Park History - SeaWorldOhioMemories

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		Milton C. Shedd, Ken Norris, David Demont, and George Millay are the four men who brought SeaWorld to life....but that was not the initial idea. The four graduates of UCLA originally set out to build an underwater restaurant and marine life show. Later they scrapped the plans and decided to build a park instead, and thus, SeaWorld in San Diego was born on March 21, 1964. With only a couple dolphins, sea lions, 6 attractions and 22 acres, the park proved to be a success and more than 400,000 guests visited in just the first 12 months. In 1970, the rolling hills of Aurora, Ohio, just 30 miles southeast of Cleveland, would be the new home of a SeaWorld. By this time the founders of the company had captured a few more species of animals including an orca that would call the new facility home. The Ohio site would prove to be challenging. The harsh winter climate only permitted the park to open from mid May - mid September. However, a large percentage of the USA population lived within a day's drive of the park and that would eventually add to the success of SeaWorld of Ohio. The Walt Disney Resort in Orlando, FL opened near the end of the second operating season of SeaWorld of Ohio. The success of Disney in Orlando provided another ideal spot to capitalize on the mass number of tourists that would make their way to southern Florida for vacations. Since opening day in 1973 SeaWorld of Florida has thrived in a place known as 'the theme park mecca of the world'. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. purchased the company in 1976 and 12 years later they ventured deep in the heart of Texas. In 1988 SeaWorld opened just a few miles outside of San Antonio. Although the climate was more like its Ohio counterpart, the park did have a longer operating season. Still, this park was not open year-round like its sister parks in California and Florida. The stress and financial resources it took to build and maintain a state of the art marine mammal facility in the late 80's eventually took its toll on the company. HBJ, whose primary focus was producing school books, needed to reduce its assets in order to avoid a bankruptcy. The Anheuser-Busch Company made an offer to purchase the SeaWorld parks. However HBJ also owned and operated two other parks, Cypress Gardens and Boardwalk Baseball and out of fear of not being able to find a buyer for the two other parks HBJ refused to sell the parks individually. Despite a long negotiation, Anheuser-Busch bought all six parks. SeaWorld In San Diego, Aurora, Orlando and San Antonio as well as Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven and Boardwalk Baseball in Baseball City. Soon after the sale was final, Busch sold Cypress Gardens to the park's management and closed Boardwalk Baseball. Anheuser-Busch put millions of dollars back into the parks to revive and to prolong their longevity. *thanks to Jeffrey Saunders for this SeaWorld of Ohio section contribution!



			In January of 2001, Anheuser-Busch sold the Ohio park to Six Flags, Inc., operators of neighboring Six Flags Ohio (formerly Geauga Lake). Upon completion of the sale, the 2 parks were combined in spring 2001 as the mega-park Six Flags: Worlds Of Adventure, which boasted it's '3 parks in 1' uniqueness, a waterpark , an amusement park, and a wildlife animal park all included in the price of admission. Sea World executives replied that the park was sold because of the short season of the animal park, due to Ohio's cold winter months, and the fact that they were not able to secure the rights to build amusement park coasters like the other Sea World properties had been able to. Since 2000, with Six Flags in control and the Six Flags name in place, the park's new ambassadors were the licensed WB & Looney Tunes characters, such as Bugs Bunny, Taz, Daffy Duck, as well as Batman and Superman. Not included in the sale was the trademark orca Shamu, and the other orcas at the park, the dolphins, and some other animals. Six Flags brought in what animals it could free up from its California park, so that the Ohio park could succeed on its' "Wildlife' side (sometimes called Marinelife side' ) Six Flags moved 4 dolphins from its Marine World park in California to Ohio, to take up residence at the former ‘Shamu Stadium’ for the 2001 season. In 2002, the park was able to secure a female killer whale from France after a year-long wait, named Shouka, on a 'long-term breeding loan'. The park tried to secure a mate for