer. how depressing! I partially blame the EPA for regulating industry and mining to the point we lost all our blue collar jobs

[Joeyem1122]

i went to idora park today and there was nothing there but half a parking lot no stands or anything just a big field of weeds

[AllUnderXAndA]

When All The Niggers Moved In (Please Note That Theres A Difference Between Africans And Niggers) The Park Turned To Hell And Drove All The White Boys Out... So The Owners Burnt It Down In A Fire To Collect Insurance Money, Also, If You Dont Want To Hop The Fence To Get In, You Can Go Through A 6x6 Hole In The Fence, Just Look Around

[Swampertchamp]

Not a single piece of the park is left :(

[turtle99haha]

I have never been here, but looking at videos of it up and running and then abandon, to this one, of absolutly nothing left. It amazes me it was in use from 1899-1984, what a shame they did not try to rebuild this wonderful place full of memories.

[jeepers2655]

that`s probably what happened to a lot of these Parks,...Frizzbang....they move in take it over and NO decent people want to visit......just like all the neighborhoods.

[Frizzbang1]

For me, Idora Park died in 1967 on the beautiful Summer day that I was mugged there, on the Midway - at knife point - right in front of the Lost River ride. Me and a buddy were 13. I guess since we were white . . . it was a signal for the blacks to zero in. A whole pack of 'em circled us. "Money or your teeth." Choice wasn't too hard to make. They were caught and the Park security officer raged a racist diatribe of epithets at these black bastards, like I'd never heard before. IP- DOA

[dynodon100]

@Frizzbang1 It,s like Rolling A.Mull it,s now called strolling niggers mull NO whites can go there of they face death.I beleave that is why concealed carry passed so easilly in Ohio.I have a 9mm and shoot Police Pisstol Combat with the guys and I will NOT go near there.

[IdoraParkKid]

What a shame they let this park die a slow death. I went here in the 60's and 70's and it was a wonderful place.

[IdoraParkKid]

What a shame they let this park die a slow death. I went here in the 60's and 70's and it was a wonderful place.

[johnknapp1962]

Many memories of growing up and going to Idora Park. Sad to see it's gone.

[account40080]

r.i.p. idora park i will have you rebulided in 10 years

i mean it to you have my word

[beckiso]

i used to go here when i was a kid....in the early 60's....

so sad it is no more

[Lovelytreehugger]

At 0:58 looks really cool!

[kronvlat]

man, this totally depressed me, why am i watching these

[canfield1988]

I saw the fire from my classroom @ St.Christines. We had our end of year field trips there except for that year. Ytown just lost its industry a few years earlier with no new industry taking its place, rumors of widespread corruption in public office, and gang violence was on the rise. Idora represented a time in Youngstown that was clean, pure and innocent. While there have been many positives in Ytown since then, there are still the same underlying issues. Ytown survives. Always has.

[kindakooldude]

It's Ohio's Poletown

[OnlyBellaUnderstands]

my mom lives on the road where the traintracks are for the trolley for idora

[Kennedy55]

anybody know how the fire started??

[ytownteddy]

The big one in '84 which ended up closing the park later that year was started just a couple of days before opening for that spring/summer. They were working on a water ride called The Lost River that was next to and behind the park offices and Wildcat roller coaster. Supposedly the workers broke for lunch and either left a welding torch on or the heat from the torch (or sparks) caught some leaves and stuff on fire under the ride. (Idora was surrounded by a ton of trees)

[ytownteddy]

One of the park's owners saw the fire from his office window and they tried to fight it themselves. That didn't work. The fire dept. got there and found that of the two hydrants in the park one didn't work and the other had really low pressure, so they had to run hoses out to the streets surrounding the park. By the time all of that happened 1/3 of the place was lost and it was all they could do to save the carousel. If you saw where it sat it's a wonder Mill Creek Park didn't go up too.

