TombraiderTy

Is this highlighted path the one that you photographed, @Gordon Bombay? I don't really know Opryland history, but based off this 1997 aerial and the few retro images of the rapids ride I can find I wonder if the path wasn't a part of the ride, but instead just a nearby pathway toward the resort. The white part to the right of the highlighted path is the rapid ride's trough, and the ride's station is the box shape below the reservoir in the center.

I visited the Gaylord Opryland Resort and the Opry Mills Mall back in 2007 when there were still remnants of the raft ride. Here are some pictures of the abandoned troughs I took.

Thank you!! These are really cool to read and there's a lot of interesting little nuggets scattered in them. Something I really liked was looking at the park map they included... it looks like they just copied over the CAD they use for architectural/engineering design, which means it includes a lot of interesting details. A few highlights from it: The old nature trail in Rivertown, which I believe was closed years before 1993 The house inside the fort, including its driveway crossing over the railroad track No Skylab - it was gone for the 1992 season, but I believe it did ultimately return in 1993 Thanks again for taking the time to scan and share all of this, it's very cool.

@PKI2006, thanks for sharing! Unfortunately both attachments are marked as "Unavailable"... not sure if it's just something on my end or if others are having the same issue?

I believe that the park discontinued performers on the train long before WaterWorks... in fact, I think they only existed until the mid-1970s. All those fiberglass figures that Farrel Coffey sculpted appear to have replaced the actors (although it's worth noting that there was a mixture of performers and figures when the ride opened, although those figures were from the Coney Island and Lake Como Railroad and not created in-house).

This is the best one I've seen, though I imagine you've already seen it and referenced it for your recreation. I believe it came from an old Viewmaster reel (not sure the original source on uploading it online):

From the article, Coffey worked on the Mary Rose Inn and the bear. Both are still part of the train ride: I'm interested in hearing more about that (and what "a few years ago" is). I believe most of the figures were removed from the train ride mid-1990s and were off property by mid-2000s at the latest (though I personally suspect they were all gone before the end of the 1990s).

Kings Island added a lot of fiberglass theming and details all over the park in the mid to late 1970s. They were created by park sculptor Farrel Coffey, and I suspect that he is responsible for the mountain and climber added to Bavarian Beetle. Adding new theming to old attractions was an easy way to rejuvenate them and make them more interesting (plus, 40+ years later, it makes it easier to associate dates to old photos and videos ) Here's a fun article about Coffey and his work on the Kings Island and Miami Valley Railroad figurines, starting on page 64: https://books.google.com/books?id=jR0DAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA64&ots=JibZPowj6r&dq="Farrell Coffey" "Kings Island"&pg=PA64#v=onepage&q="Farrell Coffey" "Kings Island"&f=false

That's a good recreation of the ride - I especially like how you included the lighting along the track. From pictures and videos I've seen, the ride looked really nice at night. Two super minor corrections in the article... The little mountain facade with the figure wasn't added until 1976. The ride only had the "swoop" (which was also at Coney Island) before then (as it seen in the picture of the ride you included in the article). I'm not sure if a lack of ridership had anything to do with the ride's removal. I don't believe that the park has ever officially stated a reason, but it's worth noting the ride was involved in some litigation after an elderly man allegedly broke his neck on the ride in 1974. The story was covered in a lot of newspapers in 1978, the same year that the ride was quietly retired. And the ride was almost immediately replaced by Ferris Wheel, which was opened by August. Ferris Wheel was slightly relocated in 1982 to accommodate Festhaus' construction. Bavarian Beetle is such an obscure ride and its closing date was misreported for so long (as 1979, 1981, or 1982) that a lot of people have unfortunately taken those wrong dates as fact. Also, for what it's worth, I compiled a lot of different pictures of the ride in an old thread here.

