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BELL’S AMUSEMENT PARK  (Oklahoma)

Project News - (6/2/10) According to this report Wagoner County has called off the vote to increase taxes to help fund the rebuilding of Bell’s Amusement Park. According to the statement a need for further study was cited before they rushed off into action on this.
    (5/26/10) According to this article posted at Tulsa World, Bell’s Amusement Park may have found a new home. It seems Wagoner County has approved a measure to relocate the park there, pending approval of a quarter-cent tax increase this July. Robbie Bell has already signed a agreement for an initial 50-year lease agreement (with extension options) on property rumored to be in Coweta.

DECADES   Eloy, Arizona (Between Phoenix and Tucson)

Project News - (5/7/09) According to the local news the Decades theme park project may be forced to move away from it’s first chosen location in Eloy to somewhere closer to the heavily populated Phoenix area. This seems to be a requirement from the park’s investors who are unwilling to risk building the park in a more remote location between Phoenix and Tucson.
    (12/26/08) The rapid rise and fall of Hard Rock Park in South Carolina has done little to help the Decades theme park project move forward, instead it has raised even more questions about the validity of the concept. For most, the idea that Hard Rock Park could go under go quickly in the middle of the tourist hot-spot like Myrtle Beach, makes them very wary of just how well Decades would fare in the remote location of Eloy, AZ. Funding the project is proving difficult as well under the current economic conditions and it could be several years before they are able to move forward on it. You can read more here.
    (11/20/08) Though the economy is in trouble these days, the Decades park is still moving forward at a slow steady pace according to this article. They claim that the slowdown will benefit the park, allowing more time in advance for planning and development and even says that it will still be likely 5-7 years before the park will open.
    (7/23/08) Some fun details about the development ideas for the Decade theme park can be read at ThemeParkNewsDirect. I really like the idea they have for the front gate of the park, themed to have two large towers, each armed with a large cannon on top. Every morning just as the park is about to open they will play AC/DC’s “For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)” and fire the cannons.
    (6/30/08) The Governor of Arizona has now signed the new law that will help get the Decades theme park project off the ground.
    (6/25/08) The Arizona senate has given approval to a new bill that help finance the Decades theme park project in Eloy if the developers can raise $100 million on their own as well as secure financial guarantees for an additional $750 million bond to be paid back by taxes from the special entertainment district. The bill was approved by a 17 to 9 vote.
    (6/11/08) According to the local news, state legislators are being advised that the government and taxpayers will not be liable for the revenue bonds used to finance the new Decades theme park if it should fail. The bill requires that the park’s backers raise $100 million and secure guarantees for the $750 million in bonds that would be repaid from taxes generated from the park. The final legislation is waiting for a vote from the Senate before it’s sent to the Governor.
    (4/30/08) Good news for the Decades theme park as the bill that would allow the project to receive public bond financing was approved in a preliminary vote on Tuesday and moves on to a final vote by the state House. Once approved by the House it would move on to the Governor for final approval.
    (11/9/07) A new theme park has been proposed for Arizona called Decades that is pitching a very cool rock ‘n roll music theme to it. The park is eyeballing a site in Eloy, a town between Arizona and Tucson, and will have several lands, each themed to a different decade of rock music from the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s in the first phase and 90s being planned as an add-on. The artwork on the official website is a little rough, but if you take the time to really look at it up close, you’ll see a lot of great ideas in there… the kind of things I thought would have been included in Hard Rock Park but weren’t.
    I’m talking about more fun pop-culture ideas for the rides like the “Love Rollercoaster”, an AC/DC Thunderstruck coaster, the Crazy Train, Welcome to the Jungle flume ride, Welcome to my Nightmare haunted house, the Hotel California log flume, Green River, Riders on the Storm, an image of Dr. Doom’s Fearfall redecorated as Aerosmith’s Love in an Elevator and more.  Lots of water and water rides in this park, which is a must for any park in Arizona I’m sure, so lets hope for the best. Check out the website and show your support. If all goes well they would like to open the park by 2012. You can read more about it here and I hope to have more details soon!

