Nicknamed “Ohio's Million Dollar Playground” and the “Atlantic City of the Midwest,” Sandy Beach Amusement Park opened here at Indian Lake on May 29, 1924. The park featured a 2,000-foot-long roller coaster and other popular rides, a boardwalk, and the Minnewawa Dance Hall. The Minnewawa and its succeeding dance pavilions hosted the greatest names of the Big Band era, drawing thousands of people from all over Ohio to listen and dance. Societal turmoil and rioting in the 1960s affected the park’s popularity, and diminishing crowds, along with competition from larger theme parks such as Cedar Point and Kings Island, led to its closing in the early 1970s. The steel arch bridge spanning the harbor is the park’s lone remnant.