THUNDER BAY — This year’s Chippewa Park season came to a close on Monday.
Tom Forsythe, the supervisor of parks operations for the south side of the city, said overall, they had a “pretty good year.”
“Attendance just from a gut feeling is up a bit over last year, which is good,” Forsythe said.
“We had some challenges in July when that storm went through, which caused a bit of a scare, but overall, we came through that really well. (The) campground has been doing well.”
This year is also the last year for an outside ride on the carousel, he continued, adding that hopefully next season it’ll be indoors, which is also “pretty exciting.”
“(Construction) should be starting very soon, actually. The final construction drawings are in the process of being developed right now,” Forsythe said.
“I know the contractor is anxious to get on site and start doing the foundation work and getting that ready. We’ll start disassembling the rides in about a week in preparation for that and this will be the last year we have to disassemble it, I hope, and then everything will be moved indoors.”
In addition to moving the carousel indoors, the park is expected to relocate it from its present location to be attached to the pavilion and become wheelchair accessible.
“The view is going to be spectacular because you’ll be able to be on the ride and you’ll be looking out over Lake Superior now, so that’s pretty, pretty cool and then we’ll do some landscaping around this area so that there’s not this gaping hole where the carousel used to be,” Forsythe said.
While unsure of the project’s exact budget, Forsythe added that he knows that it came in under budget, which was “encouraging.”
“Hopefully, with everything, as long as we don’t run into any snags along the way, it should be good,” Forsythe said.
The carousel is planned to be open for the next season at the end of May 2026.
With the end of the park season, Monday was also the last day for the rides, which are shutting down.
However, Forsythe said the campground itself will stay open until the end of September and they still have a few more weddings at the pavilion to handle.
“That was also a very successful season for us this year with our wedding season,” Forsythe said.
“Some people don’t even know we do them, but yeah, we had a good number of weddings every weekend, so… overall I’ve been really pleased with the way the year went.”
