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were also filled with tree branches and dirt, especially about 150 feet above the plunge pool, where a retaining wall had recently collapsed and filled one of the slides to its rim with dirt and weeds. Both racers were cracked and peeled badly: surfacing was missing in a few spots filled with more weeds and overgrowth, the body slides were choked with leaves and branches, the smaller inner tube slide had numerous saplings sprouting from its base and was also badly split and cracked, and the wading pool was also cracked and full of weeds. Other retaining walls elsewhere in the park that once held elevated gardens continued to sag severely in July 2009. As of April 2019, the only remnants of the water park that can be seen from Route 83 are some lights that illuminated the water park. A big red billboard that says “Advertise Here” can be seen at the top the hill.
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The slides were also unique in that they were lined with a blue rubber foam material which would prevent injuries from contacts with the slide walls. Due to the design of the two main large concrete slides, especially with the V-shaped configuration of their side walls, people could also slide quite
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By July 2009, the two large concrete slides had numerous cracks and splits in the concrete that had sprouted saplings six to eight feet tall. At that time, the rubber foam lining had peeled off the slide walls and lay jumbled in the slides, the slide walls were covered with graffiti, and the slides
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Around 1987, the large concrete slides were resurfaced with flat bottoms with humps and bumps. Patrons rode the slides solo on inner tubes, getting bumped up and down and sideways as they went down the renovated slides. To fit the new rides, the park was renamed "Doc River's
Roaring Rapids Water
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The site is still owned by the
Robinette family, which operates a nearby demolition business. There are security cameras, signs warning against trespassing, a roadblock on a road that leads to the park, and a permanent chain-link fence has been erected around the site. None of this has deterred
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The water park had paid for its installation costs by 5 August 1980, and became a major summer attraction for residents of surrounding towns and communities as people lined up for rides down the large winding slides. After two years, Collor sold the park to a businessman he knew from
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During the 1980s, the park added five additional slides. The new slides included: two flat racer slides in which people slid down head-first on folded rubber mats; two semi-enclosed tube body slides; and a smaller slide in which patrons rode inner tubes into a nearby
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When the landfill reached ground level, it was covered with concrete, brick and an eight-foot clay cap. The site was a large hill that became overgrown. Mark Collor was driving past the site and took interest due to the potential for water slides.
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The park closed for good at the end of the 1989 season for undisclosed reasons. Neglected and abandoned since, the slides and wading pool have fallen into ruin. The site has become popular with
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and landfill under a local businessman named
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The park's tongue-twister name came about because Collor had been amused by a story his brother-in-law had told about meeting a man in
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in 2009. "My friend and I saw that hill with that sign on top of it for The Flame restaurant, and I said, 'There's a hill!'"
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Collor signed an agreement with the
Robinette family to build two water slides and a few small buildings on the property.
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located on a hill near the intersection of
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When the park first opened on July 5, 1980, it had only two simple, 800-foot concrete
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high up the walls of the slides, especially when hitting a turn at high speeds.
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Images of the park in operation at the
Oakbrook Terrace Historical Society
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95:"Try to find a hill in Chicago, it's a little hard," Collor told the
219:"Ebenezer Floppen Slopper's Wonderful Abandoned Water Slides"
270:"No more Riordan Road access to abandoned water slide"
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Ebenezer
Floppen Slopper's Wonderful Water slides
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Buildings and structures in DuPage County, Illinois
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Photographs taken at the derelict park in June 2006
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27:Waterpark in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois
197:"Water slides were clean, trashy fun"
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328:Defunct amusement parks in Illinois
348:1989 disestablishments in Illinois
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353:Modern ruins in the United States
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363:Amusement parks opened in 1980
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276:. Topix.com. 29 December 2013
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84:The site opened in 1951 as a
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323:Water parks in Illinois
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86:gravel pit
39:87°57′42″W
36:41°51′47″N
161:As a ruin
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