[Kennedy55]

oh thats a shame.....i've never been there b4 im only 15 so i wasnt around obviously but my parents said that place was the shit back then

[steelbuc39]

There were two fires, how suspicious. They were not a little more carefull after the first one. They tried to sell the park in the 80's for 1 and a half million no takers. Hmm, wonder what it was insured for?

[MikeStammer]

ytownteddy explained it, but basically sparks from a welder working near the Lost Jungle ride ignited a small house and part of the Lost Jungle ride.

seeing these videos always makes me sad

[waterwalk4fun]

They did the same thing with Meyers Lake Park in Canton, Ohio too. Just ripped it to pieces without a second thought to the history they were pulling down!

[jarellii]

My grand mother lived right there on Woodford ave. the street the Idora parks parking lot was on. I can remember as a kid going through mill creek park, and there was a secret entrance there me and my friends use to sneak in and have a great time. we were only like 7 or 8, in the early 80's right before it closed down. I miss that park so much. I still go home and visit the park and enjoy the memories.. The ball room was amazing.

[littlelivey12]

what year did this park close??

[ytownteddy]

It closed in the fall of '84...25 years ago this coming October. It sat there forever rotting away. A few buildings on one end of the park were set on fire in '86. The roller coasters and midway game booths and kiddie land all stood silent until some idiot torched the historic ballroom in '01. That's when the bulldozers came in later in '01 and finished off the coasters and remaining buildings. You can still tell where everything was, but other than the stone steps it's all gone now.

[heymisterderp]

Moved from Boardman right before the fire. So sad to see what happened here. Peace.

[trueloveisarose1]

its a shame...i live in youngstown and idora park was a huge loss...along with the steel mill....

[WildWildfire2kk7]

its sad to see the demise of true americana. all these parks that have become defucnt for various reasons. ive watched 100s of videos on youtube about defunct amusements parks, and its sad, and also so very interesting to read everyones comments about memories theyve had at these parks. RIP freedomland, lincoln park, idora, miracle strip, marshall hall, magic landing, whalom, rocky point, bertrand island, and many more. these are what our memories are when we remember the good times weve had.

[SuperChic0022]

My step dad's band POOBAH played at Idora Park several times in the 70's, and recorded 2 songs there that are on POOBAH 's Rock Collection CD. He says it is sad to see it in this shape.

[yoganandarita]

its unbelieveable that this is the land where my favorite park was, what a shame...im glad im out of youngstownfuckinohio

[dave777blaster]

1960 was the peak in America ,since then it has steadily declined

some say America is headed for the third world

hell no it is third world already

Mexicans must feel right at home

sad sad sad to see reality

on paper the richest nation

but in reality its all a dirty dung heap

[Doomsdesire360]

chippewa lake park is way more interesting

[fester0789]

the Wild Cat was the best coaster ever. I'd take it over any think Cedar Point has.

[JunkyardKid]

you got that right!

[pghpatt]

Maybe the church zealots will think a ufo is coming for them too. Get my drift? It's so sad cause the whole area is shot now. Just goes to show you what corruption and drugs will do to a city.

[bitchen98]

hey fuckers im from youngstown and i have to say fuck that church i hope those fuckers come to thier minds

[Tyses]

I think they're stupid for letting it rot and burn!!!when i was about 5 i remember driving past that place and it was closed and the Wildcat was still partially up and my dad pulled in and told me look at what i used to do with my summers and he looked sad...and thats rare! I think they should build that place back up! especially because geuaga lake just became only a water park! And sry but that church needs to get real...no offence...

[balone8671]

had great times there 30 years ago !

[doggiluver17]

i just hope that disney world never ends up like that!:-(

[JunkyardKid]

screw the greedy mouse.

[defenselesstortoise]

hey bigregbuckeye, jim jones and david koresh had dreams too. Have fun at church.

