Roller Coaster History

Many people believe that roller coasters are from the origin of Russian ice slides which were made of lumber and ice. Then people got the idea to make the to make a cart with wheels go around a wooden track. That is how it all started.

In 1784 the first roller coaster was made and it featured a carriages (or carts) that would go over hills on a wooden track.
This coaster was made in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In this period of time, a lot of new styles and trends became arriving in the USA like new music and movies. Another thing that came with them was roller coasters! People were amazed and loved roller coasters. Since people loved them, amusement parks began adding roller coasters and before people knew it, there were 1,500 to 2,000 coasters across the USA. The coasters had chains that would pull you up the hill and special wheels for stopping.

During this time the USA was in a Great Depression and the amount of amusement parks were dropping at a fast pace. There were about 1,800 to 2,000 parks in 1930 but went to 303 parks in 1935 and then in 1939 they went even lower to 245 parks. Also in this time WW2 was going on and many people were risking there lives by fighting. During this depression and economic difficulty, it was hard to import materials to build more coasters. Only 7 known coasters were built in this time.

In 1960 many amusement parks were being built and the awesome park we all know, Disney World and Disney Land were being constructed. But, Disney Land was not a success when it first opened. It was actually one of the worst but once it added something special everyone came to the park.

One big theme park hit was the start of Six Flags in 1963. The millionaire Angus Wynne started the first park Six Flags Over Texas in Dallas. It was a big success and featured the famous log fume and the Famous Run Away Mine Train. The mine train was 2,484 feet long and had three hills. It also traveled at 26 mph. This coaster was the very first Six Flags Ride.

In 1974, Anheuser Busch added roller coasters and thrills to Busch Gardens. Also, he added new themes like African. Later in 1974, Busch opened another park in Williamsburg, Virgina that had a bunch of Europoe themes including Germany, Ireland, England, Italy, and France.

The Taft Corporation was the first company to invest in roller coasters and theme parks. The first coaster it funded was the Kings Dominion in Virginia. This was a big hit and featured over the to thrills.

In 1976, Schwarzkopf and Intamin opened the first roller coaster with a 360 degree loop in the new roller coaster era, the Great American Revolution.

The Mariott Corporation opened a 2 theme parks in 1976 that had two premier roller coasters that included a loop and corkscrew one and a fast, speedracer coaster. The parks were identical and were located in California and Illinois.