I need your help....

I had this idea of building my own amusement park in my backyard (I have a BIG backyard) for my neighbors. Me and my friends are going to run it to make some summer money since we are only 13 and can't work yet. I have created a river rapids ride out of a $20 pool and it has water control effects that I made. Once switch operates the rapids and another the water fall. I'm almost done with it. Other things will be a glider, you know the cable that goes from one tree to another. Instead of hanging I will attach a swing and a bungee cord to stop it. Almost like an inverted coaster! I used to have my own rollercoaster out of wood but it is all messed up and the cart broke. Other things is my Six Flags Hurricane Harbor water set, SF Hydro Blaster, and a water slide. Any ideas? The website is adventureland.8m.com Your opinions and ideas will be appreciated! I'll have some construction pics on the site shortly.

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2002 Ride Count: S:ROS 4, Predator 3, Viper 2, ME 1, Boomerang 2,Kraken 8, SWF 10
Check out CoastNY at coastny.cjb.net

*** This post was edited by Superdude on 6/12/2002. ***

You'll need insurance, a tax id, you should be incorporated. Land needs to be rezoned, rides need to be inspected, etc. But,

You have a good idea and a good dream. There is that one small park in Texas that started as 5 kiddie rides with a ticket booth made out of a box (and gravel paths for a midway). Perghaps would could come over the same way. I really wouldn't (no offense here) trust homemade rides, but if you really want a good start (and who is your competition btw?) go to http://www.usedrides.com and as a relative to cosign financing for you, and buy a few kiddie rides and have a start from there. You may be 13 now, but ten years later you might have a few more flats and a portable coaster. That's a great kind of start. Put all profits back in the park, no matter how small. email me and we'll talk (yup, I've got ideas). I have a feeling your project right now is like an unlicensed Challenge Park

(edit: don't call yourself Six Flags Adventureland, you'll get sued. Maybe ([you name here] 's Adventureland)

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Off with the trims!
My fellow Americans; Let's Roll!
Woodencoaster.com

*** This post was edited by bigkirby on 6/12/2002. ***

Its nothing really huge as in building a 30 foot tall coaster or having real rides. Its more just making homemade rides. I've done it for the past 3 years but this year I'm adding landscaping with flowers, mulch, real queues, and stuff like that. Yeah I probably shouldn't call it Six Flags Adventureland. Used rides is a possibility. I'm not going to make anything unsafe. Trust me! Thats the #1 issue and thats why I don't have my old wooden coaster anymore. It worked for 1 year perfectly, and I mean perfectly, but the next season was when I had problems.

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2002 Ride Count: S:ROS 4, Predator 3, Viper 2, ME 1, Boomerang 2,Kraken 8, SWF 10
Check out CoastNY at coastny.cjb.net

I hate to say this, but you probably can't afford enough insurance to cover yourself against any problems. I am a partner in a small business, and we carry a 5 million dollar insurance policy for liability incase someone falls in our parking lot, etc. Even though your rides may not be unsafe, if someone trips over a rock and breaks an ankle, he could sue you for enough damages to bankrupt your family.

It's a shame that our current climate is so litigious, but that's the way it is.

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Proud CB club member

Gotcha. Still, if you are putting people on rides, you need inspections, insurance, and licensing. Email me some info about the old wood coaster (I love hearing about homemade coasters). I think if you do add real rides (even kiddie rides) it could be a success.

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Off with the trims!
My fellow Americans; Let's Roll!
Woodencoaster.com

Its only my neighbors. Its not a public thing. I want to add a Hampton tubs of fun or something like that but I don't have enough money. I may own my own park like that when I grow up.

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2002 Ride Count: S:ROS 4, Predator 3, Viper 2, ME 1, Boomerang 2,Kraken 8, SWF 10
Check out CoastNY at coastny.cjb.net

I still would only call yourself Adventureland, not Six Flags. If somehow someone from Six Flags does a search on the net and comes up with your site you could get sued.

But it sounds very cool. Update us when you get some pics up.

Sure thing. I'll change the name soon on the site.

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2002 Ride Count: S:ROS 4, Predator 3, Viper 2, ME 1, Boomerang 2,Kraken 8, SWF 10
Check out CoastNY at coastny.cjb.net

Seriously, I don't think you'll be able to do much (I know, you'll be laughing your butt off when you're a billionaire with 15 coasters in your backyard). If you heard about that dude who made the coaster with a corkscrew in his backyard you could call him and get some tips for building a coaster :~D. Anyway, without all the insurance and licensing for anything, you could get sued. Say some kid from down the street hears about your "park". He comes down to your backyard late night and tries out some stuff, he falls, and breaks his leg. WHAM! Lawsuit shoved right up your, hmm, I shouldn't say that.

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HuKeD oNN fonickS dusinT wOrK"[;.

