A Blast From The Past - Garfield's American Adventure

Say what! Never heard of the park... well it never got built. Garfield's American Adventure was a proposed theme park to be built approximately 40 miles north of Indianapolis in Mooresville, Indiana. The project was to be a part of a larger complex called Entercitement City, which would contain the amusement park, golf courses, several hotels, and a water park.

The first phase of the 530-acre complex, Garfield's American Adventure, was to have included several themed areas, thrill rides, an indoor/outdoor water park and a there was to be 170-room resort hotel built nearby.

Jack Rouse Associates provided the master plans, programming, thematic story line development, theme park planning, area development, signage, graphics and the design of all facilities and attractions within the theme park and water park.

One themed section of the park would have been devoted to the popular cartoon character Garfield, created by Indiana native Jim Davis. Garfield was to be the park’s signature character.

The park is supposed to open with a wooden coaster, a steel looping coaster and a family coaster.

In September 1998, Custom Coasters International sent a proposal to Entercitement City. The working name for the coaster was simply the Garfield wooden roller coaster.

Page two of the proposal is the site plan showing the Garfield coaster and another smaller coaster toward the backside of the park.

This page shows the bent plan. Preliminary statistics for the coaster included a track length of 3230 feet, with an 81 foot lift hill and a maximum vertical drop of 81 feet.

This is a drawing of the rides center line profile. The maximum speed was to be 71 feet per second or approximately 50 mph. The maximum grade was to have been 51 degrees The station would have been elevated, approximately 12 foot off the ground.

The project fell through in 2002 when the property went into foreclosure. Construction of the park only got as far as clearing the land, which has long since become over grown, and some surveying. Entercitement City's investors soured on the project and while the people involved did have experience in the industry, they were unable to garner enough support to continue the project.