“Seeing [Belmont Park] for the first time was almost like when Alice went through the looking glass and was in Wonderland,” recalls San Diegan Tim Cole. He initially visited the local landmark on an eighth-grade field trip in 1974, and the park quickly became his sanctuary, a place where he felt like he fit in and a fun escape from his usually straight and narrow life.
Yet his safe space was on the decline. The park (and its famous wooden roller coaster) debuted as the Mission Beach Entertainment Center on July 4, 1925 to much acclaim (it was renamed Belmont Park 30 years later). However, it faced a dropoff in visitors in the late 1960s and early ’70s. The 75-foot-tall coaster, the Giant Dipper, had fallen into disrepair and was eventually condemned, leading the city to call for its demolition. The park closed in December of 1976. Then privately owned, the Giant Dipper sat waiting to meet its demise.
Belmont Park and its iconic Giant Dipper coaster opened to thrill-seekers on the Fourth of July, 1925.
When Cole heard about the planned demolition, he knew he had to keep a piece of the coaster with him. As model building was a hobby of his, he decided to make a replica of the Giant Dipper.
Cole started working on the model from old photographs of the coaster but realized that, without getting up close to it, he would never achieve an accurate representation. He skipped class one day and snuck into the park to do some research. Upon seeing it in person again, however, he knew he had to do more than just honor its memory.
“I had only set out to preserve it as a model,” Cole recalls. “I didn’t really think that I was going to get involved in actually owning and saving the real thing.”
From there, he joined the Save the Coaster Committee. Founded in 1978, the group was dedicated to stopping the proposed demolition of the Giant Dipper. Cole became the face of the committee, helping rally support and raise funds. Over the next 12 years— and through Belmont Park’s official reopening in 1988—Cole and his fellow group members worked to get the Giant Dipper back up and running, which was not an easy task.
The first step was obtaining ownership of the coaster. The group took on a three-year lease in 1982 and was finally able to start the needed restoration work. Around that same time, Cole assumed the role of committee president. His team was working against a ticking clock, refurbishing the coaster by hand. To extend its deadline, the committee joined forces with the Santa Cruz Seaside Co., which secured a 31-year lease. The change in ownership resulted in the formation of the San Diego Coaster Company and allowed the committee to finish restorations and relaunch the Giant Dipper in 1990.
“When the coaster took its first ride, it was like the heart of Mission Beach was pumping again,” Cole says. “It was like it was alive again.”
Now in its 100th year, Belmont Park is still thrilling visitors and creating core memories for many San Diegans.
Longtime employee Minh Tra first began working at the park as a high school student more than 30 years ago, climbing the ladder from birthday party host to assistant general manager and operations director of the park.
Though it once faced permanent closure, Belmont Park remains a fixture of Mission Beach, with a mix of modern and retro rides.
During that time, Tra has borne witness to some of the park’s most iconic moments—like the 1998 “Whirl ’til You Hurl” contest, which gave participants a chance to win a new car in exchange for riding the Giant Dipper all day long, with only a handful of short breaks. The contest lasted 10 weeks and was one of San Diego’s greatest brushes with national coverage for the time.
“Those days were the most memorable days just because of how busy it was and how many people came to the park to visit these riders,” Tra says.
Yet even on an ordinary work day, Tra finds the park to be a thrill.
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“Who doesn’t like going on a roller coaster at 10 in the morning and looking out and seeing the ocean?” he adds. “It just reminds you of what we have in San Diego.”
