Fun's over when Panhandle amusement park closes

By BILL KACZOR
The Associated Press
8/28/2004

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Jim Barnett set world records for roller coaster riding at Miracle Strip Amusement Park. Jim and Jessinta Luther met there.

Joan Snyder says she had so much fun it's hard to believe she was paid to work at the park. Visiting Miracle Strip has been a three-generation tradition for Darwin and Toka Starnes.

The records, tradition and 41 years of fun will become mere memories for thousands of customers and employees on Sunday, Sept. 5, when Panama City Beach's last amusement park closes.

It will make way for new development that is changing this Florida Panhandle beach town from a blue-collar getaway into a more upscale destination. High-rise condominiums are replacing low-end motels up and down the tourist strip from the park.

"It's a landmark," said 35-year-old Rene Thurston, of Richmond, Va., who grew up in nearby Panama City. "I think it's a shame that it's closing. A guy told us the highlight of the beach is going to be Wal-Mart now."

Panama City Beach's Wal-Mart, in fact, was built on the nearby site of another amusement park, Petticoat Junction, that closed about 10 years ago. It was one of many smaller, family-owned parks that have vanished across the nation.

"It seems like if there's any sort of large-scale park in serious threat of closing there's always several people looking to buy it," said industry insider Adam Sandy of Baltimore. "With a mom-and-pop like Miracle Strip there are often a lot of other uses for the property."

Sandy once covered the industry for Amusement Business, a trade publication, and now is a senior sales associate for Ride Entertainment Systems Inc.

Specific plans for the 20-acre site are not expected to become public until after the sale becomes official. The closing is scheduled for Sept. 15. Plans are expected to include condominiums, stores, restaurants and entertainment, said Buddy Wilkes, general manager of Miracle Strip and adjacent Shipwreck Island, a water park that will remain open.

Some of the 32 rides have been sold to buyers in Argentina, Mexico and Chattanooga, Tenn. The developers buying the park have agreed to put a few of the rides inside a domed structure on the site and also may keep the roller coaster, Wilkes said. The park's prospective buyers have not yet been identified.

The Starliner is the last seaside wooden coaster on Florida's Gulf Coast, according to Sandy. It's where Barnett, 58, of Panama City, won a place in the Guiness Book of World Records in 1978.

Then known as Jim King, his radio disc jockey name, Barnett rode for a solid week. Two years later, he did it for 15 days. That record has since been topped, but Guiness stopped listing it for safety reasons.

The coaster's tracks were slick with rain for three days during the 1980 ride.

"It was raining so hard that I was having to get down in the coaster because it just barely had enough momentum to get over the hills," said Barnett, who left radio and became a paramedic after his last ride.

Plastic sheeting was draped over the braking area, but it failed to keep the tracks dry.

"It was flying through here full speed because they couldn't stop it," Barnett said during a recent visit to the scene of his triumph.

The late Jimmy Lark was part of a group that opened the park in 1963. He later acquired full ownership and passed it on to his five sons.

Billy Lark, who then bought out his brothers, recalls working at the park as a teen in its early days collecting admissions for the coaster. He wore a carpenter's apron until the nail pockets filled with cash and then traded it for an empty one.

"We really didn't have a good game plan as far as money," Lark said. "It was really comical."

It was a tough decision to sell, but the park has been hurt by earlier school openings in the Southeast that have cut a month from the family vacation season, he said.

"You just can't make it in eight weeks," said Lark, who also owns Shipwreck Island.

The undisclosed price also was attractive, Wilkes said. He said repeated offers had been made for the park across the street from the Gulf of Mexico, where a high-rise condo is under construction.

Some visitors have been understanding, but others are bitter.

"They felt like they had some ownership and it shouldn't have been sold out from under them," Wilkes said.

Toka Starnes, 45, of Bremen, Ala., falls into that category.

"I would probably keep the park just because it's a tradition," she said during a final visit with her husband, two children, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren. "I would not be so money-hungry."

Joan Snyder, 44, who lives about 23 miles north of Panama City in Greenhead, brought her 14-year-old son to the park where she was a cashier in her teens. She, too, is disappointed.

"We had a ball," she said, laughing as she refused to disclose details. "It was hard to believe they paid us."

It was love at first sight when Jim Luther, 30, now a ride supervisor, began working at the park in 1991 after moving from Rockland County, N.Y. It took a bit longer for romance to blossom with his future bride.

Jessinta Luther, 25, was tired of working at the dog track in Ebro, her hometown's main industry. She wanted a fun summer job where she could mingle with people her own age. She met Jim after landing a job as a ride operator. They have been married for six years.

"He actually hooked me up with another guy, and it didn't turn out too great," she recalled. "He was there to talk to, and it just went from there."

Jim said he has been promised a job at Shipwreck Island. About 15 of 45 permanent workers will be transferred there. Each park has more than 200 seasonal employees.

Jessinta now works at a bank and they have two daughters, Sierra, 3, and Sydney, 21 months.

"They always ask, 'Can I go to my rides?'" Jim said. "It's going to be hard for them to understand that the park is closing. That's one of the hardest things I'm going to have to deal with."