Great Adventure was opened on July 1st, 1974. In the opening season, the park's creator Warner LeRoy was very much involved in the day to day operations. The park got through it's first season with twenty two attractions, but only two of them were roller coasters. The two coasters were Runaway Mine Train and Big Fury. Runaway Mine Train is a steel roller coaster that many visitors of the time refer to as the first big roller coaster. By today's standards the ride is pretty small and even considered a family ride, but it is still pretty rough and the final hill is pretty intense as it can make riders pop up from their seats. The ride is still functioning in the park today and while it has received some technological upgrades to the brake systems, the ride remains largely the same as it was back when the park opened. Today Runaway Mine Train operates under the name Runaway Train. It is located in the Frontier Adventures section of the park.
Big Fury opened late in the opening season and quickly became a fan favorite. The coaster was a cat and mouse style coaster featuring frequent small drops and tight turns. It was situated to the right of Giant Wheel and gave each side of the park a roller coaster. The ride itself featured individual, four person cars as trains. Think the current cars for The Dark Knight if you're having a hard time picturing it. The cars themselves though were made to look like actual cars of the time. From the time it opened until the time it closed, Big Fury was considered the craziest roller coaster in the park.
Alongside the two coasters, several other important rides opened in the park's opening season. The first is the already mentioned Giant Wheel. Giant Wheel remains in operation today under the name Big Wheel. When it debuted the ride was touted as one of the tallest Ferris Wheels in the world. The wheel stands at a whopping one hundred and fifty feet. Throughout the years the wheel has gone through many changes (mostly relating to safety), but the ride is still the same ride that existed in the same exact spot in 1974.
Another ride that would stand the test of time is the Carousel. Today the ride is in some serious need of some love, but it's certainly worth noting that it is another opening season attraction that remains today. Yet another long lasting ride was the Flying Wave. This swing attraction would last until 2008 and was situated by Giant Wheel and Big Fury. Eventually it would meet it's demise in a big big way (not a bad big though). Two more rides have managed to stand the test of time and strangely enough they are neighbors to Runaway Mine Train.
Runaway Mine Train's track runs around a large western style fort. The fort itself was originally planned to be a lookout point for guests, but it never came to fruition. Instead it houses not only Runaway Mine Train's station, but the newly opened Sky Ride as well. The original version of Sky Ride featured green supports and bright colored cars. The supports blended in fairly well with the heavily wooded park, but the cars themselves were painted super bright to stand out against the sky. Warner LeRoy felt that this would give an added wow factor to guests looking up at the ride from the ground. The ride transported guests from the then Rootin' Tootin' Rip Roarin' section of the park to the Dream Street section of the park, just like today. The ride of today features new cars and is know known as Sky Way. Meanwhile, another ride and restaurant popped up across the way.
The Best of the West Barbecue and Flume both opened as well during the opening season and continue to operate today. Flume opened up a few days after the park opened for it's first season and quickly became the most popular ride in the park. It was the perfect escape for the summer heat. The ride itself was one of the longest log flumes in the world. Even at such a young age the park was striving for the biggest attractions in the world. The length of the ride is about five minutes and features a forty or so foot drop. Yes that's smaller and the drop itself is certainly less steep than Disney's Splash Mountain, but for 1974, this was a pretty big deal. Log flumes were pretty much all the rage and it was something that Warner LeRoy wanted in the park from the beginning. Flume continues to operate to this day under the name Sawmill Log Flume and the Best of the West Barbecue continues to serve barbecue under the name Best of the West.
The park opened with a variety of other rides and attractions as well. Many of these rides, such as Antique Cars, only lasted for one to a few seasons. Some, such as Matterhorn weren't even originally destined for the park, but due to delays with Big Fury they were brought in to fill the gap. Of the five children's rides that opened with the park, three of them (Cars! Cars!, Roundabout Boats, and Dune Buggies) lasted into the early 2000's.
Speaking of food, the opening season featured three sit down restaurants. All three of them continue to function in one capacity or another today. As mentioned, The Best of the West Barbecue is still a barbecue place. The other two were Gingerbread Fancy and Yum Yum Palace. Gingerbread Fancy continues to function as Granny's and Yum Yum Palace is now Yum Yum Cafe. Other original food locations are also still in existence today such as Eat! Eat! now being Mama Flora's Cucina. The structures are mostly still all the same as they were back in 1974.
The park opened with seven gift shops. Of those seven, four continue to operate today in one form or another. All of those four are the circus looking tents between the now Boardwalk area and Golden Kingdom. They currently house Flags, Attitudes, Boardwalk Games, and Big Top Terror Trail (operates during Fright Fest only).
Despite the park only being open for exactly five months it had already exceeded expectations. The crowds were larger than expected and Great Adventure had already began having a big impact on the entertainment industry in the area. In addition to all of the rides and food locations, several stadiums/arenas/show areas were also constructed. Aqua Spectacle was constructed on the lakefront to host dolphin shows, Great Arena would be host to a variety of shows, The Happening building featured acrobats, and Bandstand was also constructed. Of those structures only two remain in the form of Wilderness Theater (Bandstand) and Northern Star Arena (Great Arena).
With the framework laid for the future Warner LeRoy would take more of a step back and let the investors have more say in the park. Over the next couple years the park would see incredible growth that culminated in an even that would change the park forever. Stay tuned for the next installment of this blog series as we explore the years leading up to and including the year that Six Flags got involved in the park. I really hope you enjoyed the start of this series. If you want more details on the history of Six Flags Great Adventure please check out greatadventurehistory.com. They are an incredible source of information on all things history of Great Adventure. They have way more than what I will be going into in this blog series. They also have a plethora of old photos from the park as well so if you want to see rides like Big Fury, head on over there and check them out! As always, thank you for reading and stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment