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Historic place

Springlake Amusement Park

1900 Springlake Dr, Oklahoma City, OK

Roy Staton's amusement park, ballroom and Big Dipper closed in 1981 and its leftovers were buried on site. Only the amphitheater survives.

📅 1924–1981🏛️ ParkDemolished
Open on the mapSlide back to 1924

The story

Roy Staton founded Springlake in 1922, though the infobox gives 1924 as the opening year. It grew out of a spring-fed pond at NE 40th and Eastern that he had opened to swimmers and picnickers. Admission was free, and rides and the pool were pay-as-you-go until the 1960s. Staton added the Big Dipper roller coaster in 1929, and it stayed about 50 years. He also built a ballroom while expanding the park with rides from the defunct Belle Isle Park.

The park drew Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Righteous Brothers, Roy Acuff, Conway Twitty and the Beach Boys. A 1971 race riot, a change of ownership, poor maintenance and a fire all contributed to its decline. In spring 1981 an unadvertised garage sale sold off the rides, buildings and memorabilia, some of it as far as Lima, Peru. Leftovers were buried on site.

What's There Now

Metro Technology Center, which displays a Big Dipper car and park photos; only the amphitheater remains of the original structures.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

Items from the 1981 garage sale went as far as Lima, Peru.
Unsold leftovers were buried on the site.
The park grew from a spring-fed pond that Staton had opened to swimmers and picnickers.

Nearby history

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A Lebanese steakhouse in an early-1930s house that was once a dance hall and speakeasy, with glass salvaged from the Hot

Chicken in the Rough (first restaurant)

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The Osbornes opened a nine-stool drive-in on Route 66 in 1936. It grew to seat 1,100 before the state capitol complex to

Dolores Restaurant

33 NE 23rd St · 3.7 km away
Ralph and Amanda Stephens named this drive-in for their daughter in 1930. Duncan Hines recommended it in 1941, and it cl

Blue Note Lounge

2408 N Robinson Ave · 4.0 km away
A Route 66 lounge whose neon sign went up in 1961 and which the state historical society calls one of the city's oldest

Tower Theatre

425 NW 23rd St · 4.4 km away
A Streamline Moderne movie house with a pipe organ that went adult in 1989, closed in 2000, and came back as a music ven

VZD's Restaurant & Bar

4200 N Western Ave · 4.6 km away
A Western Avenue music bar that Chad Bleakley ran for 24 years. The Tax Commission shut it in 2014 and it closed for goo

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Sourceshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springlake_Amusement_Park