Holiday World History

Okay forgive me if this has been addressed before (I just did a search through 7 pages on here and found nothing), but I was wondering when the different themed sections were added to HW. I'm guessing it all started with the current Christmas section (then Santa Claus Land in 1946) in its current location, but when were the Halloween, 4th of July, and Holidog's FunTown sections added? Paula?

I survived a Japanese typhoon and the Togo flat ride of death!!!!!!

Holi-story? ;)

Maybe a good way to distract us while we're awiating "the announcement", LOL...

Santa Claus Land opened in 1946.

Halloween and 4th of July were added in 1984 when the park was renamed from Santa Claus Land to Holiday World.

In 1993, Splashing Safari was added.

In 1995, Raven was built.

In 1999, Holidog's FunTown was opened.

In 2000, the Legend opened.

In 2006, the park's 60th anniversary, they will open a yet to be named themed section of the park as part of a 13.5 million dollar expansion.

*** Edited 6/21/2005 1:23:35 PM UTC by redman822***

--George H

A great history and timeline of the park can be found on the HW website.

Life is an amusment park -and I can't get off of the damn spinning teacups!

Funny I searched the HW site for the timeline and must've totally overlooked it! Must go back and look again....

I survived a Japanese typhoon and the Togo flat ride of death!!!!!!

Ahh found it under the News Room link. By the way, what was "The Banshee" ride added to Halloween in 1986?

I survived a Japanese typhoon and the Togo flat ride of death!!!!!!

Banshee was a Falling Star. LOVED when the park put it in maintenance mode during ERT so we could take pics of the coasters from up in the air.

I miss HW, can't they move closer? ;)

Banshee stood where HallowSwings is now. It was removed prior to the 2002 season due to maintenance issues.

--George H

My only experience with Banshee was when the sign was auctioned off at SRM '03. :(

Also be sure to check out the "Park History", also linked to from the new room page of HW's web page.

Life is an amusment park -and I can't get off of the damn spinning teacups!

Holiday World's expansion since 1999 is incredible. The Legend, Splashin' Safari's expansion, huge water rides, new land opening, and now 13.5 million dollar expansion next year. The park can't be making this much money from guest attendance alone?

A park chain with deep pockets will at times invest lots of capitol into one park, but even then there are limits. SFWoA hit Six Flags hard financially, became a kind of money pit they couldn't wait to get out of. So how does Holiday World do it?

Maybe it's the free soda that makes HH so successful. Lake Compounce is doing it now too. What a great trend, hopefully it will catch on. Is Holiday World's success an example of great customer service paying astronomical dividens?