What Ohio's Abandoned Water Park Could Have Been — And Here's Why It Shut Down

At one time, visitors to Mason, Ohio, could have gone park hopping between two water parks separated only by a highway. One of those parks was The Beach at Adventure Landing, where park-goers once shot down a water slide through the mouth of a giant stone beast. Unlike its neighboring water park at Kings Island, The Beach did not survive the changing tides of time. It shut down for good in 2019, as the Cincinnati Business Courier reported. The park had a more than 30-year stint with a precarious final decade leading up to its closure.

The Beach opened in 1985, as the Courier stated, and featured numerous unique water rides located in the wealthy, rapidly growing Ohio suburb of Mason. One of its signatures was the Aztec Adventure, which billed itself as "the only water coaster in the Midwest" and featured a fanged, tiger-like sculpture that riders slid through. There was also a five-story-high water slide called "The Cliff," a heated spa pool with waterfalls, and a lazy river. The park sometimes hosted "dive-in movies," where guests could watch a movie from the pool, and it had a dance club with a weekly DJ night called "Club Splash," per Coaster Nation.

The outlook for The Beach was promising — in 2010, it even earned the title of best private water park from Aquatics International. Visitors who got the chance to try out its rides before its closure mourn the loss of a local favorite. "They truly had some great water slides," a Reddit user said. "I really enjoyed the raft slide themed to an Aztec temple and the tall steep slide in the front was amazing."

In 2012, however, The Beach at Adventure Landing faced its first downturn. It closed due to financial struggles, in part due to market competition, as NewsParcs reported. Some hope was revived in 2013 when The Beach reopened under new management, only to shut its slides for good again in 2019, per WCPO 9. The reasons, again, were financial. "The Beach has struggled and it really began its greatest struggle when Kings Island expanded its water park," theme park expert Dennis Speigel told WCPO 9. According to The Street, Adventure Landing, the parent company of The Beach, has closed eight of its theme parks, including The Beach.

When new developer Patrick Madden bought The Beach property, he saw potential to build it up, though not again as a water park, as the Cincinnati Business Courier reported. One of Madden's plans was to establish a Texas Roadhouse steakhouse at the site, which has since opened and currently has 4.4 stars from Google Reviews. According to another article from the Courier, there are plans to develop an apartment complex on the grounds of the former water park, with nearly 250 units.

Though The Beach is lost to memory, water park lovers still have a fallback option in Soak City, the water park component of the Midwest's largest theme park, Kings Island. Like its fallen counterpart, Soak City is also located in Mason, about a 30-minute drive from Cincinnati. For those planning a day of thrills, consider a trip to Kings Island during the fall, which park guests say is the best season to visit.