The unexpected spot of destruction that my friend James and I found was the abandoned Six Flags New Orleans.
Inside, the park was quiet and still. Judging from the number of abandoned air compressors, there had been at one time a much larger clean up effort that had since been given up. Somewhere on the grounds there was a small construction crew reclaiming scrap metal from the rides. We were able to spend about 45 minutes exploring before one of the crew found us and asked us to leave.
Like all amusement parks, Six Flags New Orleans chose a theme for its few decorations but never worried too much about the incongruities that came of it. The southern belle mannequins under the iron veranda are just around the corner from Gotham City Hall and its DC Super Heroes live action experience. The concession stands had illustrations of gators and french chefs on the outside, but had been serving Aramark hotdogs and hamburgers on the inside. Before the storm, the park was trying so hard to be New Orleans themed but was still failing. Now that its buildings had been damaged by Katrina’s 25-foot storm surge and its grounds were deteriorating from years of neglect, it fit the theme perfectly.
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While the pictures are moving, and I hate to ruin the message, that park was pretty close to devastated well before the storm.
It was a classic case of mismanagement and corruption that had its ride seats vacant before the first hint of Katrina rolled in to town.
Nevertheless, nice photography!
It’s nice to hear from someone who knows about the park before the storm, but I don’t think it ruins the message to say it was mismanagement and corruption, not Katrina, that destroyed Six Flags New Orleans. It kinda matches the theme.
Originally it was “Jazz Land” and as mentioned before mismanagement and corruption led to it’s demise. Six Flags bought it out to try and give it a second wind but ultimately that obviously failed too. The Southern Belle figures and most of the New Orleans-esque structures were probably remnants of the original park.
The park never had attendace that it needed to operate, and always battled the heat and not enough shade.
With Six Flags having lots of problems of its own in recent years it has no intention of reopening the park. Some independant operator talked about reopening it, but I think they have backed off plans to do anything with it.
The city owns most of the land, and has talked about building a sports complex similar to the wide world of sports in disneyland.
I personally think that the park will sit abandoned for a long time to come. its a real shame this couldn’t have been a better park
My children & I had a season pass to the park two or three summers pre-K (Katrina). We have great memories of the park and found your pictures to be beautiful and bitter sweet. They are now teenagers being raised in “regular” America. I am so glad they were born in N.O. and that we were blessed to live there as long as we did. Something in New Orleans mismanaged ? Yes. Boring? Never.
The park did not fail prior to Katrina, the company that originally built the park failed and it was sold, the park suffered for two years with false advertisement stating new additions and that company went under and Six Flags came in and pumped 25 million into it. The park was profitable at the time Katrina hit and SF was planning additional areas and a water park. The only reasons its not been rebuilt is because Sixflags is going under, there battle with the insurance companies and the economy. This park never had a chance!!!
I had a season pass every year ever since it opened as Jazzland in 2000. The park was always pretty much abandoned before the storm due to lack of attendance of the obvious problems and corruption. This is not the first time New Orleans and Louisiana showed its lack of business skills because had their been better management and a less corrupt Louisiana government, the park could have been very successful and still could have been opened today. I live around the area of Six Flags in New Orleans East and drive around Six Flags everyday wanting to cry because most of my childhood was lived there and is now washed away with the rest of the park. I used to go their pretty much everyday with my group of friends.
I hear talk of Southern South Amusment coming in and adding new rides and restoring the ones still standing including Mega Zeph. I hope this is true
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-05-26-sixflags_N.htm
Here is a link to an update about the park. The company claims it was losing money before Katrina. Doesn’t sound like it will re-open with 6 Flags as the owner.
thanks for posting these pics. i am tempted to try and sneak on next time i am back in NOLA. I have lived in dallas since ’06 and just noticed that the six flags website still has Jazzland listed on their national site. So, i started looking for info. guess it is closed for good. as for the park, it was hot with no shade but i still wish it could have worked out.
Prints now available,
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5402790§ion_id=6410680
Hi Erich. Great pics and I’d like to include a couple in an article I’m writing on amusement parks. Be grateful if you could email me to let me know if you’d be happy to grant me permission. I can of course provide a credit and link to this web page. Thanks, Caroline
Every 6 Flags I ever saw was a disaster for trees, simply because having trees means paying for upkeep and leaf pickup. The whole chain will crash one of these days. You cannot run resorts with a chintzy xheap mindset unless maybe it’s in India or South Asia.
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