| Valley fair | |
|---|---|
| Valleyfair logo | |
| Location | Shakopee, Minnesota, United States |
| Website | http://www.valleyfair.com/ |
| Owner | Cedar Fair Entertainment Company |
| Opened | 1976 |
| Operating season | Daily Memorial Day through Labor Day, some weekends in May and September. Also, Valleyscare in October. |
| Area | 125 acres (0.51 km2) (0.5 km²) |
| Rides | 75 total
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| Slogan | "The Fun and Only" "Ride On" |
Valleyfair, sometimes stylized Valleyfair! is a 125 acre (0.5 km²) amusement park located in Shakopee, Minnesota, USA and is currently the largest amusement park in the Upper Midwest United States. The park has over 50 rides and water attractions and currently operates 8 roller coasters, one of the most popular being Wild Thing. Valleyfair also has a water park, Soak City (Formerly Whitewater Country - Changed with Addition of Breaker Bay in 2009), located completely within it.
Valleyfair opened in 1976 and was originally themed as a Coney Island-styled turn-of-the-century amusement park, which leads to some jarring contrasts with modern-style rides like the steel roller coasters Corkscrew and Wild Thing.
The park is owned by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. Valleyfair and Cedar Point are the two original Cedar Fair parks and the Fair in the Cedar Fair name comes from Valleyfair.
Valleyfair’s normal operating season runs daily from Memorial Day through Labor Day and some weekends in May and September. There is also a "ValleySCARE" event near Halloween.
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Valleyfair! opened in 1976 featuring 20 rides and attractions on 26 acres (110,000 m2), with the roller coaster High Roller being the main attraction. The carousel in the park came from Excelsior Amusement Park which was closed many years earlier. It is the oldest ride in the park. In 1978 in an effort to increase investment capital for continued park expansion, Valleyfair was acquired by Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio and placed under the management of Cedar Fair Limited Partnership. The park continues to grow every year with new rides and attractions. Since 1976, Valleyfair has invested over $96 million into the park, and today the park has over 50 rides on 125 acres (0.51 km2) of land. A height restriction was imposed in the year 2000 with the building of Power Tower. After negotiations with the FAA and the nearby Flying Cloud Airport, the FAA restricted the building height of Power Tower at 275 feet (84 m) due to its proximity to the airport. Power Tower's original plan was to be a height of 300 feet (91 m) and to take riders to 275 feet (84 m).[1]
As the park is located on the banks of the Minnesota River, flooding can become an issue during the springtime months before the park usually opens, notably in 1988, 1993, and 1997. Excalibur and Thunder Canyon are built outside of a pre-existing river dike, and were built with this flooding potential in mind.[2]
Although not as well-known a "coaster park" as some other parks like Cedar Point, Valleyfair does have many popular coasters and is known widely for them.
| # | Coaster | Year Opened | Manufacturer | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | High Roller | 1976 | Rauerhorst Corporation | Wooden out and back coaster. Oldest Roller Coaster at Valleyfair. |
| 2 | Corkscrew | 1980 | Arrow Dynamics | Steel Looping |
| 3 | Excalibur | 1989 | Arrow Dynamics | Wood Structure and Steel Track Hybrid Coaster |
| 4 | Wild Thing | 1996 | Chance Morgan | Steel out and back Coaster. Tallest Roller Coaster at Valleyfair. |
| 5 | Mad Mouse | 1999 | Arrow Dynamics | Steel Wild Mouse |
| 6 | Steel Venom | 2003 | Intamin | Impulse Coaster |
| 7 | Renegade | 2007 | Great Coasters International | Wooden Coaster |
Challenge Park is located on the southeast corner of the amusement park. Challenge Park is a separate charge attraction and requires an additional fee to participate in activities. Challenge Park features three different attractions: RipCord, Adventure Golf, and Go-Karts. Bumper Boats were removed at the end of the 2009 season. RipCord is a Skycoaster where 1-3 individuals are harnessed, raised to a height of 161 feet (49 m), and one of the riders must pull his or her own cord to release them to a swinging freefall. The Adventure Golf is semi-mountain themed with a waterfall and ponds, making a rather picturesque entrance to the park. The Go-Karts travel beneath the figure-eight of the park's hyper-coaster, Wild Thing.
Soak City is a water park located within Valleyfair. It is a no-additional-charge attraction open to all Valleyfair visitors. It includes five high speed, single-person water slides, a lazy river, a fast single person rapids ride, a large family raft ride, and a children's area. In 2009, Breakers Bay, a large 350,000 gallon wave pool was added in addition to a new bathhouse, restaurant, and cabanas.
On August 6, 2010, it was announced that the entire children's section of the park would be transformed into Planet Snoopy for the 2011 season as part of a $9 million expansion. Planet Snoopy is an attraction at other Cedar Fair parks.
Valleyfair hosts several performance venues with a wide variety of live entertainment at no additional charge.
At the Halloween Haunt, The Boogie Monsters take over the PEANUTS Showplace, performing Halloween and spooky-themed songs for the trick-or-treaters on the nearby Trick-or-Treat Trail
History of ValleySCARE - Valleyscare is a Halloween event put on by Valleyfair that started in 2006. Originally, Valleyfair operated Halloweekends until 2000 and changed the name after it reinstated the event with more theming and haunted areas. The first event featured 3 indoor haunted houses, one indoor/outdoor haunted house, and one scare zone.
2007 - The Haunt expanded with one more scare zone named Hellside Farm.
2008 - The Halloween Haunt at Valleyscare expanded once again with the addition of the indoor maze Mr. Cleaver's Bloodshed, a slaughterhouse themed attraction located in the 2nd games warehouse behind Cool & Creamy. Along with Mr. Cleaver's Bloodshed, Hellside Farm received a major upgrade, and Chateau Du Damne received a new ending.
2009 - Hellside Farm was moved to the Amphitheater Backlot, CarnEvil received a slight upgrade which consisted of 3 new rooms, Chateau Du Damné added a new torture room scene, Mr. Cleaver's Bloodshed added a number of new rooms and hallways, and Carnage at Crimson Isle received a whole new layout and maze design. In addition to the various maze modifications, Fangs and the Mick Mangler's Madness and Mayhem Show were added to the Live Entertainment lineup.
2010 - All mazes received upgrades. CarnEvil's ending was rethemed, Chateau Du Damné received many new rooms and changes, Hellside's layout was redesigned lengthened a bit for a more claustrophobic feeling, and Mr. Cleaver's Bloodshed layout was switched up and included a brand new scare never before seen at ValleySCARE.
2011 - With the addition of Planet Snoopy, Blood Creek Cemetery was moved closer to the Front Gate with a very different layout, but still the only Scare Zone at ValleySCARE, Festival of Freaks took over the nightlife of Planet Spooky, and Camp Wekilou was added in the picnic cove as an outdoor maze.
Here is a list of the Haunted Attractions found at the Halloween Haunt at Valleyscare.
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