White County Locals Reflet on the History of Indiana Beach

Indiana beach is permenantly closing and ceasing all operations.

While the news came as a shock to several people who live in the community..

Others say they saw it coming.

Either way... people in the community say the parks rich history is something that will always be remebered in white county.

June 1926... that's the year indiana beach... then called ideal beach came to monticello indiana.

The amusement park was created by a now local legend named earl spackman.

"it was just perfect opportunity as a good entrepreneur that he was to start ideal beach.

In time his son tom continued and it stayed in that family unit then up until they sold."-judith baker historian baker says the name was changed sometime in 1950's to indiana beach.

The summer staple was sold by the family in the mid 2000's..

And hasn't been locally owned since.

Some say since the spackman family sold the park it's never been the same.

"i'd say it went away from being a family oriented park to a big corporation.

I mean tom was always out there he'd always talk to people and now they don't do that."- todd mcfadden grew up in monticello and now (nats of the message saying it's closed.( which even the mayor of monticello says wasn't a surprise.

"if you have lived here for any amount of time it had been part of the rumor mill for years."- mayor gross.

However..

Some people in the community were shocked by it's closure.

"that was a big reason that i moved down here i have three kids and i was thinking this is a great place to live and that was a huge plus."-carina batalis lives in monticello.

The legacy of indiana beach may have come to an end this week... but locals hope the park's memories will live on forever.

"i hope that the people remember in a time period that a smaller amusement park gave your local familya lot of fun."

All of those photo albums you saw in that story were donated by the spackman family to the historical society of white county.

Some of the photos date back to the 1920's when the park first opened.

Well today indiana beach did release a statement saying.

"despite significant effort and a great deal of investment in infrastructure and rides, we have not seen an improvement in operating results.

As such, we made the difficult decision to cease operations."

The company also said it would try to help team members and others affected to minimize impact.

The statement didn't provide any explanation for seaon ticket holders.

It directed further questions to indianabeach.com, where there is a document you can fill out with specific questions.

We asked the company for specific information on whether season ticket holders could expect their money back.

Apex has not responded.