Auroraadvocate.com - Area man gets pieces of the past from park

by Holly Schoenstein

Reporter

Aurora -- Among the sawdust, tools and shelves of fishing tackle in former Ward 1 City Council candidate Fred Rote's workshop/shed are pieces of Geauga Lake, Sea World and Six Flags history.

"It was last year at an auction when they liquidated everything. They sold everything down to the asphalt -- trees, rocks, fences," the 59-year-old self-employed cabinetmaker said.

Cedar Fair auctioned off the contents of Geauga Lake during a two-day auction in June 2008.

Rote bought Lot 129, which included about 1,000 items from the park's large sign shop. They included signs, banners, carnival game parts, uniforms, blueprints and hundreds of cans of paint and rollers.

"I got my bidder's number and followed the auctioneer around, and when I saw something I liked, I bid on it," he said.

Thirty seconds after he bid on the lot, he pretty much was owner of the items.

Rote declined to say how much money the memorabilia cost, but did say it was "dirt cheap" -- two or three pennies on the dollar.

He estimated one sign would cost about $100 to make, but he paid a couple of dollars. "It was the bargain of a lifetime," he added.

He found miscellaneous items in the lot after he bought it. He also traded and bartered with other bidders to get items from other areas of the park, such as a back rest from a log ride and shoulder harnesses and wheels from roller coasters.

By selling some unwanted items, Rote said he more or less broke even on the price of his purchase.

It took Rote eight days to haul the items away in a cargo trailer.

Six Flags bought Geauga Lake in 1999 and renamed it Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, and in 2004 sold the park to Cedar Fair for $145 million and changed the name back to Geauga Lake.

IN SEPTEMBER 2007, Cedar Fair announced it was closing the amusement park side and keeping the water park side open.

"My first memory of Geauga Lake was when we went there for a St. Pius grade school [Bedford] picnic," Rote said.

He recalls how people walked under the roller coaster known as the Big Dipper for free, but tickets to ride it cost 5 cents apiece.

"I remember going there with my grandmothers and my parents. We probably went at least every other year," he said.

"When our kids got old enough to enjoy it, we took them there. We had season passes to Sea Word and would go two to three nights a week in the summer."

One of his sons worked at Geauga Lake, and the other worked at Sea World.

Other lots for sale at the auction included a 1999 Dual-lane Skycoaster, 1988 Dinn Raging Wolf Bobs wooden coaster without the cars, contents of the Harbor Snack Shack and the Shark Encounter tank.

Not all of the park's rides were up for auction. Rote said the carousel, which had hand-carved wooden horses, was moved from the property.

Rote is preparing to make a second donation of items to the Aurora Historical Society, which may consist of ride restraints, flags, signs and paperwork, such as a ride maintenance log.

Although the memorabilia are meaningful to him -- reminding him of how one of his grandmothers loved the Tilt-a-Whirl and the other loved playing carnival games -- one day Rote may part with the items.

"I'm going to keep some of it for prosperity, and in a couple of years when we retire, we might sell a good portion of it," he said.

E-mail:

hschoenstein@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3152