Valleyfair!
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| Location | Shakopee, Minnesota |
|---|---|
| Website | www.valleyfair.com |
| Owner | Cedar Fair, L.P. |
| Opened | 1976 |
| Operating season | Daily Memorial Day through Labor Day, some weekends in May and September. Also, Valleyscare in october. |
| Area | 90 acres devoloped (115 total) |
| Rides | 60+ total
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Valleyfair! is an amusement park located in Shakopee, Minnesota that opened for business in 1976 and is currently the largest amusement park in the Upper Midwest, occupying approximately 125 acres (0.5 km²). It is owned by Cedar Fair— Valleyfair! and Cedar Point are the two original Cedar Fair parks and the Fair in the Cedar Fair name comes from Valleyfair!. Its name is often incorrectly written without the exclamation point.
Valleyfair! was originally themed as a Coney Island-styled turn-of-the-century amusement park; this leads to some jarring contrasts with modern-style rides like the steel roller coasters Corkscrew and Wild Thing.
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[edit] Roller coasters
Although not as well-known a "coaster park" as its sister park, Cedar Point, Valleyfair does have many popular coasters and is known widely for them.
- High Roller: The park's oldest coaster, an all-wood out-and-back type coaster. It is 70 feet (21 m) at the highest peak and it has a top speed of 50 mph (80 km/h). It is a common misperception that High Roller is really the Cyclone from nearby Excelsior Amusement Park, which closed a few years before Valleyfair! opened. This is not the case however. While High Roller bears some similarities to Cyclone, it was a brand new ride in 1976, and Cyclone was demolished when the Excelsior park closed. [1][2]
- Corkscrew: The oldest all-steel coaster in Minnesota, it was manufactured by Arrow. Its primary features are a loop and the two-twist corkscrew segment that gives the coaster its name. This ride is 85 feet (26 m) tall and has a top speed of 50 mph (80 km/h). The photo spot and the "Corkscrew Photos" booth were removed after the 2005 season. The booth still stood during the 2006 season.
- Excalibur: A hybrid wood-steel coaster also manufactured by Arrow. Excalibur's dips and curves are generally considered the most stomach-churning of any roller coaster located at Valleyfair!. The ride is 105 feet (32 m) tall with a top speed of 55 mph (89 km/h). Only one of a few coasters in the world that has a steel track with a wood frame. Two others, Gemini and Cedar Creek Mine Ride, are located at sister park Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH. A few years after the ride was built, brakes were added at the top of the first hill and the bottom and first half of the turn were reprofiled to try and reduce roughness. The photo spot and the "Excalibur Photos" booth were also removed. The photo booth was replaced with a Refreshment stand.
Rumors in Minnesota (during 2005 season) had it that Excalibur would be removed to make way for a new roller coaster in 2007. Valleyfair proved this wrong, because Renegade was built in 2007, without demolishing Excalibur .
- Mad Mouse: As the name suggests, a Wild Mouse roller coaster. It was manufactured by Arrow. Mad Mouse is built in the space formerly occupied by Rails (Wild Rails until 1996, a name change necessitated by the similarly-named Wild Thing), a similar coaster. Wild rails was manufactured by Schwarzkopf. Mad Mouse is 50 feet (15 m) tall with a top speed 30 mph (48 km/h).
- Wild Thing: Minnesota's tallest roller coaster at 207 feet (63 m) high (the fifth-tallest roller coaster in the world at the time of its opening) and the state's only hypercoaster, with a 196 foot drop and the longest low-gravity section of any coaster in the world. It reaches the height of 207 feet and a maximum speed of 74 mph (118 km/h). Wild Thing was manufactured by Morgan, D.H..
- Steel Venom: A shuttle-type inverted impulse coaster built by Intamin AG which reaches a maximum height of 185 feet (56 m) and a top speed of 68 mph (104 km/h). Similar to the Wicked Twister.
- Renegade: on September 21, 2006, Valleyfair! announced that it will build Renegade, its seventh roller coaster, for the 2007 season. As the park's second wooden roller coaster, Renegade will provide a 2-minute ride at a top speed of 52 mph. Unique features are to include a twisting first drop, a near-ground high-speed S-turn and a high-speed station fly-by. The ride is to be 3,113 feet long and 104 feet high, with a 91 foot drop.[1]
[edit] Water rides
Valleyfair!'s other major draw is its plethora of water rides, highly popular in the Minnesota summer heat.
