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Park Profile
MICHIGAN’S
ADVENTURE
It all started with a flume
Gary Kyriazi knew as
I
was working the Arrow Huss booth at the 1981 We'd become comfortable with each other from our
soon as he met the 15- IAAPA trade show in Kansas City when a fit, initial meeting, and I asked him something many of
year-old Camille Jourden middle-aged man confidently strode up, us at Arrow had wondered about.
that she shared her positioned himself in front of me, and declared “I “Roger, wasn't that a pretty big gamble, buying a
father’s passion for the want to buy a log flume!” Corkscrew? Most people would have started off with
amusement industry. His name tag read Roger Jourden, and I knew who a Galaxy, or maybe a used Herschell Mad Mouse.
Twenty-seven-years later he was. He'd purchased a small animal park, Deer Why jump right in with a Corkscrew in what is
he returns to visit her as Park, in Muskegon, Michigan, in 1968. The park had essentially an animal park?”
general manager of originally opened in 1956 with 100 deer, a petting “Why not?” was his inarguable reply.
Michigan’s Adventure, a zoo and a train. Jourden added kiddie rides, a few I shut up.
park now under the adult flat rides, renamed it “Deer Park Funland,” and That night I took him, his wife Mary Lynn, and their
ownership of Cedar Fair. then in 1978, added a standard Arrow Corkscrew. At two daughters, then ages 16 and 15, out to dinner.
In many ways though, it’s Arrow, we didn't understand the incongruity of such a At one point I thanked the girls for joining us.
still business as usual ride in such a park, but nobody argued. A sale is a “Oh, Dad made us come!” the older daughter Lisa
down in Muskegon sale. gave a humoured sigh. She clearly would rather have
“Well sure,” I responded to Roger Jourden, “we been someplace else.
can do a flume for you, but can I show you some “So neither of you are interested in the amusement
drawings of a new ride we're just developing? It's a industry?” I asked the girls.
revival of the old Shoot-The-Chutes ride, and it...” “Oh, she is!” Roger pointed to his younger
“Hey, do you want to sell me a log flume or don't daughter, Camille. I then realised that the cute
you?” teenage girl had hung onto every word of the dinner
Forget the Shoot-The-Chutes. conversation, which was exclusively about the
“And by the way,” he continued, still nose-to-nose amusement industry.
with me, “how much is this going to set me back? I
spent over a million dollars for your Corkscrew!” Daddy’s Girl Done Good
“Well, a flume can cost as much or as little as you Twenty-seven-years later, last summer to be precise,
want. The cheapest way is to purchase the logs, a vice-president and general manager Camille
standard lift and drop, and then keep the rest of the Jourden-Mark, 42 years old and beautiful, sat with
ride on the ground, pouring a concrete flume to our me in her office above the main gate of Michigan's
specifications...” Adventure.
“No! I want a big flume, up in the air! With one “Yeah, that's my dad all right!” she laughed when I
small drop, and one big drop at the end!” told her how we'd met. “My dad's thing with the
There goes another one and a-half million. At Corkscrew, and the log flume was that our guests
least. We sat down and got it going. during the early Deer Park Funland days were always
A month later I visited him at Deer Park Funland, telling us about Cedar Point, how great it was. And
Camille Jourden-Mark and amidst a blanket of snow he gave me a tour. of course we'd been to Cedar Point too, and we knew
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