Scott E. Fowler Book order

For over 75 years, generations of children and their parents called LeSourdsville Lake and Americana Amusement Park their home for the summer. Despite the popularity of Kings Island, one of the largest amusement parks in the country located only about 20 miles away, LeSourdsville Lake thrived because of its family atmosphere, the tradition of receiving a great value for the money, and the attention paid to detail by the management. The park featured the legendary Screechin' Eagle roller coaster, rated one of the top 25 wooden coasters in the country by coaster enthusiasts. It was also home to the country's wettest log flume, where riders were guaranteed to get soaked. Although the park closed permanently in 2002, the area is being transformed into one of the largest recreational parks in the area and will feature an amphitheater, children's play area, walking trails, and a portion of the nation's largest paved trail network. Scott E. Fowler is a retired Ohio law enforcement officer who developed a passion for local history before his 36-year career began. He has written three previous books for Arcadia, including Images of America: LeSourdsville Lake and Images of Modern America: Fantasy Farm Amusement Park. He is a former curator of the Monroe Historical Society and a former board member for the Citizens for Historic and Preservation and Services (CHAPS) in Hamilton and the Fairfield Historical Society, all located in Ohio.

Not many developers would build an amusement park next door to the successful LeSourdsville Lake amusement park, but Edgar Streifthau was a one-of-a-kind man in Butler County, Ohio. Streifthau, the original owner of LeSourdsville, was forced to sell his beloved park, but he still had the amusement-park bug, and in 1963 he built Fantasy Farm directly next to LeSourdsville. Fantasy Farm's audience was young children, and the concept was successful for decades. The two parks coexisted for 28 years despite periodically appearing in court opposite each other. In 1982, Streifthau sold Fantasy Farm to local carnival owner William Johnson, who ran the park for another decade before finally becoming a victim of the economy. Johnson closed Fantasy Farm in 1991 and sold off all of its assets.