Bay Beach Amusement Park

Bay Beach began as a private lakeside resort and beach in the early twentieth century, one of many bathing-and-picnic parks that once dotted the Great Lakes shore. When the water grew too polluted for swimming, the beach faded, but the amusement rides carried on, and the city of Green Bay took ownership of the grounds. Rather than run it for profit, the city ran it as a public amenity, keeping prices low on purpose.

That decision is why the park still charges only pennies per ride today, a policy the city has held to for decades even as costs rose everywhere else. Generations of Green Bay families have grown up on those cheap tickets, and the park has become a point of civic pride, proof that a good time by the water does not have to be expensive. It is one of the last places in America where a dollar still buys a real afternoon of rides.

For years the park's rides were mostly gentle classics, until Green Bay landed a piece of American amusement history. The Zippin Pippin was a famous old wooden roller coaster in Memphis, one of the oldest operating coasters in the country and a favorite of Elvis Presley, who was said to rent out the park to ride it late at night. When the Memphis park closed, Green Bay acquired the rights to the ride's name and design.

The city built a new Zippin Pippin at Bay Beach, faithful to the old coaster's classic wooden layout, and it opened to great excitement. The rebuilt coaster gave the little municipal park a genuine headline attraction and tied Green Bay to a beloved bit of rock-and-roll and roller-coaster lore. Riding it today, you are riding a design with a long and storied life, brought back on the shore of the bay.

Beyond the coaster, Bay Beach keeps the classic roster of a mid-century amusement park: a carousel, bumper cars, a Ferris wheel, a scrambler, kiddie rides, and the beloved giant slide that generations have bumped down on burlap sacks. The rides are set out under shade trees along the water, so between turns you can wander down to the shore and feel the breeze off the bay.

Because everything is priced so low, the park invites the kind of unhurried, all-afternoon visit that pricier parks discourage. Families spread out picnics, kids ride their favorites again and again, and the whole place keeps an easygoing, hometown rhythm. It is the sort of park where the fun is in the atmosphere as much as the rides themselves.

Right beside the amusement park lies the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, a large preserve of woods, wetlands, and trails that is free to enter and home to rehabilitated animals, waterfowl, and a nature center. Together the two make a full day, the rides on one side and quiet trails and animal exhibits on the other, an unusual pairing of carnival and wilderness on the same shore.

The amusement park runs through the warm months and closes for winter, so it is very much a summer tradition, at its liveliest on long July evenings. Spring and early fall bring gentler weather and thinner crowds, and any clear evening rewards you with the sun going down over the bay behind the rides, a scene that has closed out countless Green Bay summers.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.