Aerial Antics: Celebration City

No longer featuring much celebrating at all these days, today we look at Branson's Celebration City - a short lived "night time" theme park.  Meant to be somewhere to head after Silver Dollar City closed for the day, the operation only lasted from 2003 to 2008.

Here we see the entrance area to Celebration City, which was very nicely done - fitting since the park was created by Herschend Family Entertainment.  The park's theme was that of America in the 20th century, with areas themed to past times like a 1920s boardwalk and Route 66.

The park's shoot-the-chutes has a very short life at the park, operating only in 2008.  It was moved from Geauga Lake once that park closed, and is still sitting on the property in Missouri as far as I am aware.

The center of the park featured nice full landscaping, another trait of the park's operators.  Nowadays it has some pads where flat rides used to be located, but most of the buildings look like they've remained in tact.  At least two of these rides (a scrambler and flying scooters) headed further south when Celebration City closed and now reside at sister park Wild Adventures.

The park's go-karts appears as though they could be ready to go in a hurry if need be.  In the upper right is a large pad that I believe used to be the home of a steel coaster known as the Jack Rabbit, which has also been relocated to Wild Adventures.

The night time aspect of the park was emphasized by a large laser light show that was projected onto the massive rock walls seen here.  It helped entice guests to stay till the end of the evening and watch from the large grassy area seen above.  Also in the lower right corner you can see the S&S Double Shot tower, named Accelerator.

Here's a handful of rides that hadn't left the property when these aerials were taken.  The coaster was known as Thunderbolt, and has since been relocated to Colorado.  Also seen are a Ferris wheel and sea dragon... probably since removed as well.  Also take notice of the large Celebration City logo on the roof of the building!

Last, but certainly not least, here is the Ozark Wildcat.  Designed by Great Coasters International, it is currently the company's only coaster to not still be operating.  Like most of the company's rides it features a twisted mess of track, and had Millennium Flyer trains.

To check out Bing's aerials of the park, click here!