Michigan's Adventure
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Location | Muskegon, Michigan |
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| Website | www.michigansadventure.com |
| Owner | Cedar Fair, L.P. |
| Opened | 1956 (Deer park Funland) |
| Previous names | Deer Park Petting Zoo, Deer Park Funland |
| Operating season | May - September |
| Rides | total
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| Slogan | Two parks for the price of one! |
Attendance - 550,000 in 2005 ( 18% from 2004) |
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Michigan's Adventure is an amusement park in Muskegon County, Michigan, about halfway between Muskegon, Michigan and Whitehall, Michigan. It was originally founded as the Deer Park Petting Zoo in 1956. In 1968, Roger Jourden purchased the park and began to transform the land into an amusement and water park, renaming it Deer Park Funland.
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[edit] Michigan's Adventure
In 1988, Jourden added the Wolverine Wildcat roller coaster. At this time, he changed the name to Michigan's Adventure. In 1991 he opened WildWater Adventure, a water park. Since then, the park was bought by Cedar Fair (who owns Cedar Point) and was soon a Michigan staple. Michigans Adventure is really one of the only surviving thrill parks in the state of Michigan since Bob-Lo Island park was closed in Detroit in the early 1990's. It [Michigans Adventure] features six roller coasters including the critically worldwde acclaimed "Shivering Timbers", a high speed wooden behemoth, and one looping coaster the "Corkscrew". The park also includes a large multitude of "flat rides" such as the "Scrambler" and "Flying Trapeze". [1]
[edit] WildWater Adventure
The water park, WildWater Adventure, opened in 1991. After the addition of the WildWater Adventure, the slogan for the park became "2 parks for the price of 1" since the regular gate admission of $24 allows full day usage of both the amusement and the water park, rather than a separate fee for both.
The addition of WildWater Adventure led to the closure of Pleasure Island, a water park, in Norton Shores in the early 1990's. The former location of Pleasure Island is now a subdivision.
[edit] Cedar Fair
In 2001, Cedar Fair, the owner of Cedar Point, purchased the park from Roger Jourden. His daughter, Camille Jourden-Mark, was demoted from General Manager, a position she had occupied since 1988, and replaced with Larry Mackenzie. Mackenzie later left for Valleyfair! at the end of the 2001 season. Camille Jourden-Mark was then reinstated as General Manager where she has remained since.
[edit] Attractions
[edit] Roller Coasters
- Big Dipper
- The Big Dipper is a family oriented steel sit-down roller coaster designed by Chance Rides.
- Corkscrew
- The Corkscrew is a steel sit-down roller coaster (portable with some effort) developed by Arrow Dynamics. It has been operating at the park since 1979. It tops out at a height of 70 feet, reaches a top speed of 45 mph and has two corkscrew inversions.
- Mad Mouse
- The Mad Mouse is a steel sit-down roller coaster developed by Arrow Dynamics. Operating since 1999, the minute and a half ride consists of sharp turns and sudden drops, characteristic of any wild mouse style roller coaster.
- Shivering Timbers
- Shivering Timbers is a wooden roller coaster developed by Custom Coasters International. It towers 122 feet in the air, reaches a top speed around 65 mph and the first drop is at a 53.3° angle. The ride is critically acclaimed within the industry and has been ranked as one of the best wooden roller coasters each year since its debut in 1998 and was ranked #3 in 2005.[2]
- Wolverine Wildcat
- The Wolverine Wildcat is a wooden roller coaster designed by Curtis D. Summers and built in 1988 by the Dinn Corporation. It is 85 feet high and reaches a top speed close to 55 mph.
- Zach's Zoomer
- Zach's Zoomer is a family oriented wooden roller coaster that opened in 1994. It was designed by Custom Coasters International (the same company that designed Shivering Timbers). It's targeted to a younger audience and allows them to experience the sensation of a wooden roller coaster without the extreme drops, air time, and sharp turns inherent on a full blown wooden roller coaster like Shivering Timbers.
[edit] Other Rides
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 Corkscrew roller coaster, which incidentally is now painted orange |
 Shivering Timbers, consistently voted one of the best wooden roller coasters in the world |
 Wolverine Wildcat wooden coaster |
 Zach's Zoomer wooden coaster |
[edit] New for 2006
Significant improvements debuted for the 2006 operating season, including:
- Grand Rapids a new 1500 foot long river rapids ride simulating a whitewater rafting adventure in a canyon setting complete with waterfalls and geysers. Costing $5 million it will be the most expensive ride ever built at the park.[3]
- Expansion of the Timbertown Railway with additional track and a new station.
- Coaster's Drive-In restaurant, which is a feature at other Cedar Fair parks including Cedar Point.
[edit] Trivia
- One of the rides was damaged after the Southern Great Lakes Derecho of 1998 storms which took place during Memorial Day Weekend, the traditional start of the summer tourist season. The ride destroyed was Mutley's Putt Putts, and a new entrance opened on that location the following year. The storm also leveled many of the taller trees in the park, leaving shade a rare commodity for the next few years until transplanted trees could begin filling out.
- The Chaos ride broke and left passengers stranded for several hours in 2001. Other parks that owned the same ride were encouraged to replace defective parts immediately. Several other incidents on the rides (manufactured by Chance Rides) were reported during the 2005 summer season. Michigan's Adventure removed the ride shortly after the accident.
- The park hosts Rock the Coast, a Christian music mini-festival, in May. It is organized by Alive on the Lakeshore, the organization which created the Unity Christian Music Festival.
- The 2006 operating season marks the 50th anniversary of the park dating back to its time as the Deer Park Funland.
- Michigan's Adventure is the largest operating amusement park in the state of Michigan.
[edit] Logo
The original Michigan's Adventure logo featured a cartoon lion.
When Cedar Fair acquired the park in 2001, they replaced the lion with Snoopy from Peanuts, who appears on the logos of other Cedar Fair parks.
