Six Flags Entertainment has announced that this fall many of their parks will feature Hallofest, a new version of their popular late-season scare fest that has been adjusted in light of COVID-19. The new event temporarily replaces Fright Fest, which traditionally takes place at the parks in the fall.
The company made it clear not long ago that they intended to have a Halloween celebration this year, however in order to acknowledge that many of the usual scare tactics are off limits right now the event has been rebranded as Hallofest.
None of the Hallowfest events will feature any indoor haunted houses, due to safety restrictions. Instead they will all feature a number of fully outdoor scare zones (also called terror trails at some parks) with actors staying a safe distance from guests. There will be live entertainment along with plenty of fun things to do during the day, such a trick or treating, hay bale mazes and special food and retail offerings. Each park's offerings vary slightly and fit with their local markets.
“Our annual Fright Fest celebration is one of the most anticipated Halloween events of the season. Given the current environment, we are taking special precautions this year and offering our guests a version that is still scary, provides lots of thrilling rides and Halloween fun, and most importantly, is safe for our guests and team members,” said Six Flags President and CEO Mike Spanos. “We will operate HALLOWFEST the same way we have operated our parks all summer, with daily temperature checks and face masks required for guests and team members prior to entry, social distancing, and enhanced sanitization measures.”
Reservations are required for a visit to Hallofest, and are expected to fill quickly. They will be available for each park soon, keep an eye out on Six Flags' reservation site for more information.
Six Flags Entertainment sent out a mega-update today covering their elaborate plans to operate their theme parks in a COVID-19 world. This is the "new normal," as they put it.
But first, they've also announced their first theme park to reopen, which will be Frontier City on June 5th. The park will have very limited attendance and will open on June 5th through June 7th only for Members and Season Pass Holders only. It will then open to all guests and gradually increase the maximum daily attendance throughout the month. As stated earlier, the park will require the use of a reservation system to visit, and has a host of other information available here.
“Frontier City, like all Six Flags parks, is an outdoor attraction that poses a significantly lower risk of exposure than indoor venues. Our guests are not confined to one space for lengthy periods. Guests move constantly throughout their experience; some are riding rides, some are eating in restaurants, while others are shopping in our souvenir stores, or playing games. Because our parks cover dozens or even hundreds of acres, we can easily manage guest throughput to achieve proper social distancing,” said Six Flags President and CEO Mike Spanos.
“We have developed a comprehensive reopening safety plan that includes best practices from theme park and waterpark industry experts, along with top destination parks from around the world, which will allow guests to experience our parks in the safest possible way. This ’new normal’ will be very different, but we believe these additional measures are appropriate in the current environment.”
Along with the first park in the Six Flags chain to have an opening date set, the company also released a very robust set of standards for operations that meet or in most cases exceed local and government minimums for the safety of workers and visitors.
The plans are so thorough that they've created a 37 point summary of the changes they have implemented, which you can view online as part of Frontier City's reopening news.
A lot of the programs we have already discussed in previous stories, so I will not go through each point one by one. Some other things have come up or been clarified for us, though.
For instance, "contact-less IR thermal imaging" will be used to scan guests as they enter the park, a fast way to determine if anyone's temperate is more than 100.4, at which point they need further screening to see if they can enter.
Also guests over the age of two need a face mask that covers their mouth and nose, and it must be worn at all times. Exceptions will be made on a "case-by-case basis for persons with disabilities, health concerns,
religious restrictions, or other circumstances that in Six Flags’
discretion warrant a modification of this face mask requirement."
The parks will also use new technology to scan bags with no contact to make sure proper safety standards are met.
Souvenir drink bottles, which grew very popular in recent years, will not be refilled, instead a new paper cup will be given. Guests can then just use that, or put it in their bottle on their own.
This is the first time we've also been able to read the Six Flags Health & Safety Policy, which every guest must adhere to. If not, Six Flags says that "if at any time Six Flags determines that a guest does not meet
the criteria outlined in this policy, Six Flags reserves the right to
refuse entry or (if the guest is already in the park) immediately remove
the guest from the park. These actions are at the sole discretion of
Six Flags." That sounds good to me, and I hope that is enforced.
A summary video of the changes and plans was also released today, which has been uploaded to YouTube by Amusement Insiders:
Stay tuned for more Six Flags parks reopening dates, I think there will be plenty over the next few weeks!
Frontier City, which is now once again a part of the Six Flags chain (as displayed prominently in their current logo), has announced a brand new renovation to their kids area for 2019, plus a new holiday festival starting in just a few months.
