At the turn of the century, the area around Russells Point harbor was owned by the Ohio Department of Conservation, leased in separate tracts, and operated as picnic grounds. Samuel “Pappy” Wilgus held leases on the east side of the harbor, and in June 1923 he and his son French Wilgus acquired leases to property on the west side for $100,000. Over the next year, the Wilgus family and other investors built an amusement park on the east side with rides including the wooden roller coaster TheThriller, a miniature train, the Tilt-a-Whirl, the Twister, and the Flying Scooters. Sandy Beach Amusement Park opened on Decoration Day, May 30, 1924. At the same time, the Plaza Hotel and Showboat, Danceland, and the Vienna Gardens opened on the west side, and by 1925 the Sandy Beach Bridge connected the east side amusements with the west side dining, drinking, and dancing establishments. The amusement park, dance pavilions, excursion boats, and bathing beaches soon earned the area the name “Ohio’s Million Dollar Playground.” A major part of Sandy Beach’s growth and success was the Minnewawa Dance Hall, one of the biggest and best in the Midwest, with two bandstands and room for hundreds of couples. Even during the Great Depression, Sandy Beach hosted dance marathons, including the National Endurance Dance Marathon in 1931, which lasted 80 days and two hours. Fire destroyed the Minnewawa in 1935, and it was replaced by an outdoor dance pavilion with a large patio called the Moonlight Terrace Gardens. Other popular dance halls included Dreamland Ballroom, the Plaza Showboat, and the Moonlight Terrace, which drew major entertainers such as Rudy Vallee, Guy Lombardo, and Lawrence Welk. In 1936, French Wilgus sold the Wilgus family’s east side interests to Charles Horvath, a Cleveland entrepreneur and operator of the Minnewawa Dance Hall. Horvath continued operating the amusement park while French Wilgus ran the hotel, restaurants, and dance halls on the west side. In 1948, after the State of Ohio refused to renew Wilgus’s liquor license on the grounds that he was violating liquor laws, the west side leases were granted to Horvath. A legal battle reached the Ohio Supreme Court, and a 1954 ruling upheld the leases, ending the Wilgus era at Sandy Beach. This six-year legal battle and the lack of continued investment during that period likely marked the beginning of the amusement park’s decline.