Yogi Bear builds a new park: The birth of Kings Island
Once Taft completed the purchase of Coney Island (Ohio), they bought a lot of land in Warren County, just outside Cincinnati. Hard to believe, but their new 1200+ acres in Kings Mills was in the middle of nothing at all. Of course that would change…
In those days, most folks around the country had no concept of what a theme park was. They had eagerly tuned in each week as Walt toured them around his beautiful new park on their tiny black and white televisions, but few had ever made the trek to California to see for themselves. Part of the challenge for Taft and the former Coney operators was to educate the public on what to expect and why it would be so much better than their long-time, favorite recreation area. Coney had been hugely popular for decades, so it was a hard swallow for many to see it go away. So it was a wait-and-see for the locals while the owners started spending their budgeted $20 million.
