Six Flags America

Six Flags America

Location	Upper Marlboro, Maryland, U.S.
Coordinates	38°54′22″N 76°46′21″W / 38.90620°N 76.77257°W / 38.90620; -76.77257Coordinates: 38°54′22″N 76°46′21″W / 38.90620°N 76.77257°W / 38.90620; -76.77257
Owner	Six Flags
Opened	1974
Previous names	Largo Wildlife Preserve - 1974 to 1978 Wild Country - 1978 to 1981 Wild World - 1982 to 1993 Adventure World - 1994 to 1998
Operating season	March through January
Area	523 acres (2.12 km2)s (131 acres currently used for park operations)
Rides
Total	54
Roller coasters	9
Website	www.sixflags.com/america

Six Flags America is a theme park located near Upper Marlboro, Maryland.^[1][2] It is situated 15 miles (24 km) east of Washington D.C. and 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Baltimore. The park covers 523 acres (2.12 km²), 131 of which is currently used for park operations. Founded as a wildlife center in 1973 by Ross Perot, ABC television operated the park as a drive-through safari called The Largo Wildlife Preserve beginning in 1974 until its closure in 1978. The property was bought by Jim Fowler's Wild Kingdom; thereafter the site was converted from a wildlife preserve into a theme park named Wild World gradually over the years. In 1992, the park was renamed Adventure World after being acquired by Premier Parks, and ultimately was branded as the 10th Six Flags park when Premier Parks acquired Six Flags Inc. and adopted its name in 1999. The "America" in the park's name was chosen regarding the close proximity to the United States' capital.

History

Early years

The park's history dates to 1973, when Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot and a pair of Irish animal trainers first proposed a wildlife preserve on more than 400 acres (1.6 km²) of corn and tobacco fields. ABC television later bought out Perot and his partners and opened the park as a drive-through safari called The Largo Wildlife Preserve in July 1974, projecting 850,000 visitors a year.

The initial projections that were expected never materialized. In 1975, the park added narrated tours through four-car 150-person trains. However, the park failed to generate a profit. In 1976, ABC bowed out, citing massive losses. The park stayed open with a decreased staff in 1977 and was closed altogether for the 1978 season.

Then at the end of 1978, the park was sold to Jim Fowler, the host of Wild Kingdom. In the 1979 season, the park reopened with the train tour through a safari and a small park with a children's playground, animal shows, and a petting zoo. The park continued to not be profitable but stayed open summers through the 1979 season when Fowler's company bowed out as well. The park again was closed for the 1980 season.

In the Summer of 1980, the park was sold to a group of local businessmen and reopened in 1981. The animal drive-through safari remained. The park added three carnival flat rides, two kiddie rides, and a merry-go-round. Also that year, the park became known as Wild World. In addition to the few rides, four tube waterslides were added, along with two body slides and a children's water play area. This brought modest improvements in revenue.

In 1982, four more flat carnival rides, including a Ferris wheel and giant swings, were added. The waterslide area was expanded at the time to a full water park with the addition of a couple more water slides and a large wave pool. The park's attendance improved but the park still was losing money. For the 1983 season, the animal drive-through safari did not reopen. The animals were sold. In 1984, most of the adult rides were removed from the park and put in storage, leaving only three. Some of the children's rides also remained. The park opted to move in the direction of being only a water park. A new stadium was built that year along with a couple more water slides. The park did very well on hot days but on cooler days attendance was very low due to the fact the park had mostly swimming and watersliding.

In 1985, the rides were therefore brought back out of storage. That year, Wild World's management wanted to build a major wooden rollercoaster for the park in the 1986 season, but the costs were too high. At the time, Knoebels park in Pennsylvania had acquired a used rollercoaster called the Phoenix from a defunct park in Texas. Wild World's management then recruited Bill Dinn, who had worked in the industry since the 1950s and played a role in Knoebel's acquisition of the Phoenix, to find a similar coaster for Wild World.

Boston's Paragon Park closed at the end of 1984. The Giant Coaster—which had operated there since 1917—was put up for sale. During the spring of 1985, Wild World bought the old wooden coaster, renamed The Wild One, and rebuilt it in part of the former animal park. The coaster opened for the spring of 1986 to very positive reviews. A kiddie coaster was added to the park at the same time.