Shouka, but the news turned to disheartening, since the male orca they attempted to secure from Argentina was not given permission to leave based on reports that it had not come to shore on its own, nor born in captivity. There was also rumor of another mate for Shouka from Japan, but that hadn't arrived at a solution either. Most of the trainers remained to continue with the Ohio park, and some were relocated from the California park as well. Most of the exhibits and rides continued, with the usual change of program venue. The largest change that Six Flags did was to rid the park of most of the former Sea World of Ohio customer support crew after the 2001 season, and more of the everyday responsibilities in the care of the animal park was left to the trainers themselves, leaving both room for their own ideas, but also more work involved. In 2002, the park changed the "All-Star Pets" cat and dog show into a new enviroment for new types of cats: 4 bengal tigers in the "Tiger Island" exhibit and show. This was announced just prior to the arrival of the orca Shouka. Four rides are added to Happy Harbor: Typhoon, Pirates' Flight, Bounty, and Black Squid . The Garden Carousel for youngsters is also added behind the Batman Stadium, while the "Reptile's Wild" exhibit is added near Asian Adventures, just outside the new Chinese Buffet. In 2003, the park added the "Paul Bunyan's Lumberjack Show" and two family rides to the 'Wildlife Side", "Thriller Bee's" and "Starfish", while the 'Yo-Yo' swing ride is relocated from the "Ride" to the "Wildlife" side . Shouka performed in her sophomore year at the park in the show "Shouka's Rockin' Summer Symphony".The major park addition in 2003 was the addition of a mega-waterslide complex "Hurricane Mountain' on the 'Ride side' After almost 10 years of operating Geauga Lake from 1995-2000, Six Flags Ohio in 2000, and Six Flags: Worlds Of Adventure from 2001-2003, Six Flags Inc.(previously Premier Parks, Inc) viewed the Six Flags: Worlds Of Adventure park as an underperforming park, claiming lowering attendance figures due to poor weather and the '9-11' attacks. Six Flags, Inc. was also operating parks in Europe and was carrying a large debt load, as well as seeing their stock prices fall sharply. In March 2004, Six Flags, Inc. announced it had sold Six Flags Worlds of Adventure to Cedar Fair, LP, operators of Cedar Point in Cleveland. Soon afterwards, Six Flags Inc. announced the sale of its European division. In the sale, most of the animals at SFWoA were retained by Six Flags, and relocated to Six Flags: Marine World in Vallejo, CA, with some relocated to Six Flags: Great Adventure in New Jersey, or sold to other parks or zoos. In 2004, Cedar Fair renamed the park back to its original Geauga Lake name, which has a history dating back to 1888, while the majority of the animal side of the park, including all the exhibits and animal stadiums, are now either empty or fenced off. After a complete season almost lifeless, Cedar Fair has announce their plans for the non-operational side of the former Sea World Ohio/Six Flags Worlds of Adventure-Wildlife Side - The entire section of land will become a huge waterpark, named 'Wildwater Kingdom', opening in 2 phases, with 1st phase in 2005, and 2nd phase in 2006. Sadly, this means that the animals will not ever return to this N.E.Ohio park. Meanwhile, Shouka is in her new home in California, while Six Flags is still trying to obtain a mate for her. The dolphins are back at their first home again in California, with Sadie and another SFMW dolphin now sharing the Shouka Stadium tank, and the sea lions that once roamed the Ohio park are also enjoying their new home, and it's been heard that one of them has been seen going around with its' trainer for rides around the park! All of the Warner Brothers theming within the Ohio park has been removed, which includes any kind of reference to previously licensed Looney Tunes as well as the DC Comics superheroes characters. Cedar Fair does continue to use the waterski stadium, once the Six Flags Batman Stadium, during the peak summer season, for the WaterSki Evolution show in 2004 and for some concerts in 2005, as well as operating some rides and the 4D theater and the motion simulator on the former animal side. New for the 2005 season, the bengal tigers that once were part of Six Flags: Worlds of Adventure, are now part of the new animal exhibit located in the area which is now home to the tallest and fastest rollercoaster in the world, Kingda Ka, at Six Flags: Great Adventure in New Jersey.