Another Piece Of History Comes Down At Bellâ€™s

Saturday, April 28th 2007, 5:02 pm

By: News On 6

Another piece of history, actually many pieces, are coming down at Bell's Amusement Park. On Saturday crews began the difficult task of dismantling the Log Flume ride. The News On 6â€™s Steve Berg reports itâ€™s a tremendous amount of work, but luckily, the Bells got a lot of help.

Robbie Bell was hard at work, but he got a big lift courtesy of the crew from Tulsa Steel Services.

"These guys are like angels sent from heaven,â€ said Bellâ€™s owner Robbie Bell. â€œI mean, there's no way in the world we could have gotten this project done without help like this."

"I contacted the Bell family several months ago," Tulsa Steel Services owner David Smith said.

Tulsa Steel Services owner David Smith is a Tulsa native and like a lot of Tulsans, spent a share of his summers as a kid on the Zingo and Log Flume. But he didn't realize then how much steel was hiding under that old fiberglass. When he saw it, he knew the Bells would need some help.

"I truly felt like it was an obligation. These guys have provided such an atmosphere for families to come and enjoy and things like that, for them to have this task to do in such a short amount of time,â€ said Smith. â€œAgain it was just an obligation to come out here and help these guys."

Not only is it a lot of work, itâ€™s very technical and dangerous work.

Smith provided the workers and equipment for the whole day free of charge. Bell is amazed.

"You got a bunch of guys, a bunch of tools, acetylene and oxygen, it's big money," said Bell. "I told Dave, man if we get relocated, we'll give these guys a company picnic every year from now until eternity. This is just fantastic."

They had no trouble recruiting people like Mike Grounds, who was upset that Bells had to move.

"I mean a lot of childhood memories are here. And a lot of families come here. It's not right I don't think," he said.

Thanks to their skill, the Log Flume is being taken apart carefully so that it can be reassembled wherever Bellâ€™s winds up.

"It is one half of a double flume that was built specifically for the 1964 World's Fair in New York City. The other half of this is at Dollywood in Tennessee," Bell said. "This flume has a tremendous amount of history."

And of course people want to know where the Log Flume and the rest of Bells will wind up. But, Bell is not telling just yet.

Watch the video: Bell's Log Ride Coming Down

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