For the 1987 season, Wild World added another water play area and a lazy river. In 1988, the park renovated the buildings and midways, but managed to add a couple more flat rides. In 1989, a log flume was added, along with a family raft waterslide in the water park area. In 1990, the park began to have maintenance issues with many of their flat rides. In 1991, only nine flat rides remained and the park was put up for sale.

Adventure World

In 1992, Wild World was purchased by Premier Parks and renamed Adventure World. That year several flat rides and a few kiddie rides were added. In 1993, Adventure World added its second adult rollercoaster. Premier Parks had acquired Lightning Loops from Six Flags. This was a dual-track steel single looping shuttle coaster located at Six Flags Great Adventure. One of the tracks was sent to Premier Parks' Frontier City located in Oklahoma City (where it still operates today), while the other track became known as the Python and would be located at Adventure World. Also, a water ride called Shipwreck Falls, in which a 15-person boat would run up a steel track and down a 45-foot (14 m) drop into a splashwater pool, was added. More flat rides were added in 1994.

In 1995, Vekoma's first Mind Eraser, an inverted looping suspended coaster, was added. This was branded a SLC. In 1996, a free-fall drop-down ride called the Tower of Doom and made by Intamin was added. In 1997, the park added a second dry water ride called Typhoon Sea Coaster, which was a log flume/junior rollercoaster hybrid. It was later renamed Skull Mountain and eventually closed in July 2011^[3] to make room for a new roller coaster.^[4] In 1997, the water park was renovated, eliminating some older slides, adding newer slides and extensively remodeling the children's water play area.

Six Flags ownership

In 1998, Premier Parks acquired the Six Flags amusement park chain from Time Warner, forming the company Six Flags Incorporated. The same year, a wooden roller coaster called Roar, which was built and designed by Great Coasters International, was added to Adventure World. At the end of 1998 season, Six Flags announced that Adventure World would be branded with the Six Flags theme and renamed Six Flags America for the 1999 season. Other changes included the addition of Gotham City, a new section in the park, a bungee ride called Skycoaster, and three new coasters – Two Face: The Flip Side, The Joker's Jinx (the park's only launched roller coaster), and Great Chase replacing Cannonball in the kiddie area. Python was closed and moved to into storage.

For the 2000 season, a new hypercoaster called Superman: Ride of Steel from Intamin opened. Its layout is a mirror image of Darien Lake's Ride of Steel which opened the previous year. Batwing, a flying coaster from Vekoma, debuted in 2001. Several flat rides were added in 2002, and a river rapids ride called Blizzard River was added in 2003. In 2005, the Paradise Island water park was upgraded and retitled Six Flags Hurricane Harbor. The transition from Paradise Island to Hurricane Harbor saw the addition of a new Tornado water slide as well as renovations to existing attractions and buildings. Tony Hawk's Halfpipe water slide was added in 2008.

In 2010, Six Flags America renovated the Hurricane Bay wave pool deck, adding a new stamped, concrete deck and additional shading. Also the same year, the Thomas Town family area opened featuring eight rides and attractions all themed to Thomas the Tank Engine. The 3.5-acre (14,000 m²) area was billed as North America's largest Thomas Town and marked Six Flags America's largest expansion in more than a decade. Several months later, Six Flags would announce the removal of several licensed agreements as a result of restructuring following the company's emergence from bankruptcy. Thomas the Tank Engine, Tony Hawk, The Wiggles, and Evel Knievel themes would be removed from all Six Flags parks beginning in 2011. At Six Flags America, Thomas Town was renamed Whistlestop Park, and Tony Hawk's Halfpipe slide was renamed Halfpipe.^[5][6]

For 2012, the park added Apocalypse, a stand-up roller coaster from Bolliger & Mabillard, which featured two inversions and a ten-story drop. The roller coaster had previously operated as Iron Wolf at Six Flags Great America.^[7]

In 2013, the park added the six-slide complex Bonzai Pipelines to Hurricane Harbor.^[8][9]

In 2014, Six Flags re-themed a section of the park to feature Mardi Gras. The area would feature a new roller coaster named Ragin' Cajun and a set of Flying Scooters named French Quarter Flyers.^[10] Like Apocalypse, Ragin' Cajun was relocated from Six Flags Great America, and it was placed in the former location of Two Face: The Flip Side which was removed from the park in 2007. The Mardi Gras section replaced Southwest Territory, and the area's existing rides were rethemed to match the new Mardi Gras theme. Drop of Doom, for example, was renamed Voodoo Drop.^[11]

In 2015, a flat ride called Bourbon Street Fireball was added. This ride is commonly known as a Super Loop. Similar rides were also added to three other Six Flags parks.

