Zingo on the auction block
Zingo is for sale. The Bell's Amusement Park roller coaster that thrilled generations of Tulsans is being auctioned off on eBay by Better Price Surplus Warehouse for $400,000 or best offer.
Roller Coaster for Sale. Engineered and manufactured by Philadelphia Toboggan Co. Erected in 1968 and dismantled in 2006. The Zingo Roller Coaster formerly at Bell's Amusement Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma has been dismantled, put in storage and is now for sale. The train, track, gears, motor, chain, bent legs, and lumber (2x6, 2x8, 4x4, 4x6, 6x6, 6x8, 6x12). Tens of thousands of board feet of lumber, all double kiln, dried pressure treated, yellow pine painted with white latex. The coaster was 72 feet at its highest point and 2,675 feet long. This lumber can be cut, sorted, loaded etc, at its present location as long as its gone by 5/30/2011.This coaster is for sale as a whole unit or can be separated into 2 lots. The lumber as 1 lot and all other components (train, track, gears, motor, chain, etc.) as Lot 2. The asking price is $250,000 USD for each lot, or $400,000 USD in its entirety or Best Offer by 4/15/2011. This equipment and lumber must be moved from its present location by May 30th, 2011. We will entertain any serious offer and help with the logistics of the move. Contact Marc Price at 918-625-0492 or email bargains@betterpricestore.com
It's not unheard of for a wood roller coaster to find a new home. Frontier City's Wildcat was relocated from Fairyland Park in Kansas City. Knoebels' Phoenix came from Playland Park in San Antonio. According to the Roller Coaster Database, there are only 167 operating wood roller coaster in the entire world; 120 of them are in North America. Perhaps Zingo can find a good home in another part of America or another part of the world. Or perhaps someone could find a place for it here in the Tulsa area.
MORE: News on 6 talks to Robby Bell:
Bell says he decided to sell Zingo because he needs the money to help open a new Bell's. And he says he's only selling what could be easily replaced, unlike some of the other rides at Bell's."So certain pieces we don't want to turn loose of, but Zingo is just a matter of lumber and bolts. And we have the trains and the chain, but even if we sold that, that could be replaced," he said.
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Relocation is not at all uncommon.
But, it does appear whatever we once knew as 'Zingo' will be forever a memory. Even if a newer/better 'Zingo' arises from the ruins.
Thanks Tulsa County Commissioners.
Oh, btw, did you know the parking structure at OSU Medical Center (7th-11th & Houston)was relocated here from Love Field in Dallas?
Funny stuff.
This town...I swear. One big disappointment after another. But then again, nothing is sacred to people.
I can't wait to witness the "exciting plans" that our new PLANiTULSA planning director is going to enact against our wills.
It is hilarious to me that the mid-towners want to transform Tulsa into a Denver, or something resembling an Oregon city. Very hilarious when I consider how Tulsa started as a cattle town--that raising cattle here was the basis for this place's founding.
People came out to the Frontier to get away from the bullshit of New England or wherever they came from. Folks just want a nice little affordable place to live where things are stable.
But whatever. Goodbye Zingo. Agenda 21, here we come.
-Hirsch
It would be more accurate to say that Tulsa started as a railroad station. While there were cattle ranches, it was the railroad's arrival that led to a town being platted. Tulsa grew up around the Frisco tracks, which is why downtown streets are angled as they are.
But it was oil that turned Tulsa from a town into a city, and when people came from the east to be close to where the oil was being discovered, they wanted the comforts of home. They started an opera, a ballet, and a symphony. They built art deco towers and craftsmen homes both homely and grand. They built a streetcar system, with electric interurban connections to Sand Springs and Sapulpa, and they had passenger rail (steam and diesel) connecting them to the rest of the country. In 1950, Tulsa was one of the 20 most densely populated cities in the United States. Look at aerial and street photos of Tulsa before World War II, and you'll see a place that looked much like the densely settled cities of the east coast.
Federal subsidies for suburban development (cheap money for new construction, funds to build the freeways to these new suburbs) and for urban redevelopment (damaging or destroying older neighborhoods) encouraged the de-densification of Tulsa. The city is only about twice as populous as we were in 1950, but that population is spread out over six times the area.