Conneaut Lake Park is a summer amusement resort, located in Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania, USA. It has long served as a regional tourist destination, and is loved by roller coaster enthusiasts for its classic Blue Streak coaster. Conneaut Lake is Pennsylvania's largest natural (glacier) lake and is a popular summer resort for recreational boaters due to there being no horsepower limit on the lake. The lake is lined with vacation homes and condos.
It opened as Exposition Park in 1892 to take advantage of the adjacent Conneaut Lake. It began as a picnic area like many other parks at that time. The first ride, a carousel, opened several years later, and was soon joined by other rides and a midway. In its early years, the park primarily served as a resort, with several hotels and a grand dancing pavilion. Unfortunately, many of the park's buildings were lost in a 1908 fire. In 1909 the buildings lost in the fire were replaced with new concrete block structures to decrease the fire risk. One of the new buildings was the Dreamland Ballroom which hosted concert and dance events. The Ballroom was destroyed by a fire on the morning of February 1, 2008.
The park was renamed "Conneaut Lake Park" in 1920 to reflect a move toward more amusements and rides. In the mid-20th century the park featured many of the same rides as other parks of the time.
In 1943, a large portion of the Hotel Conneaut was destroyed in a fire. The ghost of Elizabeth, a bride who supposedly died in the fire, is said to now haunt the hotel.
In the 1960s, the park opened "Fairyland Forest", using a combination of fairy tale characters and animals to help attract families and appeal to young children. Many similar attractions existed across the country at that time. Although popular, the area eventually fell into neglect and closed in 1985 and was replaced with Camperland in 1986.
By the 1990s, the park had fallen on hard times due to declining attendance and increased competition from nearby parks and closed for a year in 1995. In 1996, Ohio businessman Gary Harris bought the park and reopened it on July 4, but new problems arose the following year when he was convicted of tax evasion. To help extricate himself from his legal difficulties, Harris gave the debt-ridden park to the Conneaut Lake community in 1997, but later filed a lawsuit claiming that he held a 99–year lease on the park grounds and retained ownership of several rides. When that lawsuit was lost in 2001, ownership reverted to a court-appointed trustee.
As of 2005, the park was still operating but its future was much in doubt. While it remained an integral part of the local economy and received support from fans of the Blue Streak, the park was still deeply in debt and attendance was not high enough to do much to pay off those obligations.
In 2006, CLP received court approval to sell 3 acres (12,000 m2) of park land in an effort to raise funds to open for the season and to pay off its existing debt. However, in April 2007 a Crawford County judge rejected this land sale, citing various problems with the sale and the plans to build condominiums on the site. With the rejection of the sale, the park trustees were left with finding a donor who would give the park enough money to open.
On May 22, 2007, it was announced that the park would not be opening for the 2007 season due to lack of funds. Park trustees had earlier attempted to raise sufficient funds through the sale of tokens but were unsuccessful. The trustees then sought a six-figure gift to open the park, but finding no donors, announced the park would not open. Heavily in debt ($2 million), the park was unable to borrow the funds needed to open.
On August 3, 2007, the Beach Club and the Down Under Bar & Restaurant opened to 5 days a week operations, with the possibility of the Hotel Conneaut being open at a later time.