Bell's Amusement Park returning, will be in Broken Arrow

[formerly405Tulsan]

I didn't grow up in Tulsa so I never experienced Bell's. But it has a cult following here. Glad to see it is coming back.

"Bell's Amusement Park will be returning, 15 years after it closed in Tulsa, to a 100-acre property in Broken Arrow. The park is expected to be 10 times the size of the original Bell's, with new rides as well as old favorites. Smaller children will have a piece of the park with size-appropriate rides, as well.
The revived Bell's, with a water park, will be open about 10 months out of the year near Kenosha (71st) Street and the Creek Turnpike."

https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/be..._medium=social

[dankrutka]

A kid in my middle school in the 1990s was killed when one of their roller coaster's malfunctioned. So, count me out of the Bell's cult.

[Martin]

A kid in my middle school in the 1990s was killed when one of their roller coaster's malfunctioned. So, count me out of the Bell's cult.

[shavethewhales]

I am so happy about this. Our state has been starved for roller coasters for so long. Frontier City is half of what it should be, and Tulsa on it's own deserves at least a small amusement park like this. It's wild that all we have had for 15 years is Safari Joes, a water park that is basically a glorified public pool.

I will probably be there every week once Zingo is rebuilt.

[Jake]

Cool if it happens but I'm in the "I'll believe it when I see it" camp for this.

[warreng88]

A kid in my middle school in the 1990s was killed when one of their roller coaster's malfunctioned. So, count me out of the Bell's cult.

I lived in Tulsa at 15 between memorial and sheridan from 1988-1993, so Bell's was like a second home. I remember hearing about that. It was the Zingo if I remember correctly that went off the rails.

[warreng88]

I lived in Tulsa at 15 between memorial and sheridan from 1988-1993, so Bell's was like a second home. I remember hearing about that. It was the Zingo if I remember correctly that went off the rails.

Nevermind, it was the Wildcat.

[PhiAlpha]

Cool if it happens but I'm in the "I'll believe it when I see it" camp for this.

hey but if it was in San Antonio…it would no doubt be happening! Right?

[Jake]

hey but if it was in San Antonio…it would no doubt be happening! Right?

Feel like there have been several unsuccessful attempts to bring it back over the last 15 years. No timeline, no renderings, no mention of who is actually funding it. I hope to be proven wrong though!

[Plutonic Panda]

Is that all the park has is one rollercoaster? What is exciting about this or hard to believe? Now if they propose a real coaster park I'll be both excited and extremely angry OKC didn't get it but whoever does it first in Oklahoma I suspect will see great success.

[T. Jamison]

I have many fond memories of Bells. My last visit to Bells was in middle school shortly before it closed. After having my young heart broken over so many vague rumors over the years, I have resigned myself to believing that it will never return.

I hope they can pull it off, but this is a "Boy Who Cried Wolf" situation. Fool me once, shame on you... Fool me 100 times, and I'll burn the Zingo to the ground.

[Plutonic Panda]

Okay so I just saw this tweet:

https://twitter.com/cathjsweeney/sta...122612235?s=21

This is a better picture those in the TW article weren't all that exciting. I hope they can build this it looks awesome. Is the plan to completely recreate the original park?

[shavethewhales]

lol, I don't see why people don't understand that it took them awhile to find an arrangement that works. Yes, they tried several times and failed several times, but this is the first time they have actually made it to the stage of acquiring land and announcing firm plans. Now I will say that the fiasco at the flea market was a dumb idea and pretty embarrassing, but I think Robby was just desperate to get something out of storage and operating again. They were kind of wandering through the wilderness for awhile hoping the right partner would show up and save them. There were several times where they had a deal almost lined up but things fell through due to various people involved passing away or changes in the economy. Through it all they tried to keep people interested and keep their brand alive. I can kind of understand how people may have gotten tired of hearing about it, but it's weird how offended some people are by them selling tshirts or whatever.

From what I understand, Broken Arrow is all on board and ready to help them move forward. They obviously have some kind of major backing helping them along as well. I very much doubt they will build it all at once, but I have asked around and am told that construction will start "soon" and the first pieces of the park may open by next year. I interpret that to mean they'll start with either the indoor or kiddie sections first, and move on from there. The big stuff will probably take a couple years to design and build.

[Plutonic Panda]

Are there any pictures of the carousel? That thing looks beautiful.

[shavethewhales]

That picture is really old. Maybe the 80's? Bell's changed a lot over the years. I never remember it looking like that in the 90's. I don't remember the waveswinger. Their carousel was an old carnival model, if I recall correctly. Probably a classic in it's own right, but not something the average person would overly appreciate.

I don't think many of the original Bell's rides are coming back. There's nothing left of Zingo. The log ride was ripped apart in a vain attempt to save it, but you can't piece 1960's fiberglass back together too easily and it was in bad shape anyway. Some of the kids rides he had were setup at the flea market and weren't in great shape then and are probably in worse shape now. I'm pretty sure the tilt-a-whirl is still rotting away in front of the flea market if it hasn't been sold for scrap. I know he sold off a few things too. I'm struggling to think of a single ride that could have been saved.

[Plutonic Panda]

They can rebuild it from scratch with new materials. Just have to get engineers to look at old photos and design what it will take to build them now. New regulations and safety features it will cost more money.

[ChrisHayes]

I wish Cedar Fair would buy up hundreds of acres somewhere in the state and build a world class amusement park like Cedar Point in Ohio.

[shavethewhales]

What Bell's will likely do is simply purchase new ride packages from companies like Zamperla (https://www.zamperla.com/). There's a cottage industry of amusement ride manufacturers out there, and most parks shop from the same small catalogs. If they want to cheap out, they can purchase used rides from a broker, such as ITAL (http://www.italintl.com/index.php). Hopefully they'll do the former though if they want to build a park that will last generations again.

[Thomas Vu]

hey but if it was in San Antonio…it would no doubt be happening! Right?

Josh is the san antonio guy, right?

[HangryHippo]

Josh is the san antonio guy, right?

Correct.