Note that I will be taking a break next week for Thanksgiving and will return the following Tuesday with more theme park and attractions goodness. To all U.S.-based ATPers, enjoy the holiday!
Maryland’s Six Flags America closed for the season–and for good–in early November. The suits at the Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, the mega-park chain that was formed when Six Flags and Cedar Fair merged last year, announced that the park was “not a strategic fit with the company’s long-term growth plan.” Translation: The property wasn’t generating the same kind of revenue as other parks in its portfolio, especially compared to the nearby Kings Dominion in Virginia, which is now under the same corporate umbrella.
I know that Six Flags America didn’t have the greatest reputation, but as late as last year, the former Six Flags management believed in the park enough to spiff up one its lands and introduce a new ride. That’s more than can be said for long-neglected parks such as Michigan’s Adventure and Frontier City in Oklahoma. While the fate of Six Flags America has been sealed, it remains to be seen what will become of its rides. I’ve long been a fan of the hypercoaster, Superman - Ride of Steel. While not as good as the stellar Superman the Ride at Six Flags New England, a similar coaster that was based on–and improved upon–the Maryland thrill machine, it was still wonderful. (Its clone, Ride of Steel, lives on at Six Flags Darien Lake in New York, another smallish park that may someday end up on the company’s not-a-strategic-fit chopping block.) But I really loved Wild One at Six Flags America and can’t help but think that this may be the end of an era for a truly historic ride. It would be a loss that would really hit home for me.
Regardless of their vintage, wooden roller coasters, with their timber lattices, clickety lift hills, and rickety rides, ooze nostalgia and evoke amusement parks of yore. Some actually have been thrilling trainloads of passengers for many years. A select few, however, are true antiques. Wild One, which was 108 years old when the park closed, was one such roller coaster.
Six Flags inherited the ride when it bought and rebranded the park in 1998. The property was previously known as Adventure World and Wild World before that. The D.C.-area amusement park first opened in 1982. So, how can a 108-year-old coaster be at a place that only dates back to the early 1980s? That’s because for 69 years prior to operating in Maryland, it was the featured attraction at a seaside amusement park in Massachusetts–the place that I call home.
The Giant Coaster, as it was originally known, opened in 1917 at Paragon Park, which was located on Nantasket Beach in Hull. Like many oceanfront amusement areas, factors such as competition from more modern theme parks and the rising value of its beachfront property led to Paragon Park’s demise. (The value of the real estate on which Six Flags America sits surely factored into the company’s decision to shutter the park.) It permanently closed its gates in 1985. Growing up in the Boston area, I have many happy Paragon Park memories, including riding the Giant Coaster there.
The venerable coaster was spared from the wrecking ball, however, when the owners of Wild World bought the ride, transplanted it to Maryland, restored it, and renamed it Wild One. According to B. Derek Shaw, an amusement park aficionado who writes about the industry and enjoys tracing its history, the park paid $26,000 for the Giant Coaster. But what did it buy, exactly? It’s likely that little, if any, of the actual wooden frame was salvageable and could have made the journey. “They got the trains, the motor, the lift chain, and most importantly, the blueprints,” Shaw told me when the coaster celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2017. “They preserved the spirit of the ride.”
In fact, the spirit may be all that endured from the earliest version of the ride. “I don’t believe that anything remains from the original 1917 coaster,” said Rick Howarth, who was president of Six Flags America during the ride’s centennial year. Everything may have been replaced at least once, but the coaster gave the same kind of ride that its creators intended and had an enduring appeal.
The out-and-back coaster still climbed 98 feet, dropped 88 feet, and revved up to a potent 53 mph. And the ride still sent riders racing through a 540-degree helix for its grand finale. Shaw said that the Giant Coaster’s layout actually changed slightly when Paragon Park rebuilt it after a fire destroyed most of it in the 1930s.
Six Flags made a big deal out of the ride’s history when it turned 100. But prior to and after that, the park did not hype its background much. That’s because despite its age, Wild One compared favorably to other contemporary thrill rides. Casual visitors who didn’t know anything about its antique status enjoyed it for the same reasons that riders enjoyed it back in 1917.
“They really knew how to build them back then,” Shaw said. Wild One was not a relic to be admired simply for its history. “It’s a rough, tough ride that holds its own,” Shaw attested. “It has stood the test of time.”
But it may have run out of time. Will another park be interested in moving the venerable ride again? Wooden coasters are notoriously difficult to maintain. Wooden coasters that are more than 100 years old are surely even more difficult. I sincerely hope Six Flags will consider keeping its legacy alive at a different park in its chain. Or maybe a park outside the company, perhaps in another country, will resurrect it yet again.
If it is demolished along with the park, I’ll feel as if a part of my childhood will have been destroyed. Whenever I did get to ride Wild One, I reconnected, if only briefly, with the Giant Coaster and Paragon Park, a ride and a place that loomed large in my memory. It would be a loss for the industry as well. With Leap the Dips at Lakemont Park in Pennsylvania standing but not operating, Wild One was the oldest still-in-service roller coaster in the U.S and the third oldest in the world. Now the classic ride may be lost forever.
Did you ever get to hop aboard Wild One? Did you visit Paragon Park? Do you have a fondness for older rides?