Pants on fire

Remake of classic Fire in the Hole honors the original with charm and style

4.25 (out of 5)

“The new Fire in the Hole is better than the original,” proclaims Pete Herschend, co-founder of Silver Dollar City and Herschend Family Entertainment. He should know. Herschend helped develop the first iteration of the attraction, which opened 52 years ago.

The quirky, one-of-a-kind coaster/family dark ride sends guests through a burning town and is based on a true story that took place in the late 1800s on the site of the Branson, Missouri park. It is so beloved and so integral to the essence of Silver Dollar City, the park knew that it had to replace the aging attraction when it had reached the end of its life. I’m happy to confirm that Fire in the Hole 2.0 is, in fact, better than the original. It incorporates modern-day attraction design bells and whistles and is a heckuva lot smoother than its rickety predecessor. But I’m equally happy to report that the remake pays reverential homage to its predecessor. Park purists as well as Silver Dollar City newbies are going to love it.

The bridge, the bridge, the bridge is on fire. (Silver Dollar City Company)

The park is built atop a cave (which is open for tours and included with admission) that workers mined for gunpowder in the 19th century. Real-life vigilantes, known as “Baldknobbers,” burned the mining town down. Fire in the Hole retells the historic event, albeit with some creative license. One of the embellished characters is Red Flanders, an unfortunate chap whose pants have been stolen by the ne’er-do-well arsonists. Some five decades later, the poor guy still can’t find his trousers. In the new version, we get to see the vigilante making off with his pants as well as Red’s wife, Sadie, who admonishes her husband.

There are 14 scenes in total, most of which call back to the first ride. The figures in the sets are static–no fancy, shmamncy audio animatronic robots here–and look like the old-school ones from the 1.0 version. Nobody is going to confuse Fire in the Hole with Rise of the Resistance or Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. But that is part of its irresistible charm. While it does incorporate onboard audio, projection mapping, video imagery, and other themed design techniques that weren’t available in the early 1970s, their use is judicious, and the overall vibe is in harmony with the original Fire in the Hole. Among the new scenes is a collapsing bridge that, combined with a dip in the tracks, provides one of the ride’s mildly aggressive moments. There is a splashdown finale, although passengers don’t get too wet.

Red Flanders still can’t find his pants. (Silver Dollar City Company)

Fun fact: In a post-splashdown sendoff, the citizens of the town appear in a window to cheer on the volunteer firefighter heroes (that’d be us passengers) who have helped put out the fire and saved the town. Among the crowd is June Ward, a 79-year-old candy maker who has been serving fudge and other treats at the park’s candy shop for 57 years. It’s those kinds of connections that help inform Silver Dollar City’s unique and wonderful mystique.

Instead of a traditional tubular steel track, the new Fire in the Hole features a modified version of flat I-Box track from Rocky Mountain Construction. The ride represents the innovative company’s first powered coaster, which uses onboard electric motors to move the trains uphill. It is also the first indoor dark ride for the manufacturer and may signal a new niche it can pursue. The ride is ultra-smooth (an RMC hallmark), although there was a bit of shudder when I rode in the back row as the motors struggled a bit to go up an incline. With a top speed of 26 mph, even the thrill-averse should be able to handle Fire in the Hole.

The citizens of Silver Dollar City were on hand for the opening of Fire in the Hole. (Arthur Levine)

With a 36-inch height restriction, young children can get in on the fun. The ride’s accessibility has long been one its compelling attributes. Fire in the Hole is the first coaster for many kiddos coming to the park, and it’s been around so long, parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents who rode it years ago, now bring their young kin for their first coaster experiences. That helps explain the attraction’s longevity and enduring popularity.

With multiple generations riding it and forging memories aboard it, Fire in the Hole is a beloved tradition. That, and the fact that it’s based on an authentic Ozark Mountains experience cements its status. According to Brad Thomas, Silver Dollar City president and “mayor” of the town, it scores off the charts with guests who just might burn the park down in protest if Fire in the Hole ever went away. That’s why the park rebuilt the attraction and maintained its legacy.

“Change is not always good for us,” Thomas says. “If we had just closed [the attraction], we’d lose a little bit of our heart and a little bit of our soul.”

A mural from the original ride now greets guests as they exit the new Fire in the Hole. (Silver Dollar City Company)

At $33 million, the new Fire in the Hole represents the park’s largest investment in a single attraction. According to Pete Herschend, the original ride cost $100,000. And it was a bit of a tough sell.

“Fire in the Hole was the subject of some controversy inside our family,” Herschend says. “We were an old Ozark mining town attraction, and a roller coaster didn’t really fit.”

But the family went ahead with the project. Unlike most coasters, they disguised it by putting it indoors and toned down the thrills. The park’s first mechanical ride turned out to be a huge hit. And it also started a tradition, according to Herschend.

“Every ride after that has a story and relates back to the Ozarks,” he says. That’s another thing that helps distinguish Silver Dollar City and makes it so enchanting.

Take a ride with Brad Thomas and me aboard Fire in the Hole.

So what’s next? Thomas notes that there are 1,200 acres to the park’s west that are ripe for expansion. The land includes mountain vistas and runs all the way down to the lovely Table Rock Lake.

“We will be making announcements about things to come over the next several years,” the park president teases. “One of those announcements might not be all that far off.”

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Did you ride the original Fire in the Hole? Are you looking forward to experiencing the remake? Do you have Silver Dollar City memories to share?