Monday, October 19, 2009

Aerial Antics: Funtown Splashtown U.S.A.


Funtown Splashtown U.S.A., located in woodsy Saco, Maine, is another small amusement park that continues to thrive in this era of mega chain parks, much to my glee. The park opened in the late sixties with a modest offering of rides, games, and activities such as mini-golf for it's guests to experience.

Fourty some years later the park is a full fledged amusement park, offering it's many guests some wild thrills and a developed water park as well.

Speaking of that water park, here it is. You can see those shiny new lookin' Proslide attractions, Tornado and Mammoth on the right. There's also a large water play area that guests can explore on the bottom left. The water features have been quite popular at the park, and I wouldn't be surprised if they expand upon their offerings in this department again soon.

Here's a coaster that's no longer at the park, the Galaxy. It was removed after the 2008 season for this past season's new ride - the Wild Mouse. The new coaster once operated at Jolly Roger Amusement Park, and was on the fair circuit as well. While the Galaxy is missed, no doubt, the Wild Mouse was a smash hit this past summer at the park.

I think I refrained from saying "2fer" in two or three weeks worth of Aerial Antics posts, so here you have it, this image is a 2fer! Up top we see a rather large log flume, named Thunder Falls. It's billed as New England's "tallest and longest log flume."

The large tower ride is an S&S Turbo Drop ride named Dragon's Descent, standing some 220 ft. tall. I bet the views from up there are breathtaking.

The ride that really got the park 'on the map' so to say, at least in our enthusiast eyes, was the Excalibur wooden coaster. A Custom Coasters designed ride, it opened in 1998 as Maine's only wooden roller coaster and still has that title. The 82 ft. first drop down into the trees below, along with it's wooden setting, make this ride especially easy on the eyes, no?

Here's a link to the Bing aerials for Funtown.


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