Six Flags New Orleans

Abandoned amusement parks tend to be the most popularly enjoyed urban exploring photos. My theory is that most people have been to some type of amusement park, anywhere from a county fair to Disneyland, so they have visceral memories of the experience. Whether recalling the befuddlement of Space Mountain or barfing up a plateful of piggy wiggly fries, the site of an abandoned amusement park is an existential punch in the heart.

Right now you’re assuming I’m about to show you some of the aforementioned photos, but before you get your hopes up, allow me to dash them. This post is disappointingly short and has only a few photos of the least interesting parts of the park. Unfortunately, my excursion into the abandoned Six Flags was cut short, due to the filming of Planet of the Apes, and a delightful security guard. But that story is for later. 

Six Flags New Orleans is located in the infamous Ninth Ward in the eastern part of the city. Before it was turned into a Six Flags, the park operated as the ill-fated Jazzland, which, according to the internet, closed on account of being crappy. Jazzland was only open for two years before Six Flags took over in 2003.

The Ninth Ward is the subject of many stories, songs, books, etc, and is the backdrop for numerous films, as will come into play later. Unfortunately, in 2005, the ward was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. Bordered by the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, the Lower Ninth Ward was catastrophically flooded as a result of the storm surge. One month later, the ward was flooded again by Hurricane Rita, because God’s a dick.

In anticipation of Hurricane Katrina, Six Flags closed in late August of 2005. When the storm hit on the 29th, Lake Pontchartrain, accompanied by copious rainfall, flooded the park with four to seven feet of water. The edges of the park were outfitted with a six-foot flood berm to prevent flooding, which, once breached, trapped the floodwaters inside. The drainage system failed and the park became a soupy basin that wasn’t drained for over a month.

It was not necessarily the storm itself that did the most damage to Six Flags, but rather the month it spent stewing in the brackish lake water. In an unfortunately accurate example of irony, the flood berm, erected to protect the park, was the cause of its destruction. Salt irreparably corroded the metal rides and the cost of repair was unjustifiable for the Six Flags Corporation since the New Orleans park was one of their least profitable.

Six Flags New Orleans remains closed to this day and is a popular destination for urban explorers. I was gonna tell you guys my story about getting busted and how I made friends with the security guard, got a tour of an elaborate movie set being built in the park, was given water and snacks, and allowed to just stroll on out all lah-tee-dah, but the details of the story reveal too much information and I don’t want to get anyone in trouble, myself included. Also, that’s pretty much the whole story.

You can see a few more photos (emphasis on few, I got busted only 10 minutes into the trip) on the Six Flags Flickr set.

Disclaimer: If any information is incorrect, if you have more info, or if you’d just like to tell me something, feel free to contact me.

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