On May 2, Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio, announced the WildCat roller coaster will be removed before the park opens for the 2012 summer season.

According to the park’s website, WildCat was coming to the end of its useful life. Coupled with low ridership and increased maintenance costs, Cedar Point decided to accelerate removal of the ride. WildCat will be removed from the park prior to opening day and the materials will be sent to a recycling facility. The area will be used to expand the new Celebration Plaza.

The current Wildcat (later spelled WildCat) is actually the second model to reside at the park. The original Wildcat was installed in 1970 and operated at Cedar Point until 1978 when it was moved to Valleyfair. Cedar Point purchased an identical Wildcat for the 1979 season.

Introduced in 1964, the Wildcat was the first production model roller coaster designed and built by Anton Schwarzkopf. It featured individual four-passenger vehicles designed to resemble German automobiles. The success of this model led to the development of Schwarzkopf’s Jet series coasters, then eventually to large scale looping models of both permanent and portable designs.

The Schwarzkopf Wildcat was available in three different sizes: 45-meter, 54-meter and 65-meter. Cedar Point’s Wildcat was the large 65-meter model of which approximately 11 were built.

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