PKD Info

This is for my PKD friends. ON this radio this morning I heard a second of something being said about the Rebel Yell at PKD. It said something about a farewell to it. I just want to know if anyone else in the area heard the whole thing. I can't see them taking it out but who knows.

While I know nothing of this announcement, I've felt for the last couple of years that Rebel Yell would be the logical coaster to remove for something else, such as a hypercoaster, or invert.

Rebel Yell farewell http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031772515939&path=!business&s=1045855934855 *** Edited 12/11/2003 11:38:43 PM UTC by Captain Picard***

phew.

Thanks for the Link.

'Phew,' indeed. I didn't need an anxiety attack this early in the morning... ;)

I don't see how Rebel Yell would be the logical coaster to remove. It's still a signature ride for the park, and people love it (myself included).

From Copp's bio:

Most exciting time: chosen during his senior year as an OSU tuba player to dot the "I" when the marching band spelled out the word "O-h-i-o"

From what little I know about Ohio, isn't that like the biggest honour that can be bestowed upon an OSU student?

bio, pt. 2: His favorite is the Rebel Yell wooden coaster, which he actually named during a brainstorming session before the park opened.

As a kid who rode Rebel Yell right around the time of park opening, I remember thinking of it as the ultimate wooden coaster...shame PKD's maintenance has let it go to the point where they're talking about removing it...;)

PKD is my home park. I love going to that place, but the last few years I have felt that the park has been a little run down. Meaning the people working are so slow and don't seem to care what they are doing. They havn't changed any of the old signs and stuff just doesn't look up to date. With that being said I do love the coasters there.

Thank god Rebel yell is not going anywhere...at least for now.

An item of interest about the park is that Taft originally had planned to build in Indiana but for some reason or another the choice was made to build it in VA instead & of course the history behind the name of the coaster is interesting because without this guy "brainstorming" the chosen name it might very well be known as something completly different.

Since Copp named the ride & has now retired as PKD's financial officer maybe they should put a sign up near the station giving him top honors for the ride & it's name...in a way without Copp the name Rebel yell might never have become part of PKD's lingo.

Your right about that. I can't see them taking it out really because the history of it. I don't know what they plan in the next few years but I think they have other areas they can use if they need room for something new.

Good news that the Rebel Yell's future is safe (even though it could use a little TLC). Not to mention a very interesting article about an interesting man! 30 years at a job you enjoy is quite impressive, to say to least.

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BATWING FAN SFA said:
...of course the history behind the name of the coaster is interesting because without this guy "brainstorming" the chosen name it might very well be known as something completly different.

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Wait a sec...you mean if someone hadn't come up with the name Rebel Yell, it wouldn't be called Rebel Yell? ;) If it were called something completely different, perhaps Flying Circus would've been appropriate. *rimshot*

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BATWING FAN SFA said:

An item of interest about the park is that Taft originally had planned to build in Indiana but for some reason or another the choice was made to build it in VA instead .

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From the article I figured it was whoever tipped him off to the job who confused Richmond, Indiana with Richmond, Virginia. I doubt if Taft ever had designs on an Indiana park. They'd have ended up in competition with themselves given the proximity.

Yeah, about an hour and a half drive from one to the next.

Whatever the story, the choice of Kings Dominion's location was very interesting. I wonder if they relized that Busch was building a park a little ways down the road.

And to think, there was almost a 3rd major park in that area. Unfortunatly, Marriott pulled out after quite a bit of consideration.

Not exactly Dukeis#1...in a way Marriott didn't "pull out" altogether,they just chose a different location for their east coast park.

Since the park in VA was scrapped due to the NIMBY syndrome in Mannasas VA where the park would've been built they tried to move the park to Maryland instead...when that failed they moved the project to NJ & it became what is now SFGRADV.

Of course by 1982 there was a 3rd park competing in the VA,DC area market which was Wild world at the time & we already know what the future would have in store for that park by now don't we?

Wrong. SFGAdv was *not* a Marriot park.

-Nate
*** Edited 12/12/2003 11:17:12 PM UTC by coasterdude318***

Correct. One of the occasionally mis-stated facts is that Great Adventure was a Marriott park. It had no connection to the Great Americas other than having "Great" in the name.

I believe that GAdv. started out as it's own company, and then was eventually gobbled up into Six Flags. *** Edited 12/13/2003 12:18:50 AM UTC by Dukeis#1***

Until today, I've never heard anyone mistake Great Adventure for a Marriott park. Beside the fact that the Marriott parks were "Great America" and not "Great Adventure", the Marriott parks were also very near-clones of each other. SFGAdv is nothing like SFGAm or PGA.

SFGAdv was built by Warner Leroy, who apparently made his money in New York City restaurants. See Leroy's obituary for more information.

-Nate
*** Edited 12/13/2003 12:16:15 AM UTC by coasterdude318***

Nate is absolutely correct. Not to mention that Werner LeRoy's Great Adventure opened in 1974, which is two years before Marriott's Great America parks opened in 1976, so it couldn't have possibly been an "east coast location" after Marriott's project was shot down in VA.