In the late 1970s, a Detroit-area aeronautical engineer and sci-fi fanatic who worked with NASA dreamed up a theme park called “Space World.”
It was nearly built off I-94 on Ypsilanti’s doorstep, but outcry from township residents stood in the way.
In 2022, MLive was given access to a treasury of documents and plans for the park that never came to be, and produced a short documentary, “Space World: The Michigan Amusement Park that Never Was.”
Photographer Neil Blake and Reporter Lucas Smolcic Larson examine documents from the proposed Space World theme park at Acorn Industries in Livonia on May 16, 2022.
Last weekend, the film was awarded the Silver Medal in the Documentary Short Film category at the Brooklyn SciFi film festival. The festival says it was selected from among film submissions from around the world.
Dr. Philip R. Austin, who many described as Michigan‘s own Walt Disney, went bankrupt trying to make his dream of a space theme park a reality. But as amusement park historian Jim Futrell says at the end of the film, “If you don‘t try you’re never going to change the world.”
A drawing from Space World planning documents shows the theme park that was proposed to be developed in Ypsilanti, Michigan in the 1970s. The park was a dream of aeronautical engineer Philip R. Austin and never came to fruition. (Courtesy Philip J. Austin)Neil Blake/MLive.com
Lori Chapman is a senior producer on MLive’s video team.