happiness is a choice. you decide....
as you may have gathered on this page, i'm from pittsburgh but i went to school in columbus. the trip to school was a straight shot on some highways, from I-79 to I-270 to I-70. a 3 hour ride, sometimes less if mom could kick it into high gear, and sometimes more when there's accident. one marker that i was close to school (typically met with joy since i loved being at college) was passing the shell of an abandoned waterpark - fort rapids.
i'm not going into the extensive history of it here like i've done in my other shrines, but in a nutshell fort rapids was a hilton, then a holiday inn, then finally it's own entity ("fort rapids") by 2006. those that went there (including my wife!!) said that it was always meh, and it was always plagued with issues before being shut down by 2016. the structure post-closure has grown into its own beast with a pipe bursting in winter, a fire, and years of neglect at the property. it was sold in 2025, and the future of the propert is uncertain. bright sun films has a good video that goes into way more than this.
this place has always interested me and my friend group, especially since at one point people from our college dormed there! the place is more the stuff of lore these days, with urbexers dropping in more than usual now that the place is less watched. it'll always remind me of my rides into school.
the facebook page...
they had the most hilarious facebook page ever. i'm not sure what the deal was with who was running it, but half of the posts were botched to hell and made little sense. here's some of my faves.
virtual fort rapids...
in 2020, my friends dom, matt, and i embarked on a little twitch stream series called "virtual fort rapids". we streamed for a few hours on twitch while dom recreated fort rapids down to the the detail on rollercoaster tycoon 3D. we went through the lore, laughed through the facebook page, had some of our friends as well - it was a fantastic lil time that we had. there of course was also a charity component, as we were raising money for BQIC ohio. we raised a fair amount of money for them, and it was awesome. here's a clip from the stream back in the day in which matt chugs a natty lite. i don't think i was in this one but this is the only proof it ever happened.