Well, here we go with Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn stories from back in the day. However, I grew up in a small Pittsburgh suburb. We stumbled on a library book on building an amusement park in your backyard. I forget the author and the book was published back in the 50s, but an out of print directory could locate it for you. We weren't worried about liability or money since we were just a couple dozen kids building it for us to enjoy. Anyway, it was the most amazing thing. We kept it running for 6 years, and it was still going strong when we all went off to college and our fathers dismantled everything. We had a superb funhouse with great effects. We had a foot pedalled Carousel. We had an airplane ride, Ferris Wheel and a Tumblebug powered by Briggs and Stratton lawnmower motors. We had a roller coaster running on tubing with downstop wheels and converted Radio Flyer Wagon bodies. We had a Ricochet that was neat. It was a tilted wooden platform with a chain lift on the left side pulling a round car up to the top. A rail ran from the lift over to the other side of the platform, stopping short so the car could drop down to the next aisle. The next rail ran back to the lift, stopping to let the car drop down (a vertical rail kept the car from getting back to the lift lane). The car had office chair ball wheels on the bottom and rollers pirated from a grocery store loading ramp all around the outside, so it rolled easily along the aisles. Basically, the round car seated four and turned round and round while zigzagging down the platform to the bottom, where it was unloaded, pushed by hand back to the lift, and reloaded with four new passengers. I still have that contraption sitting out at the edge of the yard. We won a mechanical engineering contest with it our senior year in high school. But probably our best achievement was a contrived octopus. We found a huge oak tree with long branches. From the longest, strongest branch, we hung a heavy rope. We drilled a hole in the center of two wooden beams and one at each end. We ran the main rope down the center and knotted it so it couldn't slip back through. Then we knotted two pieces and ran them down through the end holes, where we repeated the process, fitting two shorter beams under the ends, and drilling two more holes in their ends. Finally we dropped a rope down those holes, ran a plank out, ran two ropes down and fastened a seat. We ended up with a huge X hanging from a tree, with two swings hanging from the end of each one for a total of eight seats. To set the ride, we handwalked the X around until the center rope was twisted tight. Then we rotated the end beams, then the swings. Then we loaded the kids. Once we released the ride, it ran for about five minutes, unwinding on three levels. Unlike the Octopus, the action never stopped until everything slowed down at the end. Of course, our support came from above, whereas the Octopus comes from below. But it was a great ride, and kids came from all over town to ride it.

We can't claim credit for any of these ideas. All we did was build the rides from the plans in the book. But we sure had fun.

Thats cool you should have some kind of paper saying thats their at their own risk of breaking their legs. At night you should have posters saying that you are not reponsible if they break their legs going at a time when the park is closed.

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Top 3 coasters at SFGAm: 1. DeJavu 2. Raging Bull 3. Viper

*** This post was edited by Blinkcoaster on 6/12/2002. ***

There are always loop holes even if there are signs up. My suggestion would be know who you are letting ride, and make sure you know them well.

I wanna see this thing! But I aint know stalker, lmao.

You know that Walt came to California with only $40 in his pocket, and look at his success! The biggest amusement park company in the world!

Guess what, I may be your competition now. THANKS FOR THE IDEA!

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Stop the lawyers, not the rides!

The only thing I would ever build is a coaster for myself. But I failed math so it probably wouldn't turn out too well...

Thanks for the opinions. Thats really cool Trekker Park, email me with more info on that stuff! Rubber Ducky, its not a public park, only for my 4 neighbors that live across the street. I am in a VERY low theft zone so that is nothing to be worried about. If any of you have any other ideas email me!

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2002 Ride Count: S:ROS 4, Predator 3, Viper 2, ME 1, Boomerang 2,Kraken 8, SWF 10
Check out CoastNY at coastny.cjb.net

Oh yeah, tomorrow I have a Science final until 10:30 and I'll be working all after noon to have most of the stuff ready by Friday. I already have alot done. I just need to do some landscaping, queues, games, food places, ect.

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2002 Ride Count: S:ROS 4, Predator 3, Viper 2, ME 1, Boomerang 2,Kraken 8, SWF 10
Check out CoastNY at coastny.cjb.net

I have a waterpark. I bought little inflatable pool and connected a tarp to it and slide down the huge hill in my backyard plus some hurricane harbor things.

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I'm Fat!

Cool Papercut! What hurricane harbor things do ya have? Do you have hydro blaster? I want to get that but I was wondering how well it works and what it actually does?

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2002 Ride Count: S:ROS 4, Predator 3, Viper 2, ME 1, Boomerang 2,Kraken 8, SWF 10
Check out CoastNY at coastny.cjb.net

I did the same type of thing when I was a kid and NO ONE came I had a slide made of hay. It was very tall; I'll guess around 30 feet. I had a maze inside of a large canopy tent with walls made from tarp and cardboard. I can't remember what else was in my "park".

I did get one fun hobbie from all of this childhood amusement park owning fantisies. I built Haunted Houses. What fun it was scaring the jeepers out of friends and family. I would work weeks before Halloween to get it right and set it up. (Stop reading here if you don't really care where I'm going with this because it gets long and off topic). Lots of fun...

...So much fun that I am still known on occation to either work in a Haunted house or even organize them with a charity. I have been a taken very large part in desiging sevrial Halloween events in my earlier 20's and I have worked also worked at a few at major amusement parks.

This reply does sound a like it is getting a little off topic so I will just get to the point. I can get the same satisfaction from running (or even just working in) a seasonal Halloween attraction as I would get from running (or even just working at) an Amusement Park. Try it and you just might like it.

Keep an ear out for events like these and simply go and ask if you can volunteer some help. They will almost always let you. Once you get your foot in the door, it is very easy to work your way up in the building and designing positions. The only downside is that you probibly will not get paid but they DO let underage kids volunteer.

Sorry this post is so long without being completely on topic. I guess I ramble too much

back on topic, I think haveing your friends over to do Amusement Park type stuff sounds like fun. If I was your age and a neighbor, I would hope to be invited.

*** This post was edited by dexter on 6/13/2002. ***

That book was part of a series called " The Boy Showman." It also included material on a backyard circus, a garage movie theatre, a parade, a historical pageant, a Go Kart racetrack, and a bunch of other stuff we didn't care much about. I might check the old library and see if they still have the amusement park book, but knowing how libraries keep cleaning out old books, I don't know how much chance there is. Maybe they have some record of books they once had so I could get you the author and publisher. Any old book can be tracked down if you know the author and publisher.