Wednesday Walk: Foxes and Flags
Communing with Nature and a Six Flags demolition
Welcome to Willoughby Hills!
Every Wednesday, I offer a few short ideas that I hope will inspire you to do some more reading, thinking, and exploring. Let’s take a little walk together and see where the path leads…
A Message from Nature
I can’t help but think that the natural world is trying to tell us something, or at least trying to tell me something. What exactly that message is, I’m not sure, but I seem to be especially in tune with the animals around me lately.
For months, aside from a single black bear encounter I’ve written about, we’ve only seen the typical “backyard” animals at our new house: squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, and common birds like cardinals and blue jays.
Monday night as I was heading up to bed, I looked out our living room windows and saw what looked like a large black cat with a bushy tail in our front yard. As I looked closer, I realized it looked more like a fox, except it had very dark fur. I called my wife to come look, and she spotted a second fox nearby.
We seem to have determined that they were a pair of silver foxes, which breed in monogamous pairs during the mating season. Silver foxes are from the same species as the more common red fox, but they have higher levels of melanin. Their fur can range from black to blue to gray and because these foxes are more rare, their furs were once highly sought after.
I have no idea whether or not this is a valid reading, but here’s how one astrology website analyses a fox sighting:
“Seeing a fox is a reminder for you to be discerning of people or circumstances that may be deceiving you or causing your downfall. It seems to grant you wisdom, especially when you need to find the best solution regarding love or business relationships.”
My wife and I were still in awe of seeing these beautiful creatures roaming our yard, when yesterday afternoon, I spotted a group of wild turkeys in our yard (a group of turkeys is apparently called a rafter).
Here’s how a psychic website describes turkey sightings:
“Turkey symbolism is generally used to indicate prosperity and harvest. As such, the turkey encourages people to count their blessings and respect the nourishment offered by the earth. Often bringing loved ones together, a turkey can symbolize the importance of familial and platonic relationships.”
Then, as I was driving my daughter to a class yesterday in the dark of the evening, I saw a giant buck standing at the side of the road. It wasn’t running or scared, just standing stoically between the road and the woods.
According to a psychic website:
“When you have a deer sighting, it’s as though the Universe wants you to stop what you’re doing and just be in the moment—quiet, contemplative, and thankful. The deer is first and foremost a reminder that you need to listen to your intuition.”
In two of the three cases of these sightings, I was so enthralled that I didn’t even try to reach for my phone to take a picture. When I saw the turkeys, I tried to snap a photo, but they were so well camouflaged with the autumn leaves on the ground and the branches of the nearby trees that it doesn’t look like they’re even in the photo.
I don’t want to read too much into any of this, but I also can’t help but feel that there is some deep connection to nature or some part of myself that needs exploring during this time.
While many people are focused on the election results and are still coming to terms with what happened last week and what’s to come in the future, I keep thinking that the best way to get through the next four years is to reconnect with this planet and each other in a deep, deep way.
If you’re an expert at reading animal symbolism or have any idea what this all could mean, I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Demolition for Six Flags
If you’re into abandoned spaces, amusement parks, or the Venn diagram that is abandoned amusement parks, you have likely heard about the notorious Six Flags New Orleans.
The park originally opened as Jazzland in 2000, although it seemed doomed from the get go. Its parent company went bankrupt in 2002, causing the park to get sold to theme park operator Six Flags and causing the park to be rebranded as Six Flags New Orleans.
Then Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. The pumps that were supposed to keep the park dry failed and the entire site was submerged in seven feet of seawater for a month.
According to Matthew Christopher writing for Atlas Obscura:
“After the water eventually receded, cleanup would prove astronomically expensive. Most wooden structures were a complete loss, concessions and retail merchandise were destroyed, and the structural integrity of the rides had been compromised by weeks in brackish water. Fixing these issues would require an investment Six Flags had no intention of making for a park that had already been failing to meet expectations. Instead, they began a long and costly battle with the city to terminate their 75-year lease. Both the city and Six Flags were hoping for an insurance payout that never came—many of the park’s insurance policies expressly excluded damage caused by flooding.”
Six Flags only operated for five years at the site- it would sit abandoned for nearly two decades.
The site became a favorite for urban explorers and other YouTubers. Vice has a great documentary exploring the park, which includes naturalists that are trained in keeping people safe from the alligators, wild boars, and venomous snakes that now call the former park home.
After nearly two decades of rot, decay, and an uncertain future, demolition recently started at the former Six Flags site (and yes, they also have a wildlife wrangler on site to protect workers).
In place of the amusement park (or rotting amusement park) is a new development called Bayou Phoenix, which is scheduled to include a water park, retail, sports complexes, and possibly even a movie studio.
I never had the chance to visit Jazzland/Six Flags New Orleans, although I have my own bitter memories of a Six Flags takeover gone poorly.
Geauga Lake used to be a regional amusement park on the outskirts of Cleveland. Like many amusement parks, it began life in the 1880s as a local recreation area. It added its first roller coaster in 1925, a coaster that remained operational until the park closed in 2007.
I have many fond memories of going to Geauga Lake over the years. My grandpa’s company used to host an annual employee picnic at the park. I don’t remember if the company paid for everyone’s admission or if it was simply discounted, but as a kid, it was our once a year trip to an amusement park.
I remember my parents going off to ride roller coasters while my grandparents accompanied my sister and me on tamer rides like the antique cars, monorail, or carousel. At lunchtime, all of the employees would gather under a large picnic pavilion and grill burgers and hot dogs to share.
Geauga Lake was acquired by Premier Parks in 1995, which in turn bought Six Flags in 1998. In 2000, Geauga Lake was renamed Six Flags Ohio to reflect the new ownership.
At first, the Six Flags changeover seemed like a good thing. Six Flags invested heavily in building new roller coasters and thrill rides, many themed to DC superheroes. The kiddie areas were rethemed to Warner Brothers cartoons and Looney Tunes characters would host meet and greets.
Unbeknownst to us at the time, Six Flags had majorly overextended itself through the late 1990s and early 2000s and was carrying a huge debt load. They attempted to sell Six Flags Ohio and found a buyer in Cedar Fair, the parent company for Cedar Point 80 miles to the west on the shores of Lake Erie.
Cedar Fair restored the name Geauga Lake to the park, but they soon realized that Geauga Lake wasn’t as profitable as they’d hoped and it may have been cannibalizing some of the Cedar Point audience. The park was permanently closed after the 2007 season and it sat vacant and rotting for many more years.
I drove by the site in 2014 and was amazed to see the Big Dipper coaster from 1925 still standing, fully abandoned.
While plans have been in the works to develop some of the old Geauga Lake into housing or a shopping center for a few years, the most recent development is that the town of Aurora (where both Geauga Lake and the former Sea World Ohio were located) is planning to purchase some of the lake and surrounding area to create a public park. It will include walking trails, beach access, and possibly even the restoration of the old wave pool that was a feature in the Geauga Lake days.
It’s interesting to see that Geauga Lake survived for more than 100 years while Jazzland made it only five. Still, they have similar parallel histories and present similar challenges to developers hoping to reclaim these sites for the community.
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Other Wednesday Walks
If you’ve missed past issues of this newsletter, they are available to read here.
Seeing wild animals in your yard is always fun.