Defunct, Operated from to
| Former names | Old Indiana Fun Park Old Indiana ( to ?) Middle Country USA ( to ) Middle Country Renaissance Festival ( to ) |
|---|---|
| Former status | Operated from to Operated from to |
| Old Indiana opened under the name Middle Country Renaissance Festival. The Renaissance Festival started in August of 1983 and ran for 6 weekends until the end of the first weekend in October of 1983.
Riding on the reasonable success of the Renaissance Festival construction of a ride park started in 1984 and it opened on June 9th 1985 with the name Middle Country USA. In the spring of 1987 the park filed chapter 11 because attendance wasn't sufficient to meet expenses and further development costs. It opened for the season under bankruptcy court supervision. The name was changed to "Old Indiana" since the Middle Country name was sullied. During the ride park phase, the park served nearly 3 million patrons. The park was on the brink of profitable operation. During this time the park's name was then modified to Old Indiana Fun Park and again to Old Indiana Fun-n-Water Park. On 8/11/1996 an accident on the miniature train ride paralyzed a 4-year-old girl from the chest down and killed her 57-year-old grandmother. To pay for the girl's extended care, the parks rides were sold at auction on 2/22/1997. In a separate deal, the land was sold to Premier Parks (now Six Flags.) Premier Parks was planning to redevelop the park into the "Heartland Festival Entertainment Complex" and open it in 1999. They purchased four roller coasters from the closed Opryland USA park in Nashville, TN and transported them to the site. 1999 came and went with no changes to the site. During the year 2000 two more roller coasters from Riverside Park (now Six Flags New England) arrived at the park and were placed in the old parking lot along with the other 4. And again, the park sat with no activity. In July of 2002 Six Flags sold the 330 acre Old Indiana property to Trevor Grey, owner of a tanning bed and suntan lotion company called ETS. Plans are to turn the property into a nature preserve. An approximately 7 mile long 10 foot high metal fence is (as of August 2002) being constructed around the site. Six roller coasters were still on site when Six Flags sold the property. The Rock n' Roller Coaster was relocated to the Great Escape in Lake George, NY. The Black Widow, Little Rickies Little Twister and Wabash Cannonball were scrapped by an independent contractor with other rides and buildings from the park. The two remaining roller coasters, Chaos and Screamin' Delta Demon were still seen at the park on 7/27/2003. It is probably safe to guess that Six Flags made a deal to keep them there for a while until they found a new home for them. When Six Flags sold the property, it included provisions for Six Flags to keep the rides there for a period of 4 years. This ended on April 1st, 2006 and the Screamin' Delta Demon (Intamin/Giovanola Bobsled) and the Chaos (Vekoma Illusion) train were still on site. By June 11th, 2006 they were gone and little if any evidence of the park's existence remains. |