History
Fantasy Island opened in 1961 and went bankrupt in 1982. It was acquired out of bankruptcy by Charles Wood, the original owner of Storytown USA. He sold the park to International Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) in 1989, and later re-acquired the park in 1992 when IBC went bankrupt. The second time Wood owned the park he changed the park's name to Two Flags Over Niagara Fun Park, a name it kept until 1994 when local businessman Martin Dipietro purchased the park and redubbed it Martin's Fantasy Island.
Originally the park only occupied 12 acres (49,000 m2) of land. It expanded to 85 acres (340,000 m2) in 1974.
The park's Silver Comet roller coaster, opened in 1999, was created in the style of the original Comet roller coaster that was located at nearby Crystal Beach, Ontario for many years. In fact, the original Comet was stored at Fantasy Island after Charles Wood purchased it in 1989. Wood would later move the Comet to his Great Escape park in Queensbury, New York, where it was reassembled in 1994 and remains in operation to this day.
Read more about this topic: Martin's Fantasy Island
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The steps toward the emancipation of women are first intellectual, then industrial, lastly legal and political. Great strides in the first two of these stages already have been made of millions of women who do not yet perceive that it is surely carrying them towards the last.”
—Ellen Battelle Dietrick, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 13, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“The history of American politics is littered with bodies of people who took so pure a position that they had no clout at all.”
—Ben C. Bradlee (b. 1921)
“In the history of the human mind, these glowing and ruddy fables precede the noonday thoughts of men, as Aurora the sun’s rays. The matutine intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the glare of philosophy, always dwells in this auroral atmosphere.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)