A blast from Tulsa’s past is making its return — in Broken Arrow.
Members of the Bell family announced plans for the new park Thursday alongside Broken Arrow officials at their new, 102-acre site at Kenosha and the Creek Turnpike. Park owner Robby Bell said that’s about 10 times the space they had at the Tulsa Fairgrounds.
"We will have the freedom now and the tools to put in an entertainment facility that will be second to none for this entire region of the United States," Bell said.
The new Bell’s will include a kids’ area and a 24-acre water park, which is about twice the size of Safari Joe's H2O in Tulsa. The park will be open 10 months out of the year.
Bell said he intends to maintain the topography of the undeveloped land and will try to keep the countless trees on it. There’s also a creek running through the site that is as wide as 90 feet and as deep as 20 feet in places.
"We, along with the city, are going to try and improve that creek, beautify it, make it a functioning attraction, and also help mitigate water and flood issues throughout the area at the same time," Bell said.
Bell's was at the Tulsa Fairgrounds from 1951 to 2006, when the county did not renew their lease. City Manager Michael Spurgeon said he’s happy to have the park as the latest investment in Broken Arrow, as it was a tradition for many Tulsa-area families.
"And when you live right around 21st and Sheridan just down from Hoover Elementary, you spend a lot of time there. And some of my fondest memories go back to the time that I spent there in that amusement park on the Zingo, which to this day, I'm still scared of thinking about riding it again, like most people," Spurgeon said.
Bell said talks about reviving the family amusement park started in 2017, and the Broken Arrow site was their preferred location. Hints about its return started coming out in late 2019.
No timeline for building the amusement park has been announced.
