

Although there was no steamboat service, private boats often docked and sailboats anchored just offshore. In 1878 James West opened a group of bathhouses near the beach. He charged 25 cents per person to ride from Sandusky to Cedar Point on his boat, Young Reindeer. Zistel opened a bathhouse on the north shore of the peninsula and the same year built a beer garden with a small dance floor. In 1870, he began to ferry locals to the Cedar Point peninsula, which opened as a public bathing beach. Louis Zistel, a German immigrant, built two boats to transport the prisoners. It was used to defend a prison for Confederate soldiers on nearby Johnson's Island. In the 1860s during the American Civil War, housing for a battery of four field artillery pieces was constructed at the tip of the peninsula. The park also has several buildings that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The park is in the top 20 amusement parks in the United States with an estimated 3.6 million visitors in 2017. Cedar Point also received the Golden Ticket Award for "Best Amusement Park in the World" from Amusement Today for 16 consecutive years from 1997 to 2013. Prior to the retirement of Top Thrill Dragster in 2022, it was the only amusement park in the world with five roller coasters that are at least 200 feet (61 m) in height – Magnum XL-200, Millennium Force, Valravn, Steel Vengeance, and Top Thrill Dragster – as well as the only one with roller coasters in all four height classifications.

Other attractions near the park include a one-mile-long (1.6 km) white-sand beach, an outdoor water park called Cedar Point Shores, an indoor water park called Castaway Bay, two marinas, an outdoor sports complex called Cedar Point Sports Center, and several nearby resorts. Ĭedar Point's normal operating season runs from early May until Labor Day in September, after which it reopens only on weekends through Halloween, featuring events such as HalloWeekends. Cedar Point's most recent roller coaster, Steel Vengeance, opened to the public on May 5, 2018. Known as "America's Roller Coast", the park features 15 roller coasters – fourth-most in the world with Six Flags Great America, behind Canada's Wonderland and Energylandia (17), as well as Six Flags Magic Mountain (20). Cedar Point is owned and operated by Cedar Fair and is the flagship of the amusement park chain. Opened in 1870, it is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the U.S. Cedar Point is a 364-acre (147 ha) amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States.
