The History of Holiday World

[FOFreak]

I am doing an essay for school about the History Of Holiday World. I got my information from Wikipedia. I don't know if Wikipedia is very reliable, so can you look for any false information I may have put in there?

History of Holiday World

Holiday World was first opened in Santa Claus, IN by a man named Louis J. Koch under the name ‘Santa Claus Land.” Holiday World was the first themed amusement park in the United States, beating Disneyland by nine years. It was originally a small park themed around Santa Claus and Christmas.

In 1984, in order to appeal to a wider age group, the park added a Halloween and a Fourth of July section to the park. Thus the park changed its name to Holiday World to reflect the emphasis on additional holidays. Frightful Falls, a log flume ride, was added to the Halloween section that same year. As the parks name changed, so did some of the rides, to reflect the new holidays. For example, the round-up ride called “Arctic Circle” was renamed “The Roundhouse” in the new 4^th of July section.

In 1993, Splashin’ Safari was added. The water park area initially included Crocodile Isle, a children’s water play area with some animal-themed water slides, an action river named Congo River, and two large water slides. The next year “The Wave” wave pool was added. In later years additional slides and attractions were added including: Jungle Racer, a 5 story 10-lane Racing Water Slide, Monsoon Lagoon, an SCS Interactive Discovery Treehouse, Zinga, a Eight Story ProSlide Tornado Water Strike, Bakuli, a Six Story Proslide Behemoth Bowl, Kima Bay, a Custom Designed Whitewater West AquaPlay RainFortress, and ZOOMbabwe, the world’s largest enclosed water slide.

Holiday World gained national interest in 1995 when the parks first wooden coaster, The Raven, opened during the park’s 50^th season. It was once rated “World’s Best Wooden Roller Coaster On The Planet” by Amusement Today and Inside Track magazines.

In 2000, after the huge success of The Raven, Holiday World opened the park’s second wooden coaster, The Legend.

In 2002, the park removed the Banshee, a Chance Falling Star, from the Halloween section and added a swings ride called, Hallowswings, in its place.

With Holiday World adding The Legend five years after The Raven, they decided to keep the tradition going by adding their by far most prestigious coaster, The Voyage. They also added a new Thanksgiving area which is where The Voyage is located. This marked the largest expansion ever for Holiday World and cost over $13 million. The Voyage has been awarded with the prized Golden Ticket Award for “The Best Wooden Roller Coaster on The Planet” in 2007 an 2008, but placed second in 2006, only being beat out by Thunderhead at Dollywood.

In 2007, Holiday World added The Turkey Whirl, a tilt-a-whirl, in the Thanksgiving area to replace the Virginia Reel. That year, the park had over one million visitors pass through its gates which broke the attendance record set the previous year.

In 2008, Holiday World made a $6 million expansion that included Kima Bay, an interactive water playhouse, in Splashin’ Safari, The Star Spangled Carousel in the Fourth of July section, and Reindeer Games, a launched spring ride, in the Christmas children's area. The park also added additional restrooms, Pepsi Oasis drink stations, several clocks, and a tram in the Legend Parking Lot. The park also began opening at 9:30 CDT, which is a half-hour earlier then in previous seasons.

In the upcoming 2009 season, Holiday World is scheduled to debut their new shoot-the-chute ride, Pilgrims Plunge. This Intamin Mega Splash Ride will be located in the Thanksgiving area, but will also be accessible from Splashin’ Safari. Passengers in a boat will be swiftly be lifted up an open air elevator, then drop a record 131 feet at a 45-degree angle, creating a wall of 45 feet tall, 90 feet wide when the boat hits the bottom of the slope. The cost of Pilgrims Plunge is $4.3 million. Holiday World is also set to debut their new free RFID locator HoliWatch system. These waterproof devices will serve as locators for groups and families who become separated during their visit.

Over the years, Holiday World has been praised for their great service. So much so, that Amusement Today has awarded them with the Golden Ticket Awards for “Cleanest Park” for the past eight years and “Friendliest Park Staff” for the past ten years.

PS The little boxes mean that quotation marks go there. Look past them.

[CoastersRZ]

Because any one can edit wikipedia, it is not an ideal source for credible information on topics. The only real benefit of wikipedia is using it as a starting point to gather bibliographies, if they are listed. This will give you a selection of books or article to read that can help inform your topic with factual and accurate information. You simply cannot trust everything that is on wikipedia.

[Reclaimer]

Agreed. I know my high school teachers and college professors flat-out tell us not to use Wikipedia as a source. As said above, it can be a good starting point to find other sources if they are listed, but you can't simply rely on Wikipedia itself.

A good and humorous article to read: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1537865/20060803/id_0.jhtml

Good luck to you, though! As long as you cover your bases with proper sources you'll be ok.

[LongLiveTheSmurfRide]

A lot of that looks correct to me, but I'm still not sure about the label "first theme park". I thought Knotts Berry Farm has claimed to be first.

[blueangel04]

http://www.holidayworld.com/news.html

In the bottom left hand cornor in the "did you know" box there is the park history. It actually makes a reference about school projects. I think this would be alot better then whatever Wikipedia tells you. I hope it helps and good luck.

[Beast1979]

A lot of that looks correct to me, but I'm still not sure about the label "first theme park". I thought Knotts Berry Farm has claimed to be first.

I think when they say "Theme Park" they truely mean that the park has a central theme, and not just several themed rides.

[LongLiveTheSmurfRide]

Well yeah, Knotts started out with a ghost town/old west theme around 1940. Like I said, I'm not an expert but I swear they have advertised as the first theme park.

[The Interpreter]

Marketing claims, often conflicting, are made by many parks. If I had a dollar for every coaster I've seen labeled as the first, best or biggest of its type, which wasn't, I could buy a 2009 Six Flags Pass renewal from Great Adventure. Heck, even Top Thrill Dragster had a sign proclaiming it was the tallest, fastest roller coaster in the world for at least a year after it no longer was....and the Great White in New Jersey claimed to be the first wooden coaster erected on a steel substructure (which it most certainly was NOT).