Panama City, Florida - After closing nearly seven years ago, the loss of Miracle Strip Amusement park left a gaping hole in Panama City, a place where small parks used to thrive. Now Panama City Beach will be coming back to life, with the New Miracle Strip at Pier Park getting a sizable expansion.

Over the past three years, a small park has operated in Panama City for locals to enjoy, including some of Miracle Strips original rides, but next year the park will officially put itself on the map. For 2012, Miracle Strip at Pier Park plans to expand with seven new rides and a number of other attractions. Local news source WJHG reports that several rides from the old Miracle Strip, such as Shockwave, Sock Hop Jumping Pillow, the old-fashioned Crank Cars, and the Sea Dragon, will be reborn at Pier Park. Starting in 2009 with the original Miracle Strip Carousel, the local attraction is now becoming a true amusement park.

Originally opened in 1963, Miracle Strip was once a small but thriving park, featuring such highly touted rides as the oddly themed Dante’s Inferno, The Haunted Castle, and the classic wooden Starliner coaster. The park struggled at the start of the new millennium though, losing money from declining tourism while paying increased expenses to keep its rides running, and the park was forced to shutter its doors in September 2004. After that, most of the rides disappeared, but a few, such as Starliner, survived.

Starliner soon moved to Cypress Gardens in nearby Winter Haven, Florida, where it operated successfully for 2 years before that park then lost its own financial battle. Facing almost certain death, Starliner got a temporary respite when Merlin Entertainments bought the old Cypress Gardens for use as a new Legoland park, Legoland Florida. Despite its initial plans to use the Starliner roller coaster along with several other attractions, Starliner soon got shelved yet again, but she would not be denied. Teddy Meeks, owner of Miracle Strip at Pier Park, has stated that he hopes to bring the Straliner to his new park according to WJHG.

Meeks stated that local support for the park has been very strong, with many of the original Miracle Strip’s park reminiscing, bringing their families, and being encouraged to “bring back [this and that ride].” His hopes are that the locals continue to support the park and help it grow, so that he can continue to make more expansions in the future.