SANDUSKY — Of all the artifacts displayed at the Cedar Point Historical Museum, David Kaman’s favorite is a 1931 photo of his mother riding the carousel at the historic Sandusky amusement park.

Gesturing to the display cases around him, Mr. Kaman declared it a “full-circle” moment.

Opened on Dec. 4, the Cedar Point Historical Museum is located inside the Merry-Go-Round Museum at 301 Jackson St., Sandusky.

What was once Mr. Kaman’s personal collection of Cedar Point memorabilia, artifacts, photographs, and videos is now a public celebration of the peninsula’s long history.

Admission is included with entrance to the Merry-Go-Round Museum, which costs $8 for adults, $7 for seniors, and $6 for children ages 4 to 14 and is free for kids under 4.

Winter hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. It’s closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Both museums will be closed for the month of January.

Part of a personal history

Mr. Kaman was first taken with Cedar Point while working the graveyard shift in the 1970s, changing ride light bulbs that beckoned thousands to the park.

He described early morning sunrises and shooting stars on the beach during his quiet nights at the park.

“Being there during those hours, I just fell in love with the beauty of the place,” he said, raising his voice to be heard over the recorded band organ accompanying the working carousel just feet away.

Soon, Mr. Kaman began collecting postcards; the rest is Cedar Point history.

After 43 years in condominium law — admitted with an air of chagrin — the recent retiree is finally free to share the spoils of his long years spent trawling garage sales and antique stores for Cedar Point memorabilia in the days before online shopping. He hopes to see his collection become a long-term resource for the city.

“Cedar Point’s always been a part of Sandusky, and Sandusky has always been a part of Cedar Point,” Mr. Kaman said. “As the park gets older and older, preserving the history is just so important.”

Early artifacts include late 19th century ruby flash glassware, commemorative ribbons, silver spoonware, and a battered 1906 sand pail emblazoned with “Cedar Point,” passed down as a plaything until its most recent owner donated it.

Visitors gazing at chronologically displayed items are suddenly met with the keepsakes of their own childhoods — from Space Spiral pennants to Disaster Transport’s 3D glasses — that span the park’s living memory.

Mr. Kaman’s collection accounts for 80 percent of the items displayed at the museum. Ten percent comes from former Cedar Point Park Operations Director Candy Frankowski, who helps Mr. Kaman staff the one-room museum.

“When you’re riding a roller coaster, no matter what’s going on in your life, you can’t think about your problems because you're going down the hill of a roller coaster,” Mr. Kaman said. “It’s the same thing when people come in here: You forget about your worldly problems and just have fond memories of your parents, of your kids, of your days at Cedar Point.”

Varied collection has many sources

For the thousands who’ve walked the midway of Cedar Point — especially those who’ve done so in uniform — the museum is validation that their stories matter.

Some donations come from former Cedar Point bigwigs, including retired General Manager John Hildebrandt, retired Cedar Fair CEO Dick Kinzel, and items from the estate of former corporate Vice President of Planning and Design Lee Jewett, whose iconic designs still dot Cedar Point today.

An hour-long phone call between Mr. Kaman and Nancy Tetzlaff-Berens — the retired performer better known as Jungle Jane — led to the donation of uniforms worn by herself and her late husband in honor of Jungle Larry’s Safari, an educational exotic animal attraction that ran at Cedar Point for 30 years. 

A display of hand-carved Cedar Point-related artifacts showcases the work that Paul Koerner, Cedar Point’s chief woodcarver, has done over his 28 years at the park, including everything from homages to defunct attractions to cheeky wooden versions of the park’s trash cans.

The exhibit also includes an array of inaugural rider memorabilia handed out during a ride’s opening day events. Coaster enthusiasts visiting the museum have claimed to own just about all the goodies given to these avid roller coaster fans — with one exception.

When Cedar Point unveiled the dive coaster Valravn in 2016, it handed out something special alongside the usual media day shirts and medallions.

