Beat the heat
*Originally posted 11/10/2021, I never really liked this post*
Opening its doors sometime in 1975 Thunder Island, Located in Westfield Indiana is mostly looked upon by its former occupant's fondly. Maybe it was the park's large selection of attractions from water slides to go karts or it's wild staff parties. Thunder island was a fairly large waterpark for its time and brought in crowds of summer folks looking to beat the heat for 19 consecutive years (1975-1994). The park was even used in a scene for a movie!
Thunder Island as seen in the 1989 film "Freeze Frame".Sadly the park began to raise its prices higher and higher until it just wasn't practical to go there anymore. Today it still sits along US-31, a ruin of it's former glory, still waiting for those cheerful kids to return, barley recognizable from the majority of the property, looking no different than any other forest from the highway. Most of the buildings have long since been demolished. Trees now grow through the once busy parking lot and foliage now consumes the waterslides.
The sheer length of the parks abandonment and the lack of security has led the park to meet its second demise, spray cans and fireworks now litter the slides and every visible surface of the park is covered in graffiti.
Sadly enough in early 2021 the park met its 3rd and final demise, The excavator, The pools have been seemingly torn open to allow the water to flow out, the remaining buildings have been demolished and cleanup work has begun on the site. Surprisingly enough all of the copper pipes and pool equipment seems to still be intact.
The main pool is now ripped open.Now to my experience, I first found out that this place existed through a reddit post in 2018 I was already in town so I decided to check the place out, However to access the park you are required to drive down a 1 lane road and park in a turn around right in front of an old grave yard. As I drove down the road I noticed an unmarked delivery van driving back and fourth down the road slowly, The van then proceeded to pull into the woods getting lodged awkwardly between the graveyard and the busy highway. To this day I'm still not sure what this person was up to but I decided to not test my luck and return home.
Fast forward to Mid-2020 and I was once again in town and was bored out of my mind due this being the height of the covid-19 outbreak so most places were closed.
I decided once again to head out to the park and was glad to see no more van parked on the road.
Not even the roads are safe from graffiti (2021)To access the park I walked down a small unmarked trail until I reached a splitting point where I headed right until I reached concrete.
The sidewalk was looking more like a nature path.Just a few feet from the start of the concrete was a small pool and the end of a large slide (I think the innertube one). The end of the slide was completely overgrown and the pool was a nasty bright green color.
I am not stepping in that water without the HEV suit.Walking past the pool I was greeted by another much larger pool for regular swimming. This one slightly less nasty than the other one.
To the left of the pool was two smaller wading pools and behind those was the mini golf course and club house (which I wasn't aware had existed at the time).
Bumper Boats too!Leaving the pool area I headed up the overgrown sidewalk to the start of the large slides. The start area and slides were surprisingly intact for being abandoned longer then they had been in use.
After walking down the slide and accidentally putting a nail in my foot. I was satisfied with my little trip and headed back for home.
Fast forward again spring of 2021. I was sitting at my computer watching YouTube bored out of my mind when I saw in my recommended an old commercial for the park from 1994 just before it had closed.
I had completely forgotten about this place until I saw the video, looking at the comments I noticed a very recent comment saying that they had started demolition work on the place. I initially assumed that the person had mistaken advanced decay for demolition, since I had just recently been there, but sure enough they were right.
During the summer of the same year I found myself in the same position as last time, too much time, nothing to do. I decided to head out to the park again to see if that YouTube commenter was correct or just lying. All the memories came back pulling into that same parking spot and starting down that same path.Random ladder I came across while walking.
However this time it was in nearly 100 Degree heat and I had neglected to pack any water. Walking into the park I immediately realized that the commenter was correct. Large holes stood in place of the pool walls and bits of rebar and concrete lay everywhere.
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