New photo of Marineland Sky Tower

The California Coastal Records Project recently posted an aerial photo from 1993. Guess what is still standing amount the ruins?

Click the photo and zoom in on the tower.





http://www.large.images.californiacoastline.org/images/1993/large/2/199300053002.JPG

Lion Country Safari: Irvine, California

Lion Country Safari existed in Irvine, California until 1984. Lion Country was founded and headed up by South African CEO Harry Shuster of United Leisure in 1968 and the first park opened in Florida in 1969. The second park in California opened in June 1970. In 1982, two years prior to closing the park, United Leisure opened a summer day camp, Camp Frasier to hopefully help offset the effects of low attendance. Meanwhile there was still no budget for maintaining the park and its deteriorating attractions meant the park's future was doomed. In 1984 with dwindled attendance and decrepit conditions the park closed. In 1982, During the final years of the park, a long bitter battle began between Shuster and the Irvine Company where the Irvine Company decided to renegotiate the 28 year lease on the land (which began in 1968) and try to take back control as nearby property values increased and the park was proving to be a financial liability.

Harry Shuster then became involved in a bitter and excruciating legal battle until 1997 when they finally reached a settlement. During the ongoing legal battle Shuster threatened to 'tear it all down' -- including Irvine Meadows (built on a sublease agreement with U.L., now Verizon Wireless Amphitheater), Wild Rivers, and the day camp. His reasoning was, "I built all this on a firm 28 year lease agreement, why should the Irvine Company be allowed to take it from me just because they want it back?". A portion of the park's entertainment area was converted into the current water park Wild Rivers in 1986-87. The remaining portion of the park was left as Camp Frasier which continued until the early 1990s when it became Camp James. During the years of Camp Frasier the drive through reserve was used for horseback riding, archery, ATC, ATV riding and hiking. Lion Country was originally in the city limits of Laguna Hills.

Attendance went down, and negative incidents occurred at the Safari Park. An escaped elephant killed a motorist on the 405 freeway and had to be euthanize. When a hippo named Bubbles was loose for 19 days, the hippo was shot with a tranquilizer, rolled into the water of a reservoir behind the park's rolling hills and drowned. A necropsy revealed Bubbles was pregnant. Also, several lions had killed the hoofed animals and had to be quarantined from the rest of the animals in a fenced section of the park. Monkeys reportedly ripped the rubber bumper stripping off car doors and jumped on hoods. Insurance claims skyrocketed. As of May 2008, the Irvine Company still has not done anything with the land except re-grade what was once the Drive-Through Preserve and designate portions for nurseries to store plants and large specimen trees.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_Country_Safari

A then-and-now YouTube video:

What is there now

http://theimaginaryworld.com/lc.html
A great site with then-and-now pictures

http://flickr.com/photos/11441631@N00/tags/lioncountrysafari/
current pictures

What it was like

http://www.satellite-sightseer.com/id/2928/United_States/California/Irvine/Wild_Rivers_Lion_Country_Safari
Satellite view of ruins and water park that now resides in the location.

http://www.yesterland.com/lioncountry.html
What it was like when it was still around.

Camp Frasier/Camp James
http://www.campjames.com/index.shtml

Wild Rivers

http://www.wildrivers.com/

One of the original metal Zambezi Boats from 1970 was saved and affixed in the concrete paving as a souvenir in the Wild Rivers outdoor eating and recreation areas between the wave pools and the locker rooms.

Newspaper Articles
Wild Rivers gets one more year OCRegister.com, August 2, 2007

Article: Wrecking Ball Punctuates End of Marineland Era

Wrecking Ball Punctuates End of Marineland Era
Feb 17, 1988
LAT


For more than 30 years, the Marineland sign marked the main entrance to the aquatic park along the Rancho Palos Verdes coast.

Now, there is a new sign-that of the Cleveland Wrecking Co.-and a glance toward the sea tells why.

With a wrecking ball and pile drivers, a demolition crew on Tuesday began knocking down the main stadium-like aquarium where the killer whales Corky and Orky once cavorted before thousands of cheering fans.

Under a six-month, $1-million contract, Cleveland is clearing the land to make way for a "world-class" resort hotel and conference center planned by Arizona developer James G. Monaghan. He bought the 108-acre Marineland site last May for an undisclosed price from Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc., the publishing company that also owns the Sea World parks.

