LeSourdsville Lake facts
Middletown resident Edgar Streifthau opened LeSourdsville Lake on May 8, 1922. The lake was located next door to Americana Amusement Park, which he once owned.
On May 24, 2000, the current owner and Hamilton businessman Jerry Couch purchased the park.
LeSourdsville Lake Amusement Park's last year in operation was 2002.
Source: The Southwest Ohio Amusement Park Historical Society
MONROE — For Scott Fowler the history at LeSourdsville Lake Amusement Park is something to be appreciated.
He worked in a restaurant at the main gate and in Tombstone territory — a theme area of the now-closed park on Ohio 63 in Monroe — from 1977-83.
“I’ve been collecting memorabilia and information on the park since the early 1980s,” he said.
“Unless you worked there or spent time there as a customer, maybe through company picnics or you met your spouse there, you really don’t have an appreciation for a park like that. Obviously, today you have Kings Island, but Kings Island is not LeSourdsville. You don’t have the same atmosphere.”
Fowler, 49, a native of Fairfield who lives in West Carrollton, said what made LeSourdsville Lake special was its smaller size, you could let your kids run through the park and take a date to the facility without spending a lot of money.
Fowler, a police lieutenant with the Sinclair Community College Police Department in Dayton, plans to share some of his memories and the history of the park in a new book being printed by Arcadia Publishing called “Images of America: LeSourdsville Lake.”
The softback, 128-page book is due out in spring 2011 and is a pictorial history of the park, he said. It will include about 200 black and white and color photos, of which the majority are from park archives and/or postcards.
In addition, Fowler said the book will have photos from his own collection and contributed photos from people who visited the park.
The book will be available through Arcadia’s website at www.arcadiapublishing.com and at retailers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble Bookstores, said John Pearson, the midwest publisher for Arcadia.
Fowler said his decision to write a book has evolved over a period of time.
“I began collecting information on that park and then I began researching other parks like Fantasy Farm and Coney Island, and then it spread to other parks of Ohio,” he said.
“Finally, about 10 years ago, a couple partners of mine who also were doing the same thing, we formed a nonprofit organization (in 2001) called the Southwest Ohio Amusement Park Historical Society. We were all gung-ho about pursuing memberships and when 9/11 happened, our balloon kind of burst.”
Fowler said he now uses the organization as an umbrella to conduct research about parks in Southwest Ohio. The historian said he also makes presentations, mainly on LeSourdsville Lake, to historical societies such as those in Butler County, Sharonville and Monroe.
After completing this project, Fowler may pen other books on such topics as Southwest Ohio Amusement Parks and Fantasy Farm.
Proceeds from his book will benefit the Southwest Ohio Amusement Park Historical Society, Fowler said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 483-5219 or dewilson@coxohio.com.
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