Zingo: the wooden coaster that defined Bell’s

A silhouette visible across the park

Zingo opened at Bell’s in 1968 and quickly became the park’s strongest image. Its wooden structure, its place in the Tulsa landscape and its classic coaster rhythm made it both a visual and emotional landmark.

The language of old wooden coasters

Zingo’s importance was not only about its dimensions. The ride belonged to an era when the sound of timber, vibration and turns gave a coaster a very physical personality. For many visitors, that mix is what fixed Bell’s in memory.

After Bell’s closed, Zingo did not survive as a relocated ride. Its dismantling in 2007 turned the coaster into a symbol of the site’s disappearance. Yet it remains one of the names most immediately associated with the park, because it embodied Bell’s at its most spectacular and most local.