Is Grayling to be the Home of an Amusement Park? at All Things Michigan

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Is Grayling to be the Home of an Amusement Park?

Published July 31st, 2006 in State of Michigan

There are rumors flying around that Grayling might some day be home to an amusement park called Main Street USA. 1,800 acres of state-owned land along I-75 just south of Grayling have been available for commercial or industrial development for the past five years. Axiom Entertainment has had discussions with state officials regarding the possible development of the land into a theme park.

Estimates put the number of potential workers at around 2,000 seasonal employees and 700 year-round. Potential customer traffic is estimated at 1.7 million annual visitors. I am not sure how this is determined, but for comparison purposes Muskegon’s Michigan Adventure theme park drew 550,000 visitors in 2005.

It is unknown how many of the 1,800 acres would be used for development of the theme park. Michigan’s Adventure is located on 250 acres and offers over 40 rides and attractions. Cedar Point (another Cedar Fair L.L.P. property) stands on 365 acres and features over 60 rides and attractions and drew 3.1 million visitors last year.

Courtesy of the Bay City Times

The Bay City Times dug up information about this deal through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Tags: grayling-michigan, michigan-amusement-park, michigan-theme-park, michigan-tourism

6 Responses to “Is Grayling to be the Home of an Amusement Park?”

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1 Tammie Mar 1st, 2007 at 2:39 pm

What a bad idea!!! If it comes, I,m leaving for good. Grayling is an old fashion, trusting kind of town. This park will bring all kinds of scum and crooks. Grayling will never be the same.
2 CDM Mar 25th, 2007 at 5:58 pm

Might be the only thing to improve the job oppotunities in this part of the state, everyone else seems to be leaving.
3 Rick Mar 26th, 2007 at 5:24 pm

I think it’s an awsome idea!!! can’t and you wont please everyone =) that’s what makes politics so fun!
4 Binky Mar 28th, 2007 at 6:17 pm

Well, last I knew, Crawford County, where Grayling is located, was the poorest county in the state. That was some time ago and over the years it doesn’t seem to have changed much. It would certainly bring much needed money into the area.

Since it is straight up the !-75 corridor, it would be an easy jaunt. It would bring more tourists to the area. Not only would Grayling benefit but so would other towns that surround it. The motels would be full. The restaurants packed. But Grayling, at this point, does not have an abundance of either. Much less gas stations and supermarkets. And Grayling offers nothing in the way of shopping so they would eventually have to deal with that aspect as well.

It will cause the town to take pause and consider hiring more law enforcement as well. There are numerous things they will have to take into consideration.

What I don’t understand is how are they going to keep that park open year round, with the winters we have in the area? It’ll be interesting to see how it all unfolds. Needless to say, there is going to be even more rif raf coming into the area and overflowing into the surrounding towns as well. Just what we all want to deal with. Yea!