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By John Dobberstein, Editor
The beloved Tulsa Sky Ride that was unceremoniously sold by Tulsa County officials has arrived at its final home in Iraq.
Crews in Iraq recently began unpacking the ride’s cars and structure from shipping containers and laying the pieces out for assembly. Local producer Scottie Martin obtained footage of the work and posted it on Facebook.
The ride will become an attraction at the Baghdad Island Amusement Park, which was completely gutted and looted during the wars in Iraq but was recently been restored.
“It will be interesting to see how they modify the ride to work again and how much this will cost compared to buying a new sky ride,” said Martin, who led efforts to keep the Tulsa State Fair ride here. Martin is also working with a team on a documentary about Bell's Amusement Park that was located at the state fairgrounds.
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TCPFA sought bids in December for an entity to operate the popular ride, which has been mothballed since the State Fair season of 2019. But the county received no formal bidders, although a few vendors inquired about the ride and reportedly balked at the RFP's terms.
This came after The Tulsa Preservation Commission told the county it had concern about the planned auction. In October the Sky Ride has been deemed to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places by the Oklahoma Historical Society State Historic Preservation Office.
The Save Our Tulsa Skyride group also unveiled a list of potential solutions to the Skyride's operating future.
The ride was sold to Iraq-based GT Amusement Service, which describes itself as a “professional trader in the Middle East for amusement rides and maintenance.”
The first attempt at the demolition in May was halted by the contractor over a dispute. Another vendor was brought in and demo work continued in June.