“I kept the media day cookie,” Mr. Kaman said, proudly pointing it out. No one else has a claim to the cookie; most only admit to eating it.

The collection’s final 10 percent comes from the estate of David Francis, an advertising executive and Cedar Point historian who wrote the book Cedar Point: Queen of American Watering Places before he died in 2006.

Local high school teacher Ken Miller was swept up by Mr. Francis’ tale of the park’s transformation from big-band hosting beach resort to thrill-seeker’s paradise, read in snippets between helping customers at the now-defunct Cedar Point hotel Sandcastle Suites.

He’s spent every summer since working seasonally at the park. In 2020, Mr. Miller published Rolling Through the Years: A Cedar Point Atlas and Chronology, the most comprehensive archive on Cedar Point to date.

“How many 150-year-old companies out there don’t have an archivist?” Mr. Miller asked. “John Deere has an archivist. Campbell’s Soup has got an archivist tracking recipes. Disney’s got a whole department.”

The Cedar Point Historical Museum takes the place of Town Hall Museum, the in-park museum that for decades displayed park history, memorabilia, and regional artifacts acquired by former Cedar Point co-owner George Roose until its permanent closure in 2020.

Unaffiliated with the park, the museum and Mr. Kaman were granted permission to use the Cedar Point name.

Before Mr. Kaman rented space in the Merry-Go-Round Museum, the room was used only infrequently for staff meetings and birthday rentals, according to Merry-Go-Round Museum Executive Director and curator Kurri Lewis.

Full-circle moment for Merry-Go-Round Museum

The Cedar Point collection “fits together really nicely” with the Merry-Go-Round Museum, Mr. Miller said.

Visitors who come for Cedar Point artifacts discover the Merry-Go-Round Museum — including its working carousel populated with lovingly preserved examples of the art form — and vice versa.

While Mr. Miller is board president for the Downtown Sandusky Cedar Point Historical Museum, the Ohio nonprofit behind the museum, he gives Mr. Kaman the credit for bringing the museum to life.

When the U.S. Postal Service commissioned its first-ever set of carousel stamps in 1988, the inclusion of the King Armored horse from Cedar Point’s Kiddieland carousel led the first day issue ceremony to be held at the Sandusky amusement park.

Because it’s considered one of the most finely crafted carousel horses of all time, a group of fans commandeered the vacant post office to host their own celebration of the King Armored horse. Expecting a few hundred attendees, the group was astounded when nearly 3,000 guests came out to honor the humble carousel.

The resulting momentum led to the founding of a nonprofit with the goal of promoting awareness and appreciation of carousel artisanship. By 1990, the Merry-Go-Round Museum had opened its doors.

With the original King Armored horse still sequestered away inside a Cedar Point administration building, the Merry-Go-Round Museum’s replica is prominently displayed inside the Cedar Point Historical Museum — an emblem of their intertwined history.

Future attractions

“Once the park opens, Cedar Point opens, that’s when we’ll really see the foot traffic coming,” Mr. Lewis said. “We love when it rains between 10 and 4 p.m. when we’re open, and after that, it can stop. When it’s a rainy day, we get real busy.”

Mr. Kaman recently visited fellow collector James Rogers at his home in Pennsylvania, leaving with a U-Haul's worth of new donations. He’s already working on an expansion that, with the Merry-Go-Round Museum’s permission, will spill out into the main exhibition space.

Other plans include a “Hall of Fame” for all long-serving Cedar Point employees — no matter their role — and a rotating selection of items to better showcase the museum’s collection.

The response has been “beyond my wildest dreams,” Mr. Kaman said.

Even with Sandusky in hibernation, a steady stream of people have stopped by since the museum’s Dec. 4 opening, often spending over an hour with his exhibits.

“The carousel museum has a lot of big artifacts. We have a lot of miniature little artifacts,” he said. “People have really enjoyed it.”

First Published December 22, 2024, 2:07 p.m.