Towards the end of the 1990’s there seemed to be a surprising amount of wooden coasters disappearing from the fairgrounds. It was quite depressing to those of us who have a passion for a wooden coaster. Even my home park, Dorney Park, was loosing my beloved Herc in change for a steel coaster. If you really think about it, how many parks have you gone to where wooden coasters are not out numbered at least two to one?

But now there has been a resurgent of wooden coasters in parks today. Thanks to companies such as The Gravity Group and Great Coasters International, our beloved rides are on the rebound. Innovative designs such as Thunderhead, Hades, and Voyage are possibly changing the way people view wooden coasters. I think a majority of people would credit the wooden coaster revival to three coasters; Lightning Racer, Legend, and Raven. Each of these coasters proved to be a big hit and showed that a wooden coaster could survive at a major park. In fact, much of Holiday World’s fame has come from their fantastic wooden coasters, among other things. It’s just nice to know that in this age of steel monsters, wooden coasters are making their stand. I can’t wait to see what parks have next for us and if designers will continue to push the envelope on wooden coaster design.

Images © Great Coasters International

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 4th, 2006 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Editorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.