The park will expand in 2019 with the addition of Timber Town, described as an interactive land for children that will feature four new rides along with several updated and rethemed existing attractions. The area will also be home to new characters such as "Bucky the Beaver, Hootie the Owl, and Bubba
the Bear" that will make their home in Timber Town.
According to the park's press release, the four new rides are:
• Frankie’s Mine Train, a family coaster as wild as the West itself;
• Billy’s Frog Hopper, a fully interactive jumping ride that will take families up, down, and all-around;
• Rocky's Ranger Planes, a classic spinning ride that will take kids to new heights, and;
• Sheldon’s Sea Adventure, an innovative family ride combining a unique blend of rocking and whirling motions.
From the photos and descriptions, it sounds like all the new rides are being manufactured by Zamperla, and include some of the company's most popular family attractions. Several existing rides will be rethemed and given names such as "Patricia's Tea Cup Twirl, Hootie's Tree House, Bucky's Whistlestop Depot, and Bubba's Honey Swings."
Guests will have to wait until next year to experience all that Timber Town has to offer, but Frontier City is also adding a popular Six Flags experience - Holiday In The Park - to the park in the final months of 2018.
Running from November 23rd through January 6th, Holiday In The Park will feature more than one million holiday lights, plenty of open rides, special shopping and dining experiences, holiday themed live entertainment and of course, Mr. and Mrs. Clause.
Six Flags Entertainment Corporation has announced that they have agreed to purchase the lease agreements to operate five amusement and water parks from Premier Parks, LLC. This is not an outright purchase of the parks, instead the owner of the properties will remain as EPR Properties, a giant real estate investment trust that is publicly traded.
Six Flags is looking to expand in North America, and adding these give properties into their network will allow them to do so. The fact that they will be lease holders, not full owners, will probably not be apparent to visitors, as the parks will be under full control of Six Flags' decisions. The securities filings for the transaction shows that Six Flags is paying about $23 million for the right to operate the parks, which combined have an estimated annual attendance of about 2 million.
So what are the parks that are joining the Six Flags family? First up is Darien Lake, which was once known as Six Flags Darien Lake. Indeed, the park was owned by Premier Parks before it swallowed up Six Flags and then renamed itself as Six Flags and as such was branded Six Flags Darien Lake in 1999. It remained that way until the failing company sold it, along with a handful of other parks, in early 2007.
Darien Lake has changed both owners and lease holders several times since then, being operated by companies such as Herschend Entertainment and PARC Management. It has seen modest expansion through the years, including a brand new roller coaster, Tantrum, for 2018. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch for this park to be a branded Six Flags park again, but the jury is still out on that.
Next up is Frontier City, which is actually the theme park that started Premier Parks way back when, setting off the chain of events that saw Six Flags eventually grow to a truly unsustainable size, then abandon the park at the same time it sold off Darien Lake.
This park, however, was never branded as a "Six Flags" park in the name, it always retained its Frontier City brand. In recent years it has continued to add smaller rides that fit the size of the park while taking steps to develop a water park as part of the property.
Both White Water Bay and Wet n' Wild SplashTown, like Darien Lake and Frontier City, were a part of the original Premier Parks group. So these four are all homecomings in a sense, even though the Six Flags Entertainment Corporation of today is nothing at all like the Six Flags of the early 2000s.
The one truly 'new' park as part of the agreement is Wet n' Wild Phoenix, which opened in 2009 and was built by Village Roadshow Entertainment. I'm not sure if Six Flags was after the geographical location, or perhaps the park is very successful, but the company now has another presence in the Southwest U.S.
It will be interesting to see if Six Flags will keep the brand that each water park currently has, or if they will all quickly become Hurricane Harbor properties. I'm going to guess the latter.
As for what the future holds, one thing to note is that often obtaining a lease may be a step toward fully owning a park - so perhaps down the road Six Flags will purchase the assets outright. Or perhaps not, it all depends on EPR Properties' plans.
Coasting For Kids, a popular fundraiser for the Give Kids The World Village, located in Kissimmee, Florida, will be returning for Summer 2017. The event was held across the Cedar Fair network of parks through 2015, and took last Summer off. Now the event is being put on at three new amusement parks: Frontier City, Quassy Amusement Parkand Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
The event is a fundraiser for the Give Kids The World Village, which "provides weeklong, cost free vacations to children with life-threatening illnesses and their families." Many in the amusement park industry have worked to support the facility and their goals for many years now; the industry and Give Kids The World have a natural fit with one another.