First Aid used to (still does? Anyone know?) have a 1975 map on the wall. It doesn't appear to just be a framed 1975 poster map but was custom printed, which makes me wonder if the same map was just kept on the wall for 35+ years

If none of the replacement horses were manufactured by PTC (I wasn't aware they stopped carousels shortly after #79 opened at Coney Island), then I suppose an easy way to determine at least some* of the non-original horses would be finding any without the little PTC plaque/emblem on their side. I'm not familiar with how PTC categorized their carousel horses, but if I had to guess I would assume the Row # correlates with the intended row for the horse (outside row is #1 and has the biggest and most detailed horses, whereas #3 is the innermost row and has smaller and less detailed horses... so the horses are not interchangeable between rows). But I'm not as confident in how PTC serialized the individual horses, became #238 seems incredibly low for the company's 79th carousel. *Only some, because if horses were interchanged between the Canada's Wonderland and Kings Dominion carousels then they would also have PTC emblems.

I'd be surprised if all the horses were original to 1926 and wonder know how many of them are. I'd also be interested to know if all the replacement horses were still fabricated by PTC or by other companies. I'm also interested in how many horses there are - there's 48 on the ride at any given time, but it appears there's at least one spare that the park has rotated through the years and previously used in displays. Here's one horse used for a display under International Restaurant in 2008: And here's another horse from a gift shop display in 2009:

Ah, it actually did. In the first line:

I wasn't questioning whether Coney Island opened on May 22, but whether the carousel did. The blog post says that yesterday (May 29) was the ride's 94th anniversary, which suggests that the carousel didn't open with the park in 1926. I'm curious if it was actually delayed (and why), or if it was just a mistake and the ride actually celebrated its 94th birthday last week.

Nope, he has the right person... I like things being accurate and it's earned me a reputation

I was honestly just surprised a specific opening date could be determined for such an old ride, so I tried finding more information... which then led me down this rabbit hole

Which archive? I’d be interested in checking it out myself.

Can you provide a source / additional information? I’d love to read more about that.

I'm intrigued by the May 29 date... based off old newspaper articles, Coney Island opened for the 1926 season on May 22. Newspaper articles put more focus on the two new roller coasters at the park that season (Twister and Wildcat) than they did on the carousel, so I cannot find anything on which date it opened... But I would have expected the carousel to open with the park on May 22. If it did open on May 29, I'm very curious why it was delayed.

@kimv1972 Could you tell me more about the changes between these aerials, specifically how the "kink" in the track (just below the center of each photo, behind the carriage storage shed) appears to have been straightened? (Although I'd be happy to hear about any other changes or details too!) (Photos from ODOT) As CoastersRZ said, thank you for sharing your insights and experience! It's always wonderful to hear from a primary source on park history.

I don't know if I've heard about The Bat phone... I remember hearing about how FoF had to coordinate its launches with Drop Zone since they both required such a large power intake. And after the fire at FOF in 2014, they had to set-up a livestream of Drop Tower and concentrate all their launches to in-between Drop's cycles. Does that have anything to do with it? Regarding SOB, I've frequently heard that it never ran three trains with the public. I believe it, but don't have any concrete evidence or anything.

The first few weeks would’ve had to of been after the grand opening then (and not the April 29 opening), based off the June 11, 1972 photo above

I wasn’t alive for any of the modifications, but based off photos and videos I’ve seen it appears the tower opened with only the bottom rail in 1972 and by the time The Partridge Family filmed an episode at the park later that year they had extended the fencing upward. Someone recently shared a picture in Facebook group (I think the pass holder one) from the top of Tower in 1972, without the upper rail. I’ll try and find it to share it here, but just looking at it gives me acrophobia Edit - Here’s a screenshot of a photo of a picture of the original railing... unfortunately I don’t have the original contributor tied to it, but it’s a really cool shot. I’m thinking the railing is maybe 48”?

Definitely during testing. It’s a black and white photo so it’s hard to tell, but it doesn’t appear to have the gradient paint job present when the ride opened. I doubt the ride ever operated to the public with only four cars .

They were standard bleachers. You can see them bottom left in this 1978 photo from jade_41171 on flickr. I know I've seen a photo or two from ground level of the venue, but can't find them at the moment.