Longtime Employee

"It's like losing a part of the family," said 71-year-old Gil Lewis as he watched the heavy wrecking ball smash into steel-reinforced concrete.

Lewis was Marineland's electrical supervisor for 25 years until he retired in 1984. He said he and his wife, Lois, drove down from their Torrance home to "say goodby."

Just over a year ago, Marineland was abruptly closed by Harcourt two months after it bought the park for $23.4 million. The company already had moved Corky and Orky to Sea World in San Diego and the closure prompted an outcry that a local landmark and a place for children to learn about sea life was being destroyed.

Harcourt said Marineland, which opened in August, 1954, as one of the country's first oceanariums, was losing too much money and would cost more than $25 million to improve.

It will take a 12- to 15-man crew two to three months to demolish the main aquarium, said Donald F. Fenning, vice president of Cleveland Wrecking. He said the hardest part will be breaking up the pads and foundations below the two large tanks, where the concrete is 4 feet thick.

Further Demolition

Demolition of the five other tanks, some smaller pools and the other grandstands will be done after the main building is down. One stadium at a lower level will be retained for possible use in the new development, but it could be demolished later.

Marineland's distinctive 360-foot observation tower will be taken down in segments and saved, Corcoran said, adding that no decision has been made about what to do with it.

Snack bars, souvenir shops and other accessory buildings already have been demolished. Trees on roadways and paths near the aquarium will remain in place and become a part of the Monaghan development, said John E. Corcoran, a former Marineland general manager and Monaghan spokesman. Large coral and palm trees already have been boxed and are being stored for use in the new project, he said.

Last July, Monaghan disclosed preliminary plans for a luxury resort consisting of a conference center, a 500-room hotel, a sports club with golf course and tennis center or both, and entertainment. Rancho Palos Verdes officials predicted that the development will generate at least $1.5 million a year in tax revenues. Detailed plans will be presented to the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council on March 15.

But on Tuesday morning, Marineland was a ghost park, its tanks dry and discolored, and "Danger-Keep Out" signs crudely spray-painted in red on cream-colored walls. A cold wind blew from the sea and the air was filled with the sounds of metal cracking through concrete, a tractor straining as it pulled debris away and the thud of the wrecking ball as it shattered masonry walls.

Former Food Manager

Joe Casey, a former food manager at the park, stood on a big expanse of empty concrete, remembering what it used to be like. "This used to be a food service area," he said. "There was an ice cream shop in front."

On a hot summer day, he recalled, 7,000 people would walk through the area.

Casey, a San Pedro resident who now works at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, said he has no hard feelings about the end of Marineland but he admits that when Harcourt closed it, "I was sad and angry about the abruptness. They came in one day and said it was over."

Lewis, the former electrical supervisor, also said he thought the closure was badly handled. "It hurt a lot of people," he said.

Lewis, who said he personally supervised installation of the observation tower in 1965, said the Monaghan project probably will be a "good attraction . . . but not as good as this was."

Marineland of the Pacific Tower

Since the Marineland tower stood abandoned for 10 years before it was finally taken down, it deserves a post of it's own.

According to the Point Vicente Interpretive Center,

"The tower was taken down as it was a navigational hazard to aircraft. Vandals had taken all of the copper wiring and it no longer had a light on top of it. The City announced that it was to be taken down, hired extra people to man the phones for the complaints, and did not receive one phone call."

There aren't many pictures online... this is what I've found so far:


The abandoned tower can be seen in these 1994 images.

This is the only photo I have found online of the abandoned tower:
Photo by JW Jet on Flickr



Conquering some tall towers. (Sept 18, 1995)

"Cleveland Wrecking Co. was hired to demolish the 350-ft. Sky Tower at California's Marineland of the Pacific. Cleveland Wrecking accomplished the task by bringing the tower down in sections using a 250-ton crane. Carl Bolander and Sons Co. was hired to demolish U S West Inc.'s 240-ft. microwave tower on top of a 75-ft.-tall building in Cedar Rapids, MI. Carl Bolander accomplished the task by using a specialized portable tower crane with a 125-ft. remote-controlled jib. The safe and efficient removal of these two towers exemplify the use of considerable engineering and planning skills in demolition work."