The event is now structured such that individual parks can choose to hold the event if they like, so major kudos to the three parks that have stepped up so far. The format is also slightly different, instead of a focus on roller coaster marathon riding like in the past, now participants who raise $100 or more are able to enjoy the parks for a day with special perks like exclusive ride time on popular attractions, meals, and prizes for top contributors.
The events will be taking place at Quassy Amusement Park on August 16th, at Frontier City on September 9th, and at Busch Gardens Williamsburg on September 16th.
If you're interested in participating, you can go to the Coasting For Kids website and register for any of the events. You can also donate to existing teams if you want to support them in a great cause! And you never know, perhaps even more parks will step up before the end of the year and hold the event!
New for 2017, the impressive Gully Washer body slides have opened to guests within Frontier City, located in Oklahoma City, OK. The park just recently started adding water-park style attractions to their lineup of offerings. The Gully Washer slide tower is another big step toward eventually giving guests a full water park experience, should the park desire that.
The trio of slides has gone up adjacent to the Wild West Water Works, a giant interactive play area that opened at Frontier City in 2012. The structure features several slides of its own, along with dozens of interactive features. Just the structure alone helps create a mini-water park experience, but now even that has grown.
These photos, taken by the park for social media, show off the green, purple and orange body slides as they twist their way down from a height of 66 feet. Gully Washer certain appears to give a more thrilling experience than can be found in the Wild West Water Works! I also enjoy how the runout area for the slides is actually pointed inward toward the slide tower, it's not often that you see water slides positioned in that way.
Between the three paths of Gully Washer there is a total of 1,249 feet of slide, each path is unique but all contain sudden drops, plenty of twists and a high speed finish. Riders only need to be 48 inches tall to experience the new ride.
Frontier City, located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, has announced a new water slide tower named Gully Washer for the park's 2017 season.
The new body slides will be located adjacent to the existing Wild West Water Works play structure, which opened in 2012 and was the theme park's first dedicated water play area. The 2017 addition will add some thrill to the area with 3 new twisting, high speed body slides.
Seen in the background of the concept art above, Gully Washer will start on a 66 foot tall tower overlooking the area. Riders will travel down one of three separate body slides, in total the slides will stretch 1,249 feet. Each of the fully enclosed slides will feature "back-to-back turns, thrilling dips, and tight 360° curves" on the path downward. The slides will have a 48 inch height requirement.
The new slides, along with Wild West Water Works, are included with a general admission ticket to Frontier City. The park plans to have the expansion complete in time for the water area's May 13th opening.
Several U.S. theme and water parks will soon have a new owner, due to the sale of CNL Lifestyle Properties' leisure division to EPR Properties. The parks came as part of a larger sale that includes many ski resorts, and in total the sale comes in at around $700 million.
Some of the parks (there are 15 in total) that are a part of the transaction include Darien Lake, Frontier City, Magic Springs, Wild Waves, Pacific Park, several Wet 'n' Wild parks, two Hawaiian Falls water parks and more. Here is the complete list of parks now owned by EPR:
The slide is from a summary of the sale from EPR Properties, which isn't actually expected to close until the middle of 2017. It is also worth noting that the comment at the bottom of the slide indicates that several parks will be leased to Premier Parks to operate when all is said and done. Premier Parks was already operating most of CNL's parks, but now will pick up two water parks along with Magic Springs and Wild Waves. Premier Parks currently also owns 4 amusements parks as well.
This slide also shows the growth of the group of parks being sold from 2011 through 2015. Granted there may have been new parks that were added during these years, but it still makes the set look attractive. Then again, the total revenue of all 15 parks is $207 million in '15, and I'm pretty sure Cedar Point alone makes more than that per year.
CNL previously owned even more parks, but sold off a handful of them individually in recent years, like Elitch Gardens.
EPR Properties' current amusement industry involvement is limited, owning three of the Schlitterbahn water parks, and the indoor and outdoor water parks at Camel Beach in Pennsylvania.
A ride not commonly found in permanent theme parks will be added to Frontier City in 2016, the Oklahoma City park has announced. Named The Gunslinger, the new flat ride will be a Zamperla Power Surge, an extreme thrill ride more often found at fairs than theme parks - making this instillation even more interesting and unique.
