Amusement park rich southwest Ohio lost another amusement park on November 6, 1991 as Fantasy Farm Amusement Park was auctioned to the highest bidder.The twenty-eight year accumulation of memories was divided into 433 lots ranging from the park's nine major and sixteen kiddie rides to food service equipment, arcade games, live animals and even a Fantasy Farm branding iron.

One of the most unique features of Fantasy Farm was that it was located literally next door to another major amusement park, Americana, one of the country's largest and best traditional parks. The reason behind this placement is part of the rich history of the area. Neighboring Americana Amusement Park was originally developed by Edgar Streifthau as LeSourdesville Lake Amusement Park in 1922. He successfully owned and operated the amusement park until 1961 when he was forced to sell the park due to financial difficulties brought about by the death of a partner. The new owners renamed the park Americana in 1978.

While he sold the park, he decided to keep his house next to the park, along with 20 acres of surrounding land that was originally the Streifthau's apple orchard. However, Edgar Streifthau sorely missed the amusement park business after selling LeSourdesville Lake Amusement Park and a year later he decided to open another amusement park that was geared to children aged twelve and under on his remaining land. However, as part of the sales agreement for LeSourdesville Lake Park, Streifthau had to promise not to own or operate a competing facility for ten years. As a result the park was owned and operated by Edgar Streifthau's family and friends while he served as a consultant. There was some opposition to the development of Fantasy Farm but construction pressed forward, although the park's swimming pool was not allowed to operate until the non-competitive agreement expired. Fantasy Farm opened on Memorial Day 1963 featuring a Dodgem and Scrambler among its attractions line-up. Over 5,000 yards of walks and driveways were constructed and all utility lines were buried undergound. Unfortunately, Fantasy Farm's initial season was a disaster with the park losing $40,000 on revenues of just $12,000. Undaunted, Edgar Streifthau pressed on, opening a motel on the park grounds in 1965. By 1966, Fantasy Farm was a financially successful operation.

He continued adding rides and attractions, including a number of classic traditional amusement park rides such as a Whip, a Flying Scooter, a Tumble Bug, a hand-carved Heyn Carousel and a Pretzel Dark Ride. By the late 1970's, Fantasy Farm had grown to become one of the largest kiddle parks in the country featuring twelve major and twenty-one kiddie rides. Many of the kiddle rides were placed under covered pavilions so that the children could enjoy the rides no matter how bad the weather. In spite of the success of his park, Edgar Streifthau, 86 years old at this point, was forced to sell the park in 1982 due to his advancing arthritis, the increased difficulty in operating the park and the poor economy.

The new owner of Fantasy Farm was William Johnson, a local carnival operator. He continued to add rides to the park, including a Train and a Monster Mouse roller coaster in 1984, a Tilt-A-Whirl and Trabant in 1985 and an Octopus and Moon Rocket in 1987. Unfortunately, coupled with the increasing cost of insurance and theming of many of the rides, Johnson was forced to remove many of the older park rides, scaling down the size of the park. In 1984, the wooden Heyn Carousel animals were sold and replaced with aluminum figures while the Tumble Bug was donated to the Historic Amusement Foundation. Two years later, the Paddle Boats were removed while the Flying Scooter was sold to Fun Spot Park in Angola, Indiana. In addition, the park's Dark Ride, Ferris Wheel, Monster Mouse and Moon Rocket were eventually removed. Costs continued to increase and as a result, in 1991, William Johnson decided to auction off the contents of the park.

Initially, Johnson had planned to operate a picnic park on the property utilizing the existing pool, picnic grove and park buildings, while adding ten new kiddie rides. However, reports now indicate that the land has been sold to neighboring Americana, who plan to develop the acreage into a campground. Thus the book has closed on another amusement park.

The auction attracted over 250 amusement park operators, carnival owners and curious onlookers from around the country. The top price paid for a ride was $47,500 for the Trabant ride, which originally operated at Kings Island. The purchaser was Bland's Park of Tipton, PA. Major buyers included Silverwood Theme Park of Athol, Idaho, Ohio carnival operator Nolan Amusements, Cincinnati's Coney Island and Sam Johnson, owner of the California based Midway of Furi carnival and three California kiddie parks. Silverwood purchased the Allan Herschell Merry- Go-Round for $29,000, the unique Edgar Streifthau Turnpike for $1,000 and the Barberi Elephant ride for $35,000. Nolan Amusements bought the Octopus ($17,500), the Motorcycle Jump ($25,000) and the Santa Claus Swing ride ($10,000). Sam Johnson is the new owner of the Allan Herscholl Miniature Train ($16,500) and the Schiff Kiddie Roller Coaster ($16,000). Coney Island, which is in the process of expanding their ride line-up, will be adding Fantasy Farm's Tilt-A-Whirl ($17,500) and Sky Fighter ($8,500)

Rides moving to other amusement parks included the Venture Canoe ride, sold for $6,000 to Stagecoach Stop of Onsted, Michigan, the Kiddie Turnpike for $2,500 to Bear Creek Farms of Bryant, Indiana and the Kiddie Train for $1,500 to Wyandot Lake of Powell, Ohio. Other rides sold included the Scrambler ($21,000), the Hampton Combo ($17,000), the Hampton Boats ($10,500), the GoForth F-80 kiddy airplanes ($9,000), the Clemens Teeter Copter ($5,000), the Zoomer (similar to a Helicopter) ($8,000), the Bullet (similar to a Himilaya) ($6,500), a dismantled El! Ferris Wheel ($5,000), a Kiddie Ferris Wheel ($5,000) and the antique Mangels Whip ($3,500). Ironically, the Whip was sold to William Mangels, Jr., the great-grandson of the manufacturer of the ride.

After six hours of bidding, the final lot, the park's benches, were sold. This began the process of dismantling Fantasy Farm, making an amusement park rich region just a little poorer.

Related Links:

Unofficial site of Americana & LeSourdsville Lake

National Amusement Park Historical Association