Rock-a-Hoola Waterpark - Lake Dolores to Reopen?

Recent talk is that a group is attempting to reopen Rock-a-Hoola as Oasis Theme Park.  Is it true?

According their website, http://oasisthemepark.com/ a group called White Water West has been attempting to lease and reopen the park.  The earlest post is from 2011, the latest, at the time of this blog update, from April of this year (2013).


"We have not given up in our efforts to reopen Lake Dolores. What we face now is still much easier then what we faced when we first started our Lake Dolores efforts in April 2011."

An article from May 5, 2013 in the Daily Press, outlines the challenges the group faces.

Reposted from the Daily Press:
http://www.vvdailypress.com/articles/days-40225-glory-newberry.html
Shea Johnson, Staff Writer

NEWBERRY SPRINGS • A new owner and a group called Oasis Theme Park are in negotiations to bring life back to the Lake Dolores water park as early as 2015.

The facility sits in a patch of desert northeast of Barstow near Interstate 15. It was most recently named the Rock-A-Hoola Waterpark, but it’s been closed for nearly a decade.

A Friday morning visit to the property — now a haunting, almost surreal visage of its former glory days — garnered the attention of a friendly man driving a pickup truck who identified himself as a security guard.

The guard was an associate of a man named Om Garg, the park’s new owner. Garg closed escrow on Lake Dolores in January, according to Inland West Development Project Manager Spike Lynch.

Lynch has been tabbed by Garg to oversee the cleanup of the dilapidated, graffiti-daubed structures inside the park, and a more protected perimeter of the area is expected soon.

Garg’s group recently received a permit for temporary power, Lynch said, which will help with what he called a “phased” project.

A call to a number believed to be Garg’s was not immediately returned.

The group is working with Chris Jackiewicz, the head of Oasis Theme Park.

“We’ve been working on getting this project started for some time,” Jackiewicz said earlier last week. “Before we even got started on this project, we did a little background research. There were millions worldwide who knew something about the property, whether good or bad.”

Jackiewicz is banking on that recognition — if only for its prominent location along the interstate — to entice investors.

He is convinced Lake Dolores, which was last open in 2004, can be a profitable entity and to do that, he said, he will build it out slowly.

“We want to start smaller and build interest over time,” he explained. “(People) see more added to it, they’re going to be interested in coming back.”

Both Jackiewicz and Lynch noted their interest in adding jobs to the community as well, with Lynch saying he would try to hire as many local sub-contractors and individual laborers as possible.

Currently, Jackiewicz and Garg have yet to reach an agreement on leasing terms, yet Jackiewicz and Lynch are optimistic they can.

“I believe it will come to fruition, because we’re dealing with two good people,” Lynch said.

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Excited?  Empty hope?  Post your thoughts in the comments below!

New Photos from Rock-a-Hoola Waterpark

Gary Miereanu from Los Angeles, California shared some awesome photos and captions of Rock-a-Hoola.  Taken around 2007, these are great images to have at Modern Day Ruins.  Thanks Gary!

Once an oasis just a smidge over midway to Las Vegas, it's now a weather-beaten, abandoned water park on the edge of Yermo, CA.

"It's been one of my favorite parts of the drive to-and-from Vegas for at least 12 years. I finally stopped there about five or six years ago... I dug it."

Rock-A-Hoola Water Park - On the way to Vegas

I've passed the waterpark many times on the way to Vegas. It always seemed closed... the closed waterpark stuck out and stuck in my mind. With some digging for information, I found out that the water park has not opened to the public since 2004 after an unfortunate accident and expensive lawsuit to follow. This article explains the reason why.

Lake Dolores is the original, given name of the man-made lake(s) and the surrounding site where stands a still physically-existent yet currently inoperative waterpark on Hacienda Road in the desert town of Newberry Springs, San Bernardino County, California, USA. When last open to the general public, the park itself went by the relatively recent and updated name(s) Rock-a-Hoola Waterpark for a short period of time and subsequently Discovery Water Park for an even shorter period. Despite the recent, successive name changes due to two separate transfers of ownership, the site is still far more commonly known by the general public as "Lake Dolores".
Wikipedia

Rock-a-Hoola Waterpark has been abandoned since 2004.

Rock-a-Hoola is the most popular page on the site.   Help keep it alive by sharing your thoughts and stories in the comments below.

Disney's River Country Abandoned

River Country was a water park located at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It opened on June 20, 1976 and last operated in November 2001. On January 20, 2005, The Walt Disney Company announced that River Country would remain closed permanently. It is said to have been the world's first fully themed water park.  These days no one is plunging into the swimming hole or relaxing under a umbrella after hours of tubing and splashing. River country is no longer an enjoyable water park of fun as it has been taken over by nature. Brush and trees have infiltrated the slides, the lake and wading areas, like an umbrella of gloom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Country

Disney's River Country has been abandoned since 2005.

Disney's River Country was unlike any water park we have today.  Did you have the chance to visit before it closed?  Share your thoughts and stories in the comments below.