The Zamperla Power Surge seats 24 riders at a time and features the combination of three motions at once. If you've even seen one in person you know that just watching it in operation can be a dizzying experience, let alone riding! With legs dangling, passengers in pairs of two are spun, flipped and twirled around at heights of 60 feet above the park. This new ride will certainly have a huge appeal factor for thrill seekers!
As noted in the flyer above, The Gunslinger will be the third new ride that Frontier City has added in three years. New for 2015 was Brain Drain, a Larson Super Loop, and 2014 saw the addition of the Winged Warrior, a set of Larson Flying Scooters.
I guess at this point we could unofficially call 2015 the year of the Larson Giant Loop, as Frontier City has announced one as their 2015 addition, named Brain Drain. Six Flags previously announced four of these rides for their parks, and even more recently Darien Lake revealed plans to build one.
Brain Drain at Frontier City will stand over 70 feet tall and feature a 24 passenger train that will make complete loops around the circular track. The ride will last two minutes and each rider will experience at least six full inversions, both forwards and backwards. Like the other Larson Giant Loops at one point the train will briefly stop while totally inverted - creating quite a brain rush for riders!
The new ride will be the second in a row from Larson, after the park added the Winged Warrior in 2014. That ride was a set of the ever-popular Larson Flying Scooters.
CNL Lifestyle Properties is an investment company that has owned several amusement and water parks for years now. A recent filing with the SEC by the company points out that their are nearing the end of their investment cycle, which means that they will begin selling off their investments (for a profit, one would hope). For instance, they just finished an agreement to sell a ton of golf courses they also owned.
Here's a list, created by CNL, of the parks they currently own:
This is quite a mix of properties, but there are several of note. Those include Darien Lake, Elitch Gardens, Frontier City, Magic Springs, Pacific Park, and Wild Waves Theme Park. There are also a lot of water parks, with bigger names like the North American Wet 'n' Wild parks, and two of the Hawaiian Falls parks.
CNL doesn't operate any of these parks, since they are investments, with different firms handling that portion under contract.
Darien Lake is managed by Herschend Family Entertainment, and has seen modest additions in recent years. I have to wonder how tightly CNL held the purse strings, limiting what Herschend could really do. It would make sense to me for them to purchase the park, but you never know. If they do it could mean a whole new chapter in the park's life, and one that could be exciting.
Elitch Gardens, Frontier City, White Water Bay and the Wet 'n' Wild Parks are currently operated by Premier Parks, LLC - a company that has changed names several times already but was founded by former Six Flags executives. I would also think that if they can get the loan, they would go for purchasing these parks as well.
Magic Springs is managed by AMP, Wild Waves by NorPoint Entertainment, and Pacific Park by Santa Monica Amusements LLC, so it is not clear if these entities could/would purchase those parks or if another operator would swoop in.
As for all the other smaller water parks and fun centers, well your guess is a good as mine right now. I'm not sure I see any of the big operators - like Six Flags or Cedar Fair - going after and of CNL's parks, but it would be interesting if they did - for sure! Either way I'm sort of glad to see the parks leave CNL ownership since I think they stifled them a bit. I'll be excitedly on the lookout for news of sales.
The world can't have enough Flying Scooters, and thankfully an unexpected set of them just opened at Frontier City Theme Park in Oklahoma.
Named the Winged Warrior, the swinging new ride is the park's main addition for the 2014 season. The ride features eight cars that each have giant graphics of tropical birds on them. As with all other Flying Scooter rides produced by Larson, riders have the ability to make their car swing up high using an on-board fin.
The Winged Warrior came as a bit of a surprise, as the park only recently even teased that a new attraction was on the way. Then suddenly the ride opened! I'm most certainly not complaining, though.
Amusement Today has a small story with some additional photos of the ride in action - and also points out that this is one of five Flying Scooters opening this year.
From being the small park who's owner eventually grew into one of the largest theme park chains in the world, to eventually being sold to CNL Properties and managed once more by the same folks, Frontier City has really come full circle in the last twenty years.
This brochure is from 1998, when Premier Parks purchased Six Flags - meaning there was a lot of hope that the park may one day become Six Flags Frontier City... but that was never meant to be.
The Tomahawk, an inverting flat ride, was new for the park's 1998 season. The attraction lasted at Frontier City until 2007 when it was replaced the next year by a new family roller coaster. It had a pretty cool logo, and it was nice to see the park adding new rides during this era.
