Do You Remember Grand Rapids’ Arne’s Funland? Amazing Water Park!

It was 1982 that a super fun and exciting water park opened in Grand Rapids, Arne's Funland! Yes, it was Arne's, not Arnie's. Arnie's, as we all know was the fun bakery/restaurants around our city, but Arne's just had water, and lots of it.

Arne's Funland was on 28t Street, SE, and people drove from miles around to spend an exciting day at the water park.

It went through a few name changes over the years.  A few years after opening Arne's changed it's name to Splash Family Waterpark and what a place it was!

Check this video out thanks to Travis Peedle and You Tube!

Before it closed in the '90s, the name had changed again, this time to AJ's Family Fun Center. There still is an AJ's Family Fun Center around, and it's on West River Drive at the LMCU Ballpark.

In it's hey day the Splash water park had three slides that winded down the hillside. There were also two side-by-side straight slides and also a slide where you rode a hard plastic sled down a track on rollers. They also had go-carts and mini-golf. The arcade had a Rocky and Bullwinkle theme to it.

After the water park closed, the slides remained for many years. Someone once said they broke in and took their skateboard for a spin on the slides. Yikes!

Eventually, the slides were removed, but as you drove past the former park on 28th Street, you could still see the grooves in the hill where the slides once existed for quite awhile. But alas, no more as it's all been redeveloped.

What's there now. Art Van built their big store there several years ago, now it's Value City, and Car Max is actually up on the water park hill.