Thunder Island Water Park

Location: Westfield, Indiana

Date Visited: March 31, 2014

I was visiting a friend in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was spring break, and we really hadn't made plans. We were simply laying around and doing not much of anything. Somehow, the topic of abandoned places was brought up. It was probably by me, as I have a tendency of rambling on about that kind of thing. Anyways, we then decided that we should go on a little adventure, so I began researching places in Indiana. After ruling out a few candidates, we decided to take the two hour trip to Westfield to explore this abandoned water park.

While I was unable to find out much about the parks history, nor could I find any pictures of it while it was in operation, I'm pretty sure that it opened sometime in the 70s and closed in 90s. Nowadays, it sits right off of U.S. Route 31, hidden by the trees on the side of the road. While I forgot to get a picture, the entrance is still there, marked by a gate and a small sign.

The park is so well hidden, that when we arrived near the site, we had our doubts as to whether the park was still there or not. Fortunately, I remembered reading that it was hidden from the road, so we continued looking. I accidentally passed it at first, not realizing it was there. Once we found the entrance, I parked at a nearby cemetery. We then crossed the street and slipped passed a badly broken side gate. To my surprise, there wasn't a "No Trespassing" sign anywhere in sight. It seemed as if the park had been completely forgotten.

Once we were inside the fence, we found ourselves in a field. There was no sign of a water park anywhere. The only thing we found was litter. We continued walking, though. Once we were in a bit deeper, we reached an old path. We were definitely getting warmer.

An old path.

We're on the right track.

We then spotted a hill with what appeared to be some rocks on top. We went to investigate.

The hill.

Looking back at where we came from.

Once we reached the top of the hill we realized that we had made it to the top of the old water slide and that Thunder Island was still standing.

The rock formation we spotted from the bottom.

The back side of the rock formation.

Side view of the rock formation.

View of the parking lot from the top of the hill. 

Moist.

Top of the water slide.

Mask in the water at the top of the water slide. A bit creepy.

Not exactly sanitary.

Curves.

Not a very fun slide anymore.

Heading down the slide.

Looking back up.

View of one of the pools from the slide.

Look out! Moist Pussy.

Piss here.

Ready... Set... Okay, maybe we shouldn't go.

Dirty and covered in graffiti. 

I wonder what makes the water black.

Once we finished exploring the slides, we headed down the other side of the hill and headed towards the various pools.

Anyone up for a swim?

This pool looks more like a pond than a pool.

I have a feeling no one has changed the filter in awhile.

Even abandoned pools can become ecosystems.

Pool with a dock.

There were quite a few pools.

We even found a turtle in one of them.

Hello there!

The pool where Michelangelo the turtle resides.

This very shallow pool had a tree growing out of it.

One of my favorite parts of the park. 

We also found remnants of a mini golf course.

Green stuff.

Who needs a red carpet when you can have this green one?

I have a feeling that the trees growing through the course were not the intended obstacles.

While I had read of there being a couple of buildings on the property, we were unable to locate any. I'm not sure if they had been demolished or if we are just terrible at locating things. After going to the pools and the mini golf course, we headed back over the hill and called it a day. I believe it was a pretty successful trip. I'm just glad that it was actually there because there were some doubts. Most importantly, I got to spend the day with my friend, introducing her to something I love to do. Hopefully, there will be many more adventures to come.