Frontier City isn't a large theme park, and its roots are firmly planted in its Western theming. This brochure caries along that theme as well - you'll notice plenty of Western slang and references throughout. The park offered several coasters at the time, including an Arrow shuttle loop that's still there today, DiamondBack and Nightmare, an indoor coaster. The classic Wildcat (wooden ride) and Silver Bullet (Schwarzkopf looper) are also still giving thrills today.
As seen by the special logo, the park was also celebrating their 40th anniversary in 1998. Tomahawk wasn't the only new ride that year, this brochure also lists a Round-Up as an "upside-down scream machine!"
I've written enough of these posts to expect for at least one panel of any brochure to feature kids' attractions, and here that is. Worth noting though is that they show that the kids area was "newly expanded" - that's one thing Premier Parks did often, totally renovating the children's areas of purchased parks.
Finally, and also like most other brochures we've seen, there's information on live entertainment at the park (Gunfight Stunt Show - cool!) and plenty of special events and concerts as well.
Next on the list of attractions that just opened this weekend is Frontier City's brand new Wild West Water Works, a massive water playground that has expanded the park's reach from dry rides into true water park style attractions.
Granted, with the nearby location of White Water Bay I doubt that Frontier City will expand their water park offerings much more, but the new attraction is still sure to be a hit during the hot Summer months. Wild West Water Works was built by WhiteWater West, and is one of their AquaPlay RainFortress attractions.
The five story tall new structure took its initial theming design from the minds of those running Frontier City. WhiteWater was able to turn their design dreams into reality, adding items such as a western general store, tepee, horse back riders, and plenty of other traditionally 'wild west' decorations.
With the opening of Wild West Water Works, adventurers will find 200 different interactive play elements located throughout the structure. There are also eight separate water slides connected, ranging from small ones for toddlers all the way up to larger, twisting models.
Naturally, the 1,000 gallon tipping bucket, themed as a barrel, is the show stopper. When it dumps that much water on the ground below it is rather hard not to notice!
Frontier City has been hard at work building their massive new water play structure, dubbed Wild West Water Works. Seen in these photos, the vibrantly colored structure will feature 198 different ways to get soaked, according to the park.
Created by WhiteWater West, the structure will be a part of their AquaPlay RainFortress series, certainly one of the larger ones they've created. Sitting at the peak of the Wild West Water Works will be a 1,000 gallon tipping bucket, which will drench those below every so often. Eight different water slides will snake from the attraction as well.
In addition to the recent announcement of Frontier City's Wild West Water Works, which included some neat concept art, WhiteWater West, manufacturer of the attraction, is sharing some news as well.
The custom themed AquaPlay RainFortress will be the largest attraction of its class in Oklahoma when it opens. "When we decided to expand with the new attraction, we chose WhiteWater to conceptually design and manufacture Wild West Water Works because we knew their team would bring our ideas to life," states Stephen Ball, Frontier City's General Manager.
Theming elements on the tower will include items such as a saloon and windmill, all under the general theme of the great American wild west. The attraction will come in at a height of 52 feet, featuring multiple levels of play, a 1,000 gallon tipping bucket themed as a barrel, 200 interactive elements, and 8 water slides.
Per the park's official website, proper swimwear will be required to take part in the fun, so bring your bathing suits!
Frontier City, located in Oklahoma City, OK, has announced a major addition for the park's 2012 season: Wild West Water Works. Seems someone likes alliteration as much as I do!
Billed as Oklahoma's largest water activity structure, the attraction will forever change the back corner of the park, near the administration offices and Wildcat's lift hill.
The interactive water fortress will stand five stories tall at its peak, which is accented by a enormous 1,000 gallon tipping bucket. 198 different ways for guests to play will be featured, along side of 8 different water slides. Seen in the concept art above, "WWWW" as it could be called will also have nice shaded areas, and a festive entrance plaza complete with water fountain.
The expansion will also offer guests a new lounging deck along with additional changing facilities and locker rooms. Wild West Water Works will be included in Frontier City's general admission.
With Gary Story and Kieran Burke back at the operational helm of Frontier City, the park is poised for a new era of redevelopment. The new owners would like to get combined attendance at Frontier City and White Water Bay back up to its high point of 800,000 visitors.
While there wasn't time to get any new attractions lined up for 2011, I'm sure you can count on some new goodies to open at the park in the future. Even Dick Kinzel thinks the duo makes a good team, as quoted in this article.
The pair actually started with only Frontier City, and eventually grew their operation to include Six Flags parks across the globe. Both left that company when Dan Snyder took over during a proxy vote in 2005. With an obvious sentimental value to both Story and Burke, I'll be interested to see the direction they move the park in.
