Darien Lake Theme Park - Darien Center, New York

Darien Lake Theme Park

Located in Darien Center, just a mere 20 miles from Buffalo, this former Six Flags Park was originally a campground and ultimately became a theme park as several attractions were added. The Darien Lake theme park was owned by Six Flags from the year 1999 to 2007. Today, the CNL Income Properties own the park while PARC Management handles its operations. The Darien Lake theme park is the largest property in the chain of PARC and is also the only property with an on site themed Hotel and campgrounds.

From Darien Fun Lake Country to PARC Management

Back in 1963, an investor, named Paul Snyder, opened up a small campground and picnic area around a lake; this would eventually become the Darien Lake theme park. The park contained only a fraction of the recent amusement park. There were no rides but rather simple picnic and camping areas, a small baseball diamond and other usual elements of a typical village park. It was not until the year 1970 when Paul began to add an attraction base, including a pair of water slides over the lake.

Within the span of ten years, Paul added a few more attractions and transformed the former typical village park into an amusement park called the Darien Lake Fun Country. Paul then made a deal with German amusement park rides manufacturer, HUSS Maschinenfabrik, to turn the theme park into a showcase of the manufacturer’s brand-new rides. Because of this deal, the park obtained a number of rides, such as: the Ranger, Pirate and the Corn-Popper.

Half of the park was sold to Funtime Parks in 1983 and the Fun Country was dropped from the name. The new owners then brought in several major improvements to the theme park, which continued throughout the 1980’s until the early parts of the 1990’s.

Then in 1995, the Premier Parks, which was a growing regional park chain, bought Funtime including its owned three parks, namely Zoombezi Bay, Geauga Lake and Darien Lake. The improvements of the former owners where replaced by the Premier Parks. It was in 1998 when Premier Parks bought the Six Flags theme parks. The new owners decided to rename the Darien theme park into Six Flags Darien Lake, which opened to the public in May of 1999.

The park and the management have undergone a number of trouble times and in April 2007, Six Flags sold their seven parks, including the Darien Lake to PARC Management.

Attractions at the Darien Lake Theme Park

The Darien Lake theme park contains a several rides, such as: water attractions, roller coasters, up-charge attrafctions, flat rides and children’s rides. In addition, the theme park also has other on-site attractions including campgrounds, a hotel and a resident performing arts center.

The original concept of the Darien Lake theme park was retained. However, access to the original picnic area of the park is no longer prohibited. The park’s campground now consists of more than a thousand campsites, most of which are for RV’s that guests can rent.

The parks performing arts center, called the Darien Lake Performing Arts Center is a venue used for concerts. Generally, these concerts are held periodically throughout the summer and occasionally when the park is not open.

Guests of the Darien Lake theme park can also stay at the Lodge on the Lake Hotel, which opened in 1998. The establishment contains 160 luxury rooms. More so, possible expansion and improvement of the hotel, including an indoor water park, was planned by the management to provide a year-round attraction for the guests.