originally posted on 4/29/2024
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As announced in last month’s ACE News, this is the debut of a new feature called ACE News Switchback. Every two months, a past issue of the publication will be uploaded to Discord so ACE members can share their thoughts on selected articles (comments can be made on Discord or sent directly to rascough@aceonline.org). I envision this being a fun way for us all to reflect on both the organization’s and amusement industry’s histories.
This issue’s subject matter contains a lengthy article about the rebirth of Mexico City’s La Montaña Rusa — significant because the enormous racing woodie was recently demolished as part of an evolution of the long-standing amusement park located in Chapultepec Park. Also selected was an article about the formation of the Leap The Dips Foundation, having significance in its own right owing to the recent announcement of the closure of the amusement rides at Lakemont Park (Altoona, Pennsylvania). Rounding out the pieces chosen were construction updates for Raptor at Cedar Point (Sandusky, Ohio), Comet at Great Escape (Queensbury, New York) and the Arrow Dynamics hypercoaster that would become Desperado at Buffalo Bill’s Resort and Casino (Primm, Nevada).
While the past issue for this installment of ACE News Switchback is 30 years old, future installments may not necessarily follow any pattern or chronological order. Readers are also advised to keep in mind this is a work-in-progress. I am open to all ideas and suggestions for this feature and can be reached at the email address above.
— Rob Ascough, ACE News Editor
It was wonderful to re-read the January 1994 issue of ACE News, but it was also quite sobering. Though modern new marvels under construction were featured, such as Raptor at Cedar Point (I still find it hard to believe that Raptor is 30 years old this year), like today, preservation was even then an important topic for wooden coasters. Montaña Rusa was undergoing extensive renovation by Custom Coasters, Inc., and the former Crystal Beach Comet was taking shape at The Great Escape. Several years later, both coasters would be named ACE Roller Coaster Landmarks — Comet in 2009 and Montaña Rusa in 2017. Fortunately, Comet is still very much with us at Six Flags Great Escape, thrilling another generation of riders in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.
Sadly, Montaña Rusa’s story is not so happy. The classic single-track racing coaster, one of only three operational when it was dedicated during the ACE Spring Conference in April 2017, closed suddenly with the rest of the park just two years later in September 2019. A tragic accident on another park coaster, Quimera, killed two riders after the train derailed. This prompted government officials to close the park permanently, and Montaña Rusa was sadly demolished in spring of 2022.
To date, of the current 48 roller coasters designated as ACE Roller Coaster Landmarks, three have been lost to demolition. Big Dipper — a classic John Miller coaster at Geauga Lake (Aurora, Ohio) from 1925 — was designated a landmark in 2010. However, the park had closed in 2007, thus the coaster never had its landmark plaque presented before it was torn down in 2016. Montaña Rusa, built in 1964 by the National Amusement Device Company, met its fate in 2022. The Conneaut Lake Park (Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania) Blue Streak — built by Edward Vettel in 1937 — was also unexpectedly destroyed in 2022 by the park’s new owner who purchased the park in 2020 with no intension of restoring it. The ensuing structural fire caused several firefighters to endanger their lives in putting it out.
All three stories are sad testaments to preservation efforts by ACE and other enthusiast and historical organizations.
— Dave Hahner, ACE Historian and ACE Preservation Committee member
#ACENews