CNL Lifestyle Properties has announced the new management partners that will be taking over the parks that were formerly operated by PARC Management.
Both Elitch Gardens and Darien Lake will now be managed by Herschend Family Entertainment. The change was effective as of today, the 25th of January.
Curt Caffey, senior vice president and managing director of CNL Lifestyle Properties said “HFE was a natural choice due to the company’s solid history of operating first-class, successful theme parks with a reputation for top service and guest experience standards. Both Darien Lake and Elitch Gardens already have strong foundations as beautiful, fun and wholesome family parks. We’re confident Herschend will use its operations know-how to take these attractions to the next level.”
CNL will still own the parks, which means capital expansions will still come from their wallets. I would hope that Herschend's influence is taken seriously when making those selections!
Wild Waves Theme Park will be managed by NorPoint Entertainment, which was formed by the park's former owner Jeff Stock specifically to manage it. Jeff owned and operated Wild Waves from 1992 to 2000 when he sold it to Six Flags.
He is encouraged by the fact that CNL seems interested in investing in Wild Waves, unlike previous owners. With the park's infrastructure upgraded over the last decade it is now poised to make even more expansions. We like that!
Amusement Management Partners will now manage Magic Springs and Crystal Falls. Known simply as AMP, the company was also selected to run many of PARC's former family entertainment centers as well, such as the chain of Zuma Fun Centers. It's also worth checking out the biographies of the individuals behind AMP, there's a lot of amusement industry experience between those guys.
Kieran Burke and Gary Story will once again be operating Frontier City and Whitewater Bay starting this season. They previously formed Premier Parks after acquiring both properties in the early '90s. As we all well know, Premier Parks grew and eventually purchased and created branded Six Flags parks across the globe.
The park's operations have really gone full circle at this point, since CNL purchased the parks from Six Flags in 2007, and in a sense are right back where they started, only with different owners. Confused yet?
These announcements only leave Splashtown in Texas and Waterworld in California as the remaining PARC properties without new management. I have a feeling those decisions have been made, just not yet posted online.
Located in Kansas City Missouri, Fairyland Park opened in 1923. The park had a Ferris wheel, a swimming pool, bumper cars, a shooting range, and even a petting zoo. There were picnic facilities, wild animal acts and name bands played in the big ballroom every evening, except Mondays. The Skyrocket designed by John Miller and built by Harry Baker was the park's original roller coaster.
Segregated until 1964, the park was even involved in the Civil Rights movement Admission to blacks came only after protest marches, demonstrations and arrests for blocking the entrance.
A section of the Skyrocket's back turnaround was destroyed by a windstorm in 1966 and knowing that a new park, Worlds of Fun, was under construction, the Brancato family, who owned Fairyland decided to build a new roller coaster. Opening in 1967, the Wildcat was the park's biggest ride. The wood track/steel structured coaster was designed by Aurel Vaszin and Edward Leis, and built by the NationalAmusement Device Company.
For awhile the new coaster helped the park compete with Worlds of Fun. Keeping their admission at fifty cents and parking free compared to Worlds of Fun's admission, five bucks plus parking, helped as well. But despite these efforts attendance was dwindling.
During the winter of 1977-78 the park suffered major storm damage and never reopened. To this day locals wonder if the damage was the true reason for the permanent closure, or if it was a convenient excuse. The Brancato family tried to redevelop the Fairyland property as a variety of businesses, a swap meet and a zoo were mentioned. But the the park would never again entertain guests.
After the park's closure the Wildcat stood on site for eleven years,and some remnants of the park were there as late as 1998. The American Coaster Enthusiasts had lobbied unsuccessfully for years to save and relocate the Wildcat. In 1989, after a lot of sweat, tears, and fund raising, the Wildcat was dismantled and moved piece by piece to Frontier City in Oklahoma City Oklahoma.
The Wildcat had to be modified significantly to fit into the new site at Frontier City. And, only one of the ride's two NAD three bench three car trains (sans headlights) were used by Frontier City. By the late 1990s, the park purchased two new three bench three car PTC trains, to ease wear and tear on the track. Sometime prior to the 2004 season one of these new PTC trains is believed to have been sent to a different park.
Today, there is still a small plaque in the rides queue covering the history of the ride and honoring ACE, for one of the greatest the preservation efforts of all time.
NewsPlusNotes is a blog dedicated to the coverage of the amusement
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