Giant Dipper (Belmont Park)
The Giant Dipper, also known as the Mission Beach Roller Coaster and by other previous names, is a historical wooden roller coaster located at Belmont Park in the Mission Beach area of San Diego, California, United States. Built in 1925, it is one of two remaining wooden coasters on the West Coast designed by notable coaster designers Frank Prior and Frederick Church, along with the other Giant Dipper, which opened a year earlier at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Giant Dipper at Belmont Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, and it was later designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987.
Description
The Giant Dipper is located at the northeast corner of Belmont Park, a waterfront amusement park at the junction of Mission Boulevard and West Mission Bay Drive. The coaster occupies an irregular area about in size, and is accessed via a terminal structure on its west side. It has a track length of, and its highest hills, located roughly at opposite ends of the area, reach in height. A sign with the name "Belmont" is affixed to the wooden trestle structure at its northeast edge.History
The coaster was built in 1925 as part of a major real estate development led by John D. and Adolph Spreckels to attract visitors and residents to the Mission Beach area. The Mission Beach Amusement Center was built for $2.5 million and opened in 1925, with the coaster as one of its main attractions. It was designed by Frank Prior and Frederick Church, coaster designers based in Venice, California, who also oversaw its construction. The Spreckels' bequeathed the attraction to the city, which in 1954 was leased to Jack Ray. He renamed the park Belmont Park, after another park in Montreal. The roller coaster was severely damaged by fire in 1955, and Ray subsequently declared bankruptcy.Threatened with demolition by the city in 1978, local citizens banded together to rescue it and a few surviving attractions of the defunct park. It underwent a full restoration in 1989–90.