Jackson Barker reports on the fate of one of Memphis’ landmarks.
…the famous roller-coaster ride that tested the mettle of innumerable Memphians since 1923, when it first showed up at the Fairgrounds, won’t be preserved on its home grounds. Rather, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a town heretofore more famous for football than for free fall.
As head of the ad hoc group Save Libertyland! Inc., Mulroy has been trying since 2006, the year he ran for — and won — his District 5 commission seat, to prevent the legendary attraction from going extinct along with the rest of the vintage Fairgrounds properties as the site’s amusement park core headed for shutdown.
Steve, I would love to know just WHAT Memphis is selling to Green Bay. Track hoes were demolishing the Pippin when I photographed and videoed last week. Piles of broken wood are on the ground like kindling. So is it the cars, the track, the piles of rotten wood, what?
You and me both. I have no idea what we're really “selling” to Green Bay, but ultimately, it's a shame that it's not staying here. Why couldn't it have been donated to the Children's Museum or something?
I know I'm the newbie, but it really seems to me that Memphis puts little value on it's history, and that's a shame.
Sheesh.
“little value on it's history” is an understatement…. I wish all the news people and others reporting the preservation and sale of the Pippin would go over to the fairgrounds, if it is not completely fenced by now, and see for themselves what is being done… I posted pics and video on flickr and youtube.
Also they have removed the west parking of the Coliseum. I guess the wrecking ball wiill be there soon.
Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on over there, but it's interesting that there's been no real coverage of anything other than the demolition (I can't think of a better term) of the Pippin.
Heck, for all I know they're prepping the site for that mystery development that Turley and Lipscomb, though seperately, have been working on for years.
Sure would be nice to know what's up though.
here's Jackson Baker's piece, praising Mulroy for putting this together; http://www.memphisflyer.com/JacksonBaker/archiv…
But this paragraph is quite cryptic:
He and they liked what they saw, and Schmitt announced at the end of the day that, upon returning to Green Bay, he would recommend to his city council that they buy the Pippin. In practice, that means the name, the ride’s basic architecture and physical plan, and its historical association will be sold — with new boards and other materials to be supplied by the Wisconsin city.
Soooo. it sounds like they are selling the “concept of the Pippin” and not the physical ride. Some clarification on this would be interesting. And while we are at it, why have they stripped all the asphalt off the west parking lot of the coliseum and fenced and gated the whole Coliseum area?
[...] an update on a previous story. The Zippin Pippin, the wooden roller coaster once forgotten by all but a handful of local [...]
To answer the questions, Green Bay would purchase the rights to the name, the design, the configuration, and as much of the material as they like. They will probably take all of the metal (much of which is original) and some of the wood (none of which is original), leaving much of the wood behind. In the industry, this is actually par for the course when you buy and move a wooden rollercoaster–you end up using a lot of new wood. Maintenance requires you replace part of the wood every year, such that every 7 years you end up with replaced wood.