originally posted on 6/30/2025
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Want to feel old? The Beast at Kings Island (Mason, Ohio) celebrated its 10th anniversary with an article in the May 1989 issue of ACE News.
Speaking of record-breaking wood coasters, another that would end up not being long for this world was featured on the cover. Hercules was arguably the ride that transformed Dorney Park (Allentown, Pennsylvania) from a smaller traditional park to a regional theme park that ended up being purchased by Cedar Fair a few years later. The result of Charlie Dinn and Curtis Summers’ late eighties/early nineties collaboration, it would advertise a massive hillside drop as its claim to fame.
Well, sort of. When the coaster opened, its reputation grew based on having a lot of track but extraordinarily little of it offering the kinds of thrills suggested by its statistics (surely not the only time something like that would happen!). In its later years, Hercules developed an uncomfortable roughness that made it unpopular with park guests, which in turn led to it being demolished well before reaching the end of its second decade of operation and being replaced with a Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) floorless coaster called Hydra the Revenge for the 2005 season.
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Since B&M wasn’t yet in the business of creating roller coasters outside of Giovanola, this issue of ACE News highlights a lot of the work of Arrow Dynamics, including two extreme examples of technology dating back to its groundbreaking 1966 Runaway Mine Train. At first glance, Excalibur at Valleyfair (Shakopee, Minnesota) and Magnum XL-200 at Cedar Point (Sandusky, Ohio) couldn’t be more different from each other, but both were nonlooping steel coasters that pointed the way forward for the amusement industry. These days, it’s difficult imagining a theme park without a nonlooping roller coaster stretching precariously into the skies. And for those who enjoy being thrown upside down, there is also an update on Six Flags Great Adventure’s Great American Scream Machine that would debut for the 1989 season in Jackson, New Jersey.
Proving there are sometimes advantages to reported news not happening, two ominous articles about wood coasters ended up causing no reason for alarm. Grand Strand in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, didn’t close for good — the park (now called Family Kingdom Amusement Park) and its wonderful John Allen Swamp Fox continue to operate as examples of dwindling seaside amusement parks and wood roller coasters, and the Mission Beach (San Diego, California) Giant Dipper has thrived to the point of being the first recipient of ACE’s new Centennial Coaster award, which acknowledges rides that have surpassed 100 years of operation.
My wish is that Elitch Gardens (Denver, Colorado) could have relocated with its Wildcat and Mr. Twister duo intact, though the new park certainly sounded nice as it promised to feature a theater, ballroom, botanical gardens and ice skating rink. I don’t believe any of those ended up being part of the new park, and the author of the article was rightfully skeptical of the notion of an amusement park moving to a downtown location. Lately the value of the “new” Elitch Gardens’ real estate has resulted in plans to find a new home for it once again. Perhaps the third time will be a charm, and park guests will be able to enjoy some ice skating?
— Rob Ascough, ACE News Editor, with thanks to Scott Conley for digitization of this issue of ACE News
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