Bay Beach Amusement Park & The Zippin Pippin
Green Bay, Wisconsin
July 20, 2011
Page One






For years I wanted to get down to Libertyland in Memphis to give the Zippin Pippin a try but fate was not with me as the park closed in 2005 and the coaster was demolished in 2010.  Fortunately Bay Beach Park, which is a small amusement park that is part of the Green Bay Wisconsin's park district had been looking for a classic coaster to add.  After five years of no maintenance it wasn't feasible to move the old coaster so Green Bay purchased the ride's design and name and hired the Gravity Group to do the engineering and Martin & Vleminckx to recreate this classic John Miller coaster on the shores of Green Bay. 

While in Wisconsin on a family vacation we stopped by Bay Beach Park to take the new Zippin Pippin for a ride.



New coaster...oh yeah Bond was ready to ride.



A rare thing to see nowadays is a three bench car.  Keeping with the way the original Zippin Pippin ran Green Bay requested three bench cars from Philadelphia Toboggan Company for their recreation of the coaster..



The Libertyland Zippin Pippin was built in 1923 by John Miller and an interesting fact about it was that Elvis Presley was a coaster enthusiast and often he'd rent out the coaster and ride it to his heart's content.  A week before his death Elvis rode the Zippin Pippin all night long and on one ride he hopped out on the lift hill as a practical joke.  The ride operators freaked out when the train came back into the station empty.  Elvis had a good laugh about it when he walked into the station a few minutes later.



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Paul B. Drabek