American Adventure

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See also: The American Adventure, similar attraction in the U.S. state of Florida.

**American Adventure**

Location	Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England
Website	www.americanadventure.co.uk
Opened	June 1987
Previous names	Britannia Park, American Adventure World
Operating season	April to October
Rides	total

The American Adventure is a theme park located in the English Midlands quite close to both Nottingham and Derby on the edge of a small town called Ilkeston in the county of Derbyshire. The park for many years had a number of large white-knuckle attractions, but in 2005 was re-themed as a 'family' park aimed at the under-14 market.

American Adventure is built on the site of an old coal mine and was originally opened in June 1987. A themed park called Britannia Park was opened on the site in 1985 but closed soon after due to a lack of visitors. In June 1987 the American Adventure opened heralded as 'Britain's Major New Theme Park. Initial attractions at the American Adventure included the two-drop log flume, the runaway mine train, the Buffalo Rollercoaster, a pirate ship, and a ferris wheel.

1989 saw the opening of the Missile rollercoaster: A Vekoma Boomerang coaster which was at the time voted the number one rollercoaster in the UK. Shortly after that followed the addition of the Rocky Mountain Rapids. In 1993 the log-flume was extended to have a third drop and was renamed Nightmare Niagara. It was the tallest log-flume in the UK at its time of opening. In 1995 the Iron Wolf rollercoaster was installed, a themed double loop rollercoaster themed around the ITV gameshow Gladiators.

From 1996 onwards the park began to decline and in 1997 then owners the Granada group decided to pull out of owning the park. It was sold to a company called Ventureworld which was headed by a man called John Broome, a former Alton Towers developer. During the reign of Broome as owner of the park the only noticeable change was the renaming of the park to "American Adventure World" and the slow decline of many of the park's attractions.

In 1999 Broome announced he was stepping down and the THG Group, who also own Pontins and Blackpool Tower bought the park. Since 1999 many of the smaller rides have disappeared from the park and it has slowly fallen into decline. The old main entrance to the park had to be closed due to subsidence, and the new entrance is nowhere near as attractive as the old one.

2005 saw the closing down of three major rides for which the park was famous, including Nightmare Niagara and The Missile. At the time it was also believed that the Rocky Mountain Rapids was also ending its life. The two water rides were supposedly closed due to structural instability and water pollution problems, whilst the Missile was not deemed to fit in with the parks new 'family' label and had also fallen into heavy disrepair. Missile has now been relocated to Pleasurewood Hills as 'Wipeout' and is opening in 2007.

The Missile and Nightmare Niagra are both now gone, but the Rocky Mountain Rapids has been retained, having been refurbished for the park's 2006 season with the promise that it is "a fun family water ride that’s bigger, better and wetter than ever before." [1]