Americana Amusement Park/LeSourdsville Lake

The park entered the decade with a devastating fire that would alter the future of one of the areas best traditional parks ever built. On January 8, 1990, an electrical fire broke out in the Bathhouse and Stardust Gardens Ballroom. The result was over $5 million in losses, including a first aid office, arcade, games building, locker rooms and food concessions. Ride parts and cars from the Rock-O-Plane, Flying Scooter, Bumper Buggy and two kiddie rides were destroyed. The park quickly enlisted the assistance of local labor unions to rebuild the area in time for the April opening with payment to come later in the summer. By May, a new 300-seat indoor/outdoor food court, an arcade, a Dodgem' ride and a refurbished Flying Scooter ride reopened on the site of the fire. Meanwhile, the park began experiencing problems with its insurance company regarding its multi-million dollar claim. To make matters worse, Ron Berni, a longtime fixture at the park and son of Howard Berni, had been offered a position at Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville, Kentucky. He reluctantly accepted the offer with the backing of his father.

The hiring of local students and senior citizens was always a challenge because of the keen competition of other attractions in the area. To help alleviate that problem, the park entered into an agreement with a Mexican college to hire Mexican students for the summer. The plan quickly fell apart and the park experienced a lot of negative media coverage regarding claims by the students of poor living conditions in their dorms and illegal working conditions. The local unions, who normally booked their picnics at the park, suddenly canceled their lucrative picnic outings due to the allegations and the park began a deep decline in attendance and revenue. By the end of season, attendance reached an all-time low of just under 200,000. The park then learned that its insurance company would only pay $3 million in claims, leaving the park to pick up the remaining $2 million in expenses. In December, the park filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

By Spring 1991, the park was purchased and reopened by Leisure International, a group of former park management. Joe Faggionato, Guy Sutton, Lenny Gottstein and Don Robison took over the park and began the long, hard effort of erasing the previous year's nightmare from customers, including the local unions. In July, Guy Sutton left the park to become the Operations Director at Clemonton Lake in New Jersey.

The trio built a petting zoo and opened a new restaurant for the 1992. Their efforts enabled the park to build the attendance back up to just over 330,000. In 1993, the animated Country Bear Jubilee show was sold to the Jungle Jim's Food Market in Fairfield, Ohio. No new attractions were added during the year, however, attendance increased to 412,500. During the 1994 and 1995 seasons, Leisure International spent an additional $6 million to upgrade landscaping and infrastructure throughout the park. By 1995, Faggionato, Gottstein and Robison realized that a bigger company with more capital would be needed to continue upgrading the park so Americana was put up for sale.

In 1996, Park River Corporation, owners of Coney Island Amusement Park in Cincinnati, Ohio, purchased Americana for an estimated $3 million. Between 1996 and 1998, over $1 million was spent on upgrading the Screechin' Eagle roller coaster, developing a new paint scheme of magenta and teal, introducing a new merchandising line in the gift shop consisting of unique Americana emblazon clothing, and adding a variety of rides, including a carousel, Ferris Wheel, and the Tempest. In 1997, Park River owner Ronald Walker died unexpectedly and family members expressed concern about the future of the park. The park was quietly marketed for sale by 1998. Perhaps the brightest moment in Americana's history was achieved in June 1999 when a group of 90 British roller coaster enthusiasts invaded the park to experience the legendary Screechin' Eagle roller coaster.

In December 1999, information letters regarding the 2000 Family Funpacks (similar to season passes) were distributed across the area. In a shocking announcement on January 6, 2000, Park River announced the closing of the park for the 2000 season.


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This was the scene at 4:30 p.m. on January 8, 1990 when a spectacular fire broke out in the Bathhouse and Stardust Gardens Ballroom area. This picture shows the rear of the building near the main entrance gate [Photo credit: Cincinnati Enquirer]	This photo shows the food stand across from the Gift Shop going up in flames [Photo credit: Middletown Journal]	At 6:00 p.m., the fire is still raging as a Monroe City aerial truck attacks the flames [Photo credit:Hamilton Journal-News]

Hundreds of people converged on the scene as news of the fire made its way across the evening newscasts in Cincinnati, Dayton and nationally on CNN [Photo credit:Dayton Daily News]	This scene is the Arcade/First Aid area near the main entrance gate [Photo credit: Middletown Journal]	The park opened a week later than originally scheduled in the spring of 1990. Above is the new food court built on the site of the Bathhouse [Photo credit: SOAPHS archives]

The park's gift shop and restaurant building received minor damage from the fire but reopened on in 1990 [Photo credit: SOAPHS archives]	Attendance for the 1990 season fell drastically as the park tried to recover from the $5 million fire [Photo credit: SOAPHS archives]	A foreign student hiring program initiated in 1990 also did not go as planned and contributed to poor gate attendance [Photo credit: SOAPHS archives]

The large maple trees that graced customers entering and exiting the park were lost after the fire. The result was a mass of concrete after the reconstruction [Photo credit: SOAPHS archives]	A new entrance gate was constructed in 1990 [Photo credit: SOAPHS archives]	Logger's Run also suffered a downturn in popularity as the Arcade became smaller and the saloon lost its weekend live entertainment. At the end of the 1990 season, the park went into bankruptcy [Photo credit: SOAPHS archives]

This picture of the midway in 1999 was a typical Saturday [Photo credit: SOAPHS archives]	The park was sold again in 1996 to the owners of Cincinnati's Coney Island. Although the park increased its advertising, attendance did not increase as expected [Photo credit:SOAPHS archives]	The park was quietly put up for sale in 1998 [Photo credit:SOAPHS archives]

	Park owners made a commitment to sell to someone locally. Two major out-of-state contenders pursued the purchase of the park but were turned away [Photo credit: SOAPHS archives]	The park was closed down after the 1999 with no buyer on the horizon [Photo credit: SOAPHS archives]