I wrote about how Maria and I went to Wildwater Kingdom in Aurora, OH a couple weeks ago. Go read the post.

Now, Cedar Fair has decided to close the park at the end of this season.

Cedar Fair bought the property in 2004 from financially strapped Six Flags, a Texas-based entertainment company that had seriously overextended itself. Six Flags had acquired both Geauga Lake and Sea World Ohio several years earlier, and combined them into one park in 2001.

Renamed Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, the park, at 700 acres, claimed to be the largest amusement park in the world.

In 2007, three years after its purchase, Cedar Fair announced it was closing Geauga Lake for good. Wildwater Kingdom, the outdoor waterpark it had developed on the site of the old Sea World, would remain open.

The waterpark survived on its own for nine years. And then, earlier this month, Cedar Fair announced that the waterpark too, would shut down. Wildwater Kingdom’s last day of operation is Labor Day, Sept. 5.

Sad end to a sad story. They’re looking to sell the lakefront property to develop multi-family housing, a job center (such as a medical facility, college campus, or movie production site), restaurants, and retail offerings.