EARTHQUEST ADVENTURES  (Houston, TX)

Project News - (8/2/10) The latest status report for the EarthQuest project claims that they are still on track to begin construction in either late 2010 or early 2011, and open the first phase 2 years after that. Still… there are quite a few people that are tired of all the talk and are at the point where they wont believe it is really coming until the digging starts. I can’t blame them… just look at all the endless delays that have kept other projects on ice year after year. Lets hope that isn’t the case this time around.
    (7/15/10) A new small update about EarthQuest can be found here. They report that the project is about 2 years behind schedule, but they hope to secure financing by the end of the year and have the park finished by 2013.
    (3/31/10) EarthQuest Adventures has finally updated their website into a new slick professional looking site, complete with all new concept artwork of the resort, theme park, several attractions, along with many more descriptions about each area of the park.
    (3/3/10) It’s been some time since I’ve reported anything new about EarthQuest Adventures project in Texas, but over the last few weeks new information has leaked in. During a fundraiser held for the project last December it was mentioned that out of the various features of the project (theme park, institute, EarthWalk retail mall, a waterpark, FEC and even some residential areas) their plan was to build the theme park and institute first before moving on to any other development concepts. The plan at the time was to divide the park into six lands, with a central huge mountain in the center. One side of the mountain is themed to look like a Volcano while the other looks like a snow covered arctic mountain.
    Gateway – Home to the entrance as well as an after dark laser / fountain show.
    Land – Home to many thrill rides, including one themed to go in and out of a large fake Volcano structure.
    Life – As you can guess, this is where you will find the nature and animal exhibits.
    Sky – More thrill rides here including what is thought to be an launched inverted coaster called F-5 Storm Chasers. I’m guessing that this could be similar to what we’ve seen Vekoma built as the Inverted side of Battlestar Galactica at Universal Singapore.
    Water – A mixture of water and ice themed attractions, such as a bobsled coaster or the Rapid Runner’s river flume ride.
    Pangea – Which will feature a submarine voyage style family attraction down into a secret underwater world full of sea monsters, discovered during the construction of the park.
If your interested in learning more right from the EarthQuest people yourself, check out their official Institute website where you can sign up for the mailing list or keep checking the main preview website for the theme park here in case they ever get around to putting some real content on it. In the meantime another reader discovered a model of the entire park and send in several pictures of interest, showing off various themed lands or rides.
    (7/15/09) New artwork showing off EarthQuest can be found at the Contour Entertainment website. Just click on In The Works and then Earthquest to find it. The artwork seen here is amazing looking and puts this park project in an entirely new light for me.
    (7/6/09) The EarthQuest project has launches two new preview websites: EarthQuestInstitute.org and EarthQuestAdvetures.com. According to a local area reader who goes by the site frequently, they’ve seen no sign of construction start yet there.
    (12/18/08) A large update about EarthQuest project has been posted following a rather detailed new presentation about the park made last week. It mentions that the project will be cut into two halves, EarthQuest Ventures serving as the profit side of the business that will run the theme park and EarthQuest Institute that will run the non-profit museum and educational side of things.
    The theme park itself will feature a zoo where riders can “ride through and observe the animals” on an energy efficient train like vehicle. The center of the park will be a large fake mountain with three different environmental sides, Arctic, Volcanic and Rainforest, with each side to feature a themed roller coaster attraction. Surrounding the mountain will be four lands themed to the elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water, each with it’s own themed rides, displays and attractions.
    The article goes on to talk a bit more about the Museum side, the resort elements, convention center and a water park. They hope to break ground sometime in late 2009.
    (10/23/08) The local news has posted an update about EarthQuest Adventures.
    (5/21/08) We haven’t heard too much about Earthquest Adventure lately but someone has posted the overall layout artwork for the project to Six Flags Houston.
    (3/10/08) From the sound of things the Earth Quest Adventures park project in the Houston area has been given the green light and could break ground within 9 to 12 months.
    (11/5/07) There was a brief update on Houston’s EarthQuest project late last month where they talk a bit about getting investors onboard and looking at sites. Don’t look for a giant theme park to arrive overnight however, as they say the project will go up over a period of five to six years starting with a education “Institute” building at first around 2009, to be followed by an Imax theater, a meeting space with a conventional theater and finally the theme park and resort aspects by 2011 or 2012.
    (6/29/07) Astroworld may be only a memory now but the Houston area may become home to an all new $500 million theme park project called Earth Quest Adventures. The planners are looking at a site in East Montgomery County for a dinosaur themed park where guests will learn about the prehistoric creatures while taking in thrills on rides and water slides in addition to a museum area. Their studys say that the 150 acre project could bring in 2.5 million visitors a year and creation 2,700 new jobs once open. If things go well they would like to start construction in 2008 and open by 2011 or 2012.