[lorigrim]

You're correct that local politicians didn't do enough to save the park. But the real bitch of Idora Park is that some church bought the land way back in the 80s and was going to develop a "City of God" but instead have let the site rot. During that time, all of Idora's remaining structures (like the Ballroom) burned down. City leaders begged the church to sell back the land but they have refused. So those people - the Church leaders - are the real a-holes.

[bigregbuckeye]

im sorry but i go to that church. that is a very wrong and correct thing u just said. my pastor saw a dream that God delivered to him and he's gonna stick and beleive with it because God said its gonna happen

[lorigrim]

That's great but the church has had this land for almost 20 years and haven't built a damn thing. So when's this dream going to happen? And could God perhaps choose some other empty parcel of land for this supposed dream so that the city could salvage something of the Idora Park property?

[joeyss2000]

Churches and religion are the true root of destruction and death

[JunkyardKid]

and Axl Rose's gonna release Chinese Democracy, and Duke Nukem Forever's gonna be released, et cetera

[jshorva65]

The problem is what kinds of creatures had taken over the surrounding area throughout the 1970s, and that church was a symptom of that urban blight. The church leaders did for that icon of Youngstown history what Mugabe did for Zimbabwe. The local politicians (Mob figures, almost every one of them) probably got paid off to let the land be sold to that church in the name of "diversity" and look at the results.

[jshorva65]

How ironic that the background "music" for this video is the "soundtrack" of that same urban blight that killed the park due to the crime-infested cesspool surrounding Idora making the park unsafe for its patrons.

[kneejerker]

How's the state of the Klan in Trumbull County these days? Wish we had a man like Warren G. Harding again?

[jshorva65]

What an appropriate moniker for someone to spit such a typical neo-Bolshevik viewpoint under. No wonder the phrase "knee jerk liberal" was coined, because the same knee-jerk reaction to simple truth is programmed into each and every one of them.

Study the wise, elderly historian Eustace Mullins (do a Google Video search) to learn why this world is such a mess.

[kneejerker]

Rock on! You make a flying leap from vintage soul music to the decline of your "midwestern civilization." Simple case of cause and effect, no? So, you like to engage in name-calling? Jingoistic, neo-libertarian, racist TV-repairman. And dude, who are these neo-Bolsheviks you allude to? You remind me of the deluded rockers who were so threatened by "Disco" (substitute that with "Race" music -- it's all the same) that they rioted at Comiskey Park in 1979. However, Disco was already passe.

[bretlin]

What a waste, it seems that the city mayor would do smething to help preserve such a place, we use to go there when I was a kid, rather than getting on the highway to go to all the major amusement parks, it was right there, man it sucks that it is no more and the new generations can't experience the joy of that park.

[yoganandarita]

awe its too bad its gone i remember going there as a kid

[dwjkkrondor]

how long till some screwed up youngstown politician decides he wants to log out mill creek park to pay for the tearing down of the drug houses?

[Dozirulf]

Whoever burnt down what was left of the ballroom is a fuckin' asshole.

[bolmsp]

@Dozirulf n lets not fgt the wild cat too !!!!!

[ytownteddy]

Alot of great memories there...the Backwabbit, Spring Thing, etc. Last time I went was right after the Wildcat caught fire. Places like Idora and Farmer Jim's still make me sad when I think of all the great times had there and now they're gone.

[dylansgirl2]

really sad..i used to go there when i was a akid

[losky1]

Remnants of lamps are looking over the old Idora park land as they lean over in sadness. Such a huge yellow coaster that brought smiles now nothing brings tears...

[rudeboyabbyd]

ha wasnt idora said to be a sacred burial ground?

[rara71]

funny you said that, i was just thinking it would make a great cemetery. i grew up there and went there ALOT, and its real fucked up what became of a once "booming" town.

[JWetzl1]

My dad said he use to go there a lot and have a shit load of fun.. I wish it was still there not even funtional just there for show...

[CoasterManiac60]

so there are no rides or stalls left, sad