- Whitewater Country Waterpark: A full-service water park with swimsuits available for purchase. Admission is free with park entrance. Known as Liquid Lightning Waterpark until 1992, when the name was changed and the water park was opened to general attendance (it had been an additional-fee attraction until 1992).
- The Flume: Known as Ye Olde Log Flume until the early 1990s. The Flume is a log flume ride. The balcony over the Flume's splashdown pool is one of the park's most popular dining locations. The Flume's feature final drop was rebuilt for the 2006 season. It is speculated that Valleyfair! made the hill steeper, but no offical announcement has been made.
- Thunder Canyon: A six-person raft ride; like all amusement park raft rides, getting wet is the point of the excursion. A thrilling ride and one of the park's most popular attractions, but on very hot days, the wait for this ride can easily exceed a full hour.
- The Wave: A large splashdown pool ride. The Wave is almost as popular for spectators as it is for riders, as the huge wave generated by the nose of the boat can splash almost ten feet beyond the fence around the ride.
- Hydroblaster: An enclosed water slide (located near the Flume, not in Whitewater Country Waterpark).
- Riptide: New in 2005, the Riptide combines elements of the Mall of America's "Mighty Axe" (a gondola, flipping horizontally in the air while rotating) and The Wave. Designed by Huss Manufacturing of Germany. Typically seats 38 passengers. This ride spins in a 360 degree orbit several times. A fountain at the base sprays riders as they orbit.
[edit] Games
- Roll-a-Ball: Long-lived game located near Hydroblaster, Roll-a-Ball is a multi-player game involving the rolling of balls into designated holes, each worth a different value. The winner of the game is the player whose cow can cross the finish line first. The cow moves according to the value of the ball rolled.
- The Guessing Game (Scales): Contestants ask the game operator to guess either their age, weight, or birthday. If the operator fails to guess correctly, the player is awarded a prize.
- Float Pitch: Players throw ping-pong balls into dishes floating in water.
- Hi-Test Arcade: Features over 100 arcade and redemption games, including skeeball and pinball.
[edit] Other Rides
- Power Tower: Power tower is a 275 foot (83 m) tall tower with three pillars. Two of the towers bring riders up slowly and drop them down in free fall, and the third tower blasts riders up. Opening in 2000, Power Tower is the tallest ride in Minnesota. The ride was originally intended to be 300 feet (91 m) tall, but the Federal Aviation Administration prohibits Valleyfair!'s rides from being built taller than 275 feet because of the nearby Flying Cloud Airport.
- Xtreme Swing: Xtreme Swing, a giant Screamin' Swing ride that stands 100 ft (33 m) tall, and swings riders 125 ft into the air, is a new ride for the 2006 season. On its debut, it was the second tallest of its ride type. it is 2 ft shorter than Cedar Point's (Valleyfair!'s sister park) version called Sky Hawk, which also opened in 2006.
- ValleyFair!'s antique Carousel (built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company) operated at the nearby Excelsior Amusement Park from 1925-1976, and was moved to the new park for its opening (Valleyfair! opened shortly after the Excelsior park closed).
[edit] Halloween event
There is an event planned at Valleyfair! in October of 2006 called ValleySCARE. This event will feature several haunted houses and scare zones. It will be an extreme event and is not intended for children.
[edit] Accidents
- 18 people were injured on the Wild Thing on May 21, 2006.
- A person became frightened and climbed out of the log boat on the Flume ride, became trapped under a boat, and drowned. (Date uncertain, but believed to be early 90s.)
[edit] See also
- Excelsior Amusement Park – a park that operated in the region from 1925 to 1973
[edit] External links
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[edit] Notes
- ^ Roller Coaster Database (2006). Cyclone (Excelsior Amusement Park). Retrieved on 2006-07-21.
- ^ Roller Coaster Database (2006). High Roller (Valleyfair!). Retrieved on 2006-07-21.
| Roller coasters at Valleyfair! |
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Corkscrew - Excalibur - High Roller - Mad Mouse - Mild Thing - Renegade - Steel Venom - Wild Thing |
