Abandoned Waterslides


40 miles southwest of Columbus, Ohio, just feet from I-71, rests two abandoned waterslides that once served the City of Jeffersonville, Ohio, and families for several miles surrounding.


Walnut Lake Campground was the place to be in the late 1960's into the 70's and 80's.  With their own built-in re-filtering system and pump station, the campground had two waterslides that continuously ran and attracted guests from miles around.


 In 1988, Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio opened a water park called Soak City, with numerous waterslides.  In 1989, Kings Island followed by opening a 33-acre water park in Cincinnati, Ohio, also naming it Soak City.  With huge waterparks to the North and to the South, Walnut Lake Campground was losing money year-after-year by running the two slides.  It no longer had the hype that it did in past decades.


One Labor Day weekend, the pump station would be turned off, the water would be drained, and the two slides would be taken over by poison ivy and poison sumac for decades to come.  Walnut Lake Campground is still a very nice campground and the signature lake has not changed.  However, underneath the greenery on the small hill just by I-71, rests two waterslides that will never be used for anything ever again but memories.

  
At the bottom of the hill rests the two exits of the slides, which once led to large amounts of water that stopped the people sliding.  Those pools are now piles of concrete, which lifeguards once paced miles upon.  Photographer, Michael travels through them on his way back to the vehicle.


Here's what else we captured: