I did something at the beginning of this month that I haven’t done for twenty years: I went to an amusement park to which I had never been before. I had spent the early part of that holiday weekend in greater Indianapolis with friends, with my last visit there dating back to 2017 when a bunch of us had taken a small charter bus to the Indianapolis 500 races. I had such a wonderful time and visit with everyone, spending roughly 36 hours with some of my best friends.
I also love amusement parks, having taken numerous trips to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio from the time I was an adolescent. I have long been fascinated by historic parks that have been fixtures in smaller communities. A trip to the old Americana (formerly LeSourdsville Lake) park in Middletown, Ohio was one of my favorite experiences of that summer of ’89. That park has been long gone, as is also Geauga Lake in Aurora, also in Ohio, which I never got to experience. About halfway between Chicago and Indianapolis and a little bit east of I-65, there’s a park called Indiana Beach Boardwalk Resort located off of Lake Shafer. I spent about four hours there on my way back home to Chicago, and I immediately fell in love.
My plans to see both my friends and this park had materialized in just over a week, which made this trip all the more special. I’m a planner and need to prepare mentally and emotionally – even if just a little bit – for any sort of trip. After having been invited to Indiana for the previous weekend with three or four days’ notice, I had declined, but once I had a bit more time to think about it, I was all-in for July 4th weekend and really excited to see my friends. I had also researched this park for a while, and when I discovered that it was basically equidistant between Chicago and Carmel, Indiana, I was thrilled and immediately bought my admission ticket online.
I also knew I had wanted to photograph my experience at the park, but I didn’t want to bring my large SLR camera or leave that task entirely to my cell phone. I dusted off my old Canon A495 point-and-shoot camera which I hadn’t used in over a decade, and planned to spend that afternoon documenting my fun primarily using my old friend and also with my phone’s camera as backup. It was a magical afternoon, and my little blue camera performed beautifully, providing crisp, colorful images with its 10.0 megapixel capability. The pictures featured in this essay were taken with both my A495 and my phone’s camera.
After I had parked my rental Malibu in one of the further lots, I walked down the street to the park, which was when I had spotted our featured Jeep next to some of the cabins that dot East Indiana Beach Drive along the path to the park’s entrance. It was a hot summer day with temperatures pushing 90F (32C), and it struck me that the combination of doors-off / top-down as seen here would make complete sense on a day like this. A subsequent license plate search indicated that this brown, YJ-platform beauty is an ’87 Jeep Wrangler Laredo, which was originally powered by a 112-horsepower, carbureted 4.2 liter six-cylinder engine mated to a five-speed manual transmission. It was originally built in Brampton in the province of Ontario, Canada.
The search results also showed the make as AMC, which led me to do a deeper dive to discover that ’87 was the first, official model year for the Wrangler, which had been rolled out in the middle of the prior year. The Laredo package included upgrades such as the chrome grille and bumpers, a hardtop, full, solid doors, and exterior identification among other interior niceties such as an AM/FM cassette player and air conditioning. Chrysler’s buyout of American Motors was finalized in August of ’88, though Chrysler had purchased Renault’s share of AMC in March of ’87. This Jeep is probably one of the final vehicles produced with full American Motors DNA.
Little AMC has always tugged on my heartstrings, to which I’ve made reference in more than a few of my essays here at CC. The fact that this Jeep was likely one of the very last, homegrown AMC products to roll off an assembly line made me look again at my pictures of it with a little added reverence. In many ways, this brown Jeep represents both an end and a new beginning. The Wrangler is still very much with us, currently in its fourth generation under parent company Stellantis.
Similarly, Indiana Beach, which had originally opened as Ideal Beach in 1926 as a small, community park by the lake, had announced its permanent closure in February of 2020, six years shy of a full century of operation. Thankfully, a new buyer, one Chicago businessman Gene Staples, had swooped in to rescue and capitalize the park, which reopened that same June. Just as with the Jeep and Wrangler brands, a change in its ownership has kept little Indiana Beach park rocking.
I realize I had mentioned that removal of the doors and roof of one’s Jeep might have made things suitably cool and refreshing while the vehicle is in motion, but in practice, I might be closer to ambivalent to this approach. I say this after my ride on the Water Swings at the park which, coincidentally, was one of my favorite, laugh-inducing, and slightly unsettling experiences that afternoon. I mean this in the best way.
I will absolutely be riding this attraction again, but once it got moving in full-speed rotation, the chair in which I was seated was not only spinning around in the direction of travel, but it also rocked and tilted forward and backward (with no help from me) as I spun over the water. Granted, there were two safety straps, one of which was belted between my legs and the other across my chest, but it almost felt at times like with just a little extra tilt, I could be less than two seconds away from plopping into Lake Shafer. Of course I was perfectly safe, but part of the genius of the ride is that it absolutely did not feel that way.
So, would I be a doors-off Jeep person? I honestly can’t recall ever having ridden in one sans doors. Generally speaking, I like the feeling of being closed in on either side of me, as sometimes things can come out of pockets while seated, and not only that, but I like feeling enclosed unless I’m in a convertible with the top down. Just days after my fun afternoon at Indiana Beach and while walking to the train downtown after work, I saw a big, red, four-door Wrangler in evening rush hour traffic in the Chicago Loop with the doors off and large-ish dude looking like he was completely relaxed while piloting in his erstwhile off-roader in the urban jungle. Nope. Doors on for me, please. Maybe this is just the calculated risk-taker in me. Insurance underwriters almost never stop underwriting – take it from me. (You should see how many times I proofread and edit my entries here at CC before they run.)
Just like the Wrangler has continued to modernize and evolve yet maintain its strong brand and visual identity after close to forty years in production, I hope the same will be true for Indiana Beach, a first-visit experience that I will always treasure. The Wrangler has long appealed to a wide and diverse demographic, and this brown ’87 Laredo edition had inadvertently become one symbol of a day filled with a human rainbow of all kinds of people just having fun and being nice to each other. There can be vibrant new life even after some part of a story ends. Just ask the Wrangler and Mr. Gene Staples.
Monticello, Indiana.
Saturday, July 5, 2025.
The 1987 Jeep Wrangler brochure pages were sourced from www.oldcarbrochures.org.
Well, this does perk a guy up, but for different reasons in my case. You introduce us to Lake Shafer (spelled correctly – yay!) in Indiana. Reminds me of having discovered Joseph Dennis Park in Kansas City, Kansas.
Having once or twice (yet briefly) ridden in a Jeep with no doors, it is its own amusement park ride. Moving, open, sorta belted in – it’s fun, but it also makes you happy the ride doesn’t last an overly long time.
May you continue to enjoy summer!
At first, I thought you were punking me, but my park actually exists! Who knew? (Well, you did.) And spelling is so important. I wonder if this lake’s people are distant relatives of yours? This should also be part of your travels.
I have a lot of affection for these YJ Jeeps, in part because my in-laws have one, and I’ve spent a good amount of time driving it (though never with the doors off). Theirs is a 1995 bare-bones Wrangler S – 4 cyl. and no options, not even a back seat (photo below). To me, this seems like one of the last remaining links to a time when cars were simple… from a modern standpoint it seems like many tractors have more creature comforts than this Jeep.
Like Jason mentions above, driving this Jeep – especially on the highway – is like an amusement park ride… boxy body, skinny tires, vague steering, etc. Though it’s not always amusing. Sometimes I breathe a sigh of relief realizing that I actually made it to my destination.
Your connections with amusement parks are apt. Most old-style amusement parks have faded into oblivion, like most simple cars. But the few that remain have carved out a niche where they can continue to thrive against all odds. The Jeep’s appeal is similar… it’s because other cars have evolved that these otherwise obsolete Jeeps maintain their appeal.
Also – I’m a fan of point-and-shoot cameras like your Canon. I have a similar Nikon that I often carry because it takes better pictures (especially w/ zoom) than a phone, but is portable. At some point I looked into getting a new point-and-shoot, but I realized they’re just not made any longer because I guess the market has been squeezed at both ends (people either migrating to the ease & ubiquity of phones or to the quality of expensive SLRs). Too bad, because they do fill a need – I’m glad you still get to use yours.
About a year ago I walked past a parked Wrangler, green with tan like this one. It sported a For Sale sign. I paused to check it out and a man came out of the house across the street and shouted “You know you want it!”. No, not really, but the simplicity was appealing. It was a 4 cylinder 5 speed, though it was a newer TJ. Round headlights.
Sometimes for work, I have to go to facilities where phones and cameras are not allowed. But there are exceptions for non internet connected devices that are searched on entry and exit. Which means a point and shoot with an SD card can be approved. In 2022 I was on site and had left my point and shoot several states away, I ended up taking a whole afternoon of visiting walmarts best buys and Targets before I located a decent one still in stock in a Walmart a few towns away (online inventory is not always correct). They really are getting hard to find.
I find cameras of this type on a regular basis at my town dump’s electronics pile. I’ve yet to encounter one that needed more than new batteries and they’re good to go.
An added benefit is that people usually throw them out with the SD cards inserted. So you get to see what the previous owner was photographing prior to disposal. (sadly, it’s never anything exciting)
I have more than I can use now, so I generally leave them there when I find them…but I do have one in the glove box of each of my cars, just in case I ever want to do just what Joe describes and not travel with an SLR or depend solely on the phone.
Nice old Jeep .
I still have fond memories of riding in the forest in out 1952 M38-A1 ex army Jeep, it never had a top nor doors from new .
Amusement parks can be a blast .
Sadly, now that I’m old I no longer want to go .
-Nate
My first experience with a no-doors jeep was a M-38 Kaiser in OD with the popular 50-cal Ma Duece option. Many adventures followed.
In subsequent years, I’ve often considered buying a Jeep but even current models just don’t fit my lifestyle. Yeah, I know, the charm of a jeep is that it really hasn’t changed that much since its inception, even today. Solid front and rear axles, four cylinder engine, removable top and doors, etc. But I just .ended up buying something more useful…and comfortable.
I have never felt comfortable riding in or driving a Jeep with the doors off. Then again, I also don’t care much for driving golf carts or Cushmans (Cushmen?) also due to the lack of a full cage around me. This is probably illogical since I have no problem with riding a bicycle, which (arguably) offers even less driver security.
Wranglers of the age of this brown one seem to work door-less. Even if they make me uncomfortable thinking of driving/riding them, they somehow seem appropriate without doors or a top. I won’t say the same about the current generation Wrangler. I saw one the other day with the front doors off, and it just looked like someone’s SUV where the doors had fallen off. Totally silly.