Six Flags New Orleans (abandoned)

This place is on private property. Listing for informational purposes only. Please do not visit without express permission from the land owner. STAFF WARNING: This place is on private property. Exploration not advised. Six Flags New Orleans is an amusement park in New Orleans, Louisiana that has been closed since just before Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005 and is currently owned by the city of New Orleans. The park is located in Eastern New Orleans, in the Ninth Ward of the city off Interstate 510. Despite various announced plans to reopen or reuse the site, as of June 2013 it is still an abandoned amusement park in a semi-ruined state. It is an urban exploration destination, although visitors are subject to arrest for trespass. The park first opened under the name "Jazzland" in 2000, operated by Alfa Smartparks (later Odgen Entertainment and now known as Palace Entertainment but owned by an international company called Parques Reunidos). Rides included the Mega Zeph, a wooden roller coaster track built on a steel frame to prevent termite infestation and withstand hurricane force winds. The Mega Zeph was inspired by the old Zephyr roller coaster at the closed Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park that was located next to Lake Pontchartrain by the University of New Orleans. The original intent was to rebuild the Zephyr but it was a smaller roller coaster so that idea was scrapped in favor of the current larger Mega Zeph. Other rides included a junior steel coaster called Rex's Rail Runner, a wild mouse steel coaster, and a common steel shuttle looping Vekoma boomerang rollercoaster called a Zydeco Scream (there are well over a dozen of these identical coasters in parks nationwide). The park had a Log Flume and a Splashwater falls ride called Spillway Splashout. In addition, the park had common amusement park spinning rides and a Carousel Merry Go-Round. The park was not profitable, as Alpha Smart Parks specialized in running water parks and smaller amusement arcade centers. In 2001, the lease was put up for sale and in March of 2002, Six Flags purchased the lease. The park was run in 2002 as Jazzland. In 2003, Six Flags upgraded the park and renamed it Six Flags New Orleans. The park added more shaded areas as well as many new flat spinning rides, and re-branded to Six Flags' "it's playtime" theme that included the dancing old man Mr. Six. They added a used inverted looping B & M coaster that was named Batman: The Ride (though different in design from the rest of the B & M Batman coasters) and another multiple looping coaster called The Jester brought from Six Flags Fiesta Texas. A water park which would be included in the admission (like Six Flags Parks such as Six Flags St. Louis and Six Flags America for example) was in the planning stages and going to be announced at the end of August. But then Hurricane Katrina struck which put those plans along with the continued operations of this park in question. The last day the park operated was August 21, 2005. Weekday operations ended a couple weeks before due to the fact schools start early in August in that region and end mid-May. The park was scheduled to open August 27 and August 28 as usual but once Katrina was forecast late on Friday to directly hit New Orleans, the weekend opening was canceled in order to prepare for the storm and begin evacuations. Eastern New Orleans was badly flooded in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The park grounds are located on a low-lying section of Eastern New Orleans, with a 6-foot (1.8 m) earthen flood berm running along the perimeter, creating an artificial basin. After the park's drainage pumps failed during the storm, the berm retained the combination of rainwater and sea water overflow from Lake Pontchartrain caused by Katrina's massive storm surge, submerging the entire park grounds in corrosive, brackish floodwater to a depth of 4–7 feet. The floodwater was not drained for over a month. Due to the damage received, the park was closed indefinitely with no plans to reopen. Damage reports by Six Flags inspectors stated that the park buildings are 80% demolished, all of the flat rides (except for one which was being serviced off-site at the time of the storm) have been effectively destroyed by long term salt-water immersion, and both the wooden track and steel superstructure of the Mega Zeph have been damaged beyond likely hope of repair. The only large ride to escape relatively unscathed was the Batman: The Ride roller-coaster, due to its elevated station platform and corrosion-resistant support structure. The New Orleans Industrial Development Board agreed to let 20th Century Fox film Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters in the abandoned theme park, during the summer of 2012 through August. Mega Zeph, Ozarka Splash, and The Big Easy are three rides that have been shot for the movie along with five other rides that the production crew had brought into the park, since all the original rides were rendered inoperable to shoot for the movie. Before shooting at the park for five weeks, the production crew took two weeks to whip the derelict park into the needed condition by installing lighting and covering up the graffiti on the buildings. The park will portray the fictional Circeland on the island of Polyphemus, that was built by the goddess Circe, only to be destroyed by the cyclops Polyphemus.