NICKELODEON UNIVERSE - NEW ORLEANS
Southern Star Amusements / Viacom

Park News - (11/16/09) Nick may have left down, but Southern Star is still holding onto their vision and has offered the city $12.5 million to outright buy the 226 acre former Six Flags New Orleans park site.
    (11/10/09) Bad news for Nickelodeon Universal New Orleans… as Nick has officially ended their relationship with Southern Star in the project. The fallout took place after Southern Star failed to meet important requirements and deadlines.
    (10/29/09) According to this article, Southern Star Amusements and their partners were unable to make a half-million dollar refundable good faith payment this week in order to apply for Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds. They report that while they didn’t have everything ready to meet the deadline this week, they will be back at a Nov. 18th meeting and have everything in order to seek approval by then.
    (9/11/09) Check out this news article where Nickelodeon talks about their plans to revivie the former Six Flags New Orleans park site as a new Nick themed water and amusement park.
    (8/26/09) A local source reports that some weirdness has been going on in regards to the proposed Southern Star / Nickelodeon takeover of the former Six Flags New Orleans park. For at least the past two years or so the spokesperson for Southern Star, Danny Rogers, has been posting various statements and stories to the forum at SFNO.com, the former unofficial site for the park. However I’ve now been told that most, if not all of these posts have now been edited to remove all of the previously posted information. It’s also worth mentioning that the SoutherStarAmusements.com site is also currently closed for a redesign… effectively taking everything Danny Rogers has said and posted and deleted it all. Of course, many people know how to find cached sources to pull up these posts, and I’ve heard that many of them were archived by readers as well for future reference. Plus I wouldn’t be surprised if SFNO.com just goes in and pulls them all out and republished the entire batch again… somewhere where they can’t be deleted. Either way, it does make one wonder just what Danny is trying to hide.
    (8/20/09) A couple of news articles have already assigned the Nickelodeon Universe - New Orleans name to the new proposed theme and waterpark project to be built on the former Six Flags New Orleans park site.
    (8/19/09) In a surprise move Nickelodeon’s name came back into the spotlight today it was announced that they have now officially signed on with Southern Star to revive the former Six Flags New Orleans park site. With a projected budget of $165 million, they will have to convince wary lenders to finance at least half of the project as well as endorsements from the state’s Bond commission.
    (2/19/09) The man behind the unsuccessful attempt to revive Six Flags New Orleans has posted the real story about just what happened over at the Unofficial Jazzland Info website. It’s an interesting read about all the various forces involved as well as some basic cost rundowns about just what it would take the get the park back up and running again.

OLE SOUTH USA  (Tennessee)

???? - New Park - In Development - (6/3/10) Every time I think the Ole South amusement park / resort project is dead and gone… I get an update. Case in point... I probably removed the last bit of information I had about Ole South from the site about 6 months ago, but it’s back...
    According to their latest official e-mail sent out on June 1st, “Plans continue to move forward for Ole South USA entertainment resort. A feasibility study has been completed, a development team has been secured, site locations have been identified and master planning will soon be under way. We at Ole South USA look forward to bringing back to Middle Tennessee a great family outing where people will once again make memories to last a lifetime. We would love your feedback on Ole South USA entertainment resort by filling out our survey.”
    You too can fill it out here as well as take a look at the current Ole South USA website, though the survey isn’t much more than an opinion box and a way for you to give them your mailing information for more contact in the future. Meanwhile… I can’t help but feel that this latest message from Ole South USA may have come as a response to the Nashville locals who are wanting to see the return of Opryland once again.

OZ Theme Park Project (Wheatfield, NY)

???? - New Park - In Developmnet - (11/30/09) The long proposed OZ theme park for Wheatfield, NY looks like it has come to an end as unpaid contractors looking for money discover that as far as anyone can tell Oz Central has “empty pockets”. I’ve got to admit, after watching them spin their wheels for quite some time myself, I’m gonna just call this a dead project myself unless someone suddenly gets paid to start digging.
     (2/3/09) Despite the long wait leaders still say that the Oz theme park project is still moving ahead slowly. At this point they are still waiting to get an approval from a variety of environmental studies. Given the economy however, waiting may be for the best right now.
    (9/2/08) Finally a new article has come forward about the OZ Theme Park in Wheatfield. However while the project is still moving forward, they are moving ahead more slowly than they had thought due to an array of studies and reports that need to be completed to determine the impact on the wild life, plant life, noise, traffic, sewage, enconomy, etc. 
    (2/26/08) While the OZ project in Wheatfield has been keeping a very low profile, town officials do report that things are still progressing and moving forward. As for the lack of progress so far the Oz Central group that owns the rights to the estate of the L. Frank Baum Family Trust commented that they are still bogged down in the environmental review process and “at the mercy of the various state and federal regulations”.
    (11/12/07) Just when I thought that the plan to build an Oz theme park in Wheatfield, NY was dead and gone after not hearing a peep about it for the past year, it seems there may be a new development and announcement about the project in the near future according to this news article. Here is an older article about the development from the past.