In 2016, Six Flags America is adding a new family water play structure to Hurricane Harbor named Splashwater Falls, which will be replacing the former Crocodile Cal's Beach House.

Six Flags America announced on September 1, 2016 that they would be adding a Funtime Starflyer model, similar to the many SkyScreamer rides at other locations in the chain. At 24 stories (~250 feet), it will be the tallest ride in the park.

The Flash Pass

The Flash Pass, named after the Justice League character, is a virtual queuing system that allows customers to wait in a virtual line, thereby allowing them to engage in other activities while they wait. With the introduction of the Flash Pass in April 2010, visitors can “hold their place in line” electronically allowing them to go elsewhere in the park while waiting for an attraction. They will be alerted by the Flash Pass device when it is almost their turn to ride. Three types of Flash Pass are available: Regular, Gold and Platinum, a Regular pass simply “holds your place in line” with an average waiting time of 50 minutes, the Gold holds your place as well as giving you a reduced wait time of about 20 minutes per ride and the Platinum reduces the waiting time to 5 minutes and allows you to "Get in line once, Ride Twice -, while you are only allowed to ride once by any other means, Platinum gives you the opportunity to remain seated and ride the roller coasters again. The Flash Pass is purchased separately from the normal park admission. There are a limited number of Flash Passes available for purchase on a given day.

Themed sections

The themed sections of the park are: Main Street 1776, Chesapeake (formerly Olde Boston), Looney Tunes Movie Town, Mardi Gras (formerly Southwest Territory), Gotham City, Coyote Creek, Whistlestop Park, and Hurricane Harbor (water park).^[12] Each section has rides or a theme that have something to do with the section.

Current rides

Roller coasters

Ride Name	Picture	Opened	Manufacturer/Ride Type	Status	Location	Notes
The Wild One		1986	Dinn Corporation/Wooden	Operating	Mardi Gras	Relocated from Paragon Park in Hull, Massachusetts as Giant Coaster.
Mind Eraser		1995	Vekoma/Suspended Looping Coaster	Operating	Coyote Creek	The first "Mind Eraser"; has 3 duplicates at Six Flags New England, and Darien Lake, and Elitch Gardens.
Roar		1998	Great Coasters International/Wooden sit down	Operating	Chesapeake	The first "Roar" and the only one still standing; had one duplicate at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.
The Joker's Jinx		1999	Premier Rides/LIM launch steel sit down twister	Operating	Gotham City	Similar layout to Flight of Fear coasters at Kings Island and Kings Dominion, and identical to Poltergeist at Six Flags Fiesta Texas.
Great Chase		1999	Zamperla/Kiddie steel sit down	Operating	Looney Tunes Movie Town
Superman: Ride of Steel		2000	Intamin/ Megacoaster	Operating	Gotham City	Mirror image of Ride of Steel coaster at Darien Lake.
Batwing		2001	Vekoma/Flying Dutchman	Operating	Gotham City	Mirror image of Firehawk at Kings Island and similar to Nighthawk at Carowinds.
Apocalypse		2012	Bolliger & Mabillard/Steel stand-up	Operating	Chesapeake	Relocated Iron Wolf coaster from Six Flags Great America.
Ragin' Cajun		2014	Zamperla/Spinning Wild Mouse	Operating	Mardi Gras	Relocated Ragin' Cajun coaster from Six Flags Great America on the site of Two-Face and Python.

Flat rides

Kiddie rides

Six Flags America's Kid Sections are Looney Tunes Movie Town and Whistlestop Park.^[6] Former Kid's Area was Thomas Town that only operated during the 2010 season.

Six Flags Hurricane Harbor

Hurricane Harbor is a water park located within Six Flags America. It was known as Paradise Island until 2005 when it was rebranded Hurricane Harbor.

Six Flags Hurricane Harbor
Owner	Six Flags

Hurricane Harbor water park is adjacent to the main park and has no additional charge for entry.

Former attractions

Roller coasters

Rides

Including Former Hurricane Harbor Water slides

See also

• Incidents at Six Flags parks

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Six Flags America.

• Six Flags America official website
• Six Flags America at the Roller Coaster DataBase