By Sheri McWhirter
EDITOR'S NOTE: Newsmakers '09 explores the stories that made headlines in northwestern Michigan in 2009. The series can be read online as articles are published at www.record-eagle.com/newsmakers.
GRAYLING -- There's nothing doing on landlocked state property in Crawford County where developers proposed a theme park anchored by an aircraft carrier.
A planned $161 million amusement park south of Grayling failed to materialize this year when state officials refused to extend a deadline for developers to secure financing. No attempts have been made to resurrect the plan there, nor have there been any other attempts to develop the vacant land.
"I think it's a dead issue at this point," said Gaila Gilliland, director of the Crawford County Economic Development Partnership.
Developer Patrick Crosson, of Axiom Entertainment in Rochester, tried for years to build a sprawling, 1,400-acre amusement park called Main Street America. The park would have featured roller coasters, a water park, the world's tallest Ferris wheel and an old aircraft carrier hauled into the northwoods as an attraction.
Critics questioned a theme park's economic viability in Crawford County's jack pine forests, as well as whether such a park would negatively impact the local environment, particularly the nearby Au Sable River, venerated as a world-famous, blue-ribbon trout stream.
But there were those who rallied behind the idea as a way to stimulate local tourism, create hundreds of new jobs and put a large chunk of state land back onto the tax rolls.
Crosson said it would be "difficult" to build a park in Crawford County now, but he hasn't given up on the idea. He now looks to other locations in Michigan, though he wouldn't say where.
"It's a great project and makes all the sense in the world. We think it can be great for Michigan," Crosson said.
In February, officials at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources refused to extend a deadline for the company to continue to seek funding for the Crawford County project. Officials haven't heard anything more about it, said David Freed, DNR land and facilities chief.
"It's been dead silent on it," Freed said.
Additionally, no other proposals have surfaced, though the site has potential for warehouses, alternative energy or high-tech companies that need transportation access to Interstate 75 or the railroad, Gilliland said.
"Nobody has come forward and obviously, it's going to take an improved economy," she said.
