Negative-G - Lagoon Amusement Park 2017 Page One

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I love a classic park that is filled with old rides, vintage charm and a lot of character. Parks like that are the ones that stick out in my mind and I find myself wanting to visit the most. Lagoon Amusement Park in Farmington Utah is a classic park that totally fits the bill. This park has been on my bucket list of must do parks for well over a decade but until this year I never found myself all the way out in Utah with an opportunity to pay it a visit.

Utah is quite a ways away from the Midwest and what got us out here this year was Bond. With time speeding by and adulthood fast approaching my child; the window for the whole "family vacation" is coming to a close, so we wanted to do something big for the three of us to do together this summer. After deliberating and discussing many options we left the final decision where to go to Bond. He chose Yellowstone National Park. Wanting to make a "National Lampoons Vacation" kind of adventure out of the trip where we could see the country and skip out on taking the "family truckster" some 1,286 miles to Yellowstone we decided to take Amtrak's California Zephyr to Salt Lake City before renting a SUV and heading up to Yellowstone.

With our travel arrangements conveniently leaving us in close proximity to Lagoon Bond and I left Carrie to relax at the hotel while we headed off to Lagoon for a day of three Anton Schwarzkopf designed coasters, a rare classic John Miller design and six other coasters to ride, scream on and add to our coaster counts.

Lagoon Amusement Park dates back to 1886 when it opened on the shores of the Great Salt Lake and was known as "Lake Park". With the lake receding over the next decade the park was no longer near the shores that attracted guests to the resort forcing it to close in 1895. The buildings were purchased by the Salt Lake & Ogden Railroad and moved inland along the train line in nearby Farmington in 1896. Built around a marshy piece of property a lagoon was excavated on the land to give the park a central attraction and a name.

The Cannibal Roller Coaster at Lagoon Amusement Park, Farmington, Utah

The little park which opened a hundred and twenty one years earlier on this spot has grown quite a why from a boating lagoon, dance pavilion and picnic groves. The big draw is no longer the latest songs played by big bands and a idyllic day around the lagoon. The guests that flock to Lagoon now come for thrills, screams and fun. The latest of which is Lagoon's Cannibal.