A History of Cedar Fair Parks
Cedar Point opened in 1870 and was a recreational island. Plans to pair up with Frontier City in Township, Michigan fell through. A couple plans later, Cedar Point acquired Valleyfair! in Shakopee, Minnesota. This is where Cedar Fair comes."Cedar" from Cedar Point and "Fair" from Valleyfair! were mashed together to create the Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. Dick Kinzel was an employee at Cedar Point and was transferred to Valleyfair! in 1978 where he was the Park General Manager for 8 years. At that point he was promoted to CEO after the current CEO stepped down for unknown Health Reasons. Cedar Fair would remain a chain of two parks until the 1990s, where Kinzel would start acquiring other parks and start a major expansion of the company. This expansion started with the purchase of Dorney Park in 1992. Most famously the Knotts Family of Knotts Berry Farm would sell their nearly 80 year old family run park to Cedar Fair in 1997. Some controversy would come about with the purchase of Six Flags World of Adventure in 2004. Major attractions will be removed shortly after and the park permanently closed in 2007. CBS sold their Paramount Parks to Cedar Fair in 2006. Kinzel would retire and leave Cedar Fair on January 3rd, 2012. Matt Ouimet became the new CEO the same day and has since launched new websites for all the parks, as well as new campaigns.