History

Rivers of America at Disney’s Magic Kingdom Closes Forever to Make Room for Piston Peak National Park

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Steamboat riverboat on Rivers of America at Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom
Rivers of America (Photo by Matt Brinkley)

On on July 6 2025 Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island at Magic Kingdom closed Forever to make room for “Cars Land” and specifically what is being called Piston Peak National Park. Rivers of America have been part of Frontierland and Liberty Square since 1971 when the park opened, but the Liberty Belle steamboat and Tom Sawyer Island were actually added in 1973. This has long been known as a scenic and relaxing area of the park. This area is now being reimagined into a Cars themed land with a ride similar to the Radiator Springs Racers, a high-speed ride at Disney’s California Adventure. However, this is not a carbon copy of the California attraction located in the desert town of the first movie, but instead it will be an off-road adventure in a mountain and water-filled National Park.

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Was This Mountain at Tokyo DisneySea Originally Destined for California? How Disney “Blue Sky” Concepts are Never Truly Dead.

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Tokyo DisneySea volcano

Disney loves its mountains, see Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and the former Splash Mountain as examples. One of the lesser known “mountains” is the volcano known as Mount Prometheus at Tokyo DisneySea in Japan. For those not familiar, according to the DisneySea website it is, “The only Disney park themed to the myths and legends of the sea. Each of the eight themed ports features attractions, restaurants, shops, and more, inviting guests to a world “Where Adventure and Imagination Set Sail!” This is the 7th most attended theme park in the world and many consider it the best and most beautiful of all the Disney parks. However, did you know many of the concepts of Tokyo DisneySea came from a park called DisneySea California that was cancelled in 1991?

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Happy 100th Birthday Lake Winnepesaukah

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Lake Winnie 100 year anniversary logo
Lake Winnie 100 year anniversary logo (Courtesy of Lake Winnie)

The amusement park affectionately known locally as “Lake Winnie” celebrated its 100th birthday this month. Lake Winnepesaukah in Rossville, GA originally opened its doors on June 1, 1925. The name is from a Native American word that means “bountiful waters” or “beautiful lake of the highlands” and fits with the 9 acre lake on the park site. The park even still has one original 1925 attraction with the Boat Chute ride, which is oldest Mill Chute attraction still in operation in the United States.

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Demolition of Scorpion Underway at Busch Gardens

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Scorpion Roller Coaster Demolition at Busch Gardens
Scorpion Demolition (picture courtesy of Vikings Coaster Crew)
Scorpion Roller Coaster Demolition at Busch Gardens
Scorpion Demolition (picture courtesy of Vikings Coaster Crew)

There have been reports online that Scorpion’s demolition has begun. This definitely looks like a demolition rather than a relocation based on cutting of the steel rather than disassembly. We’ve written before about the history of Scorpion and how it served as the first coaster inversion for a generation of Busch Gardens visitors. While it’s sad to see it go, hopefully this work means that this location could be home to something new in 2026. This would be quite the revitalization for Pantopia after just getting flight of the Phoenix Rising. I want to give a special thank you to  Vikings Coaster Crew and /railfan_andrew for the pictures in this post!

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Will the New Pope be a Roller Coaster Fan? Will he Crave Both Airtime and Prayer Time?

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Catholic Cardinals riding a roller coaster

May 8,2025 Update: So we have a new Pope and he’s American Robert Prevost of Chicago, now known as Pope Leo XIV! What is shocking is that we could actually have sort of been right about this? There’s no word on if the Pope spent any time at Six Flags Great America outside Chicago, but in a video produced about him it has roller coaster and amusement park images! At the 1:20 mark of a Catholic News Service interview with the Former Cardinal Robert Provost (now Pope Leo XIV) there are a bunch of video from what appears to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk rides and coasters! The Catholic News Service is anews agency owned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that reports on the Catholic Church, so you can view this more as a promotional piece where the former Cardinal Prevost probably had a lot of influence on the look and feel. Maybe the new Pope does love roller coasters!

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The Turnstile: An Underappreciated Theme Park Staple with Fascinating History

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Turnstile at a theme park roller coaster
Turnstile at a theme park (courtesy of Hayward Turnstiles)
Turnstile at a theme park Waterworld entrance
Turnstile at a theme park (courtesy of Hayward Turnstiles)

There’s a characteristic ratcheting and gear sound you hear as you go through a turnstile. It’s the sound that you hear when many theme parks open and you go through the front gate or when you move from the queue onto the loading platform. It’s a sound that’s filled with excitement and anticipation for most of us, but have you ever wondered about the history of the humble turnstile? I’m a bit of a nerd and so I think about such things. Here’s a brief history of this common theme park device with beginnings in ancient farms and modernized at a Piggly Wiggly grocery store.

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Did you Know IAAPA was in Atlanta in 2005-2006?

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Today the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) Expo is almost synonymous with Orlando, but did you know there were two years when it was held in Atlanta. IAAPA in Orlando makes sense as Orlando is essentially the theme park capitol of the world, however there was a two year span from 2005-2006 where the show moved to the Georgia World Congress Canter in Atlanta. IAAPA was in Orlando prior to 2005 and returned in 2007, but there will always be that 2 year anomaly where the largest theme park trade show was held in Atlanta.

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A Combination Spinning Flat Ride and Centrifugal Birthing Machine?

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Apparatus for facilitating the birth of a child by centrifugal force
Apparatus for facilitating the birth of a child by centrifugal force

Years ago I took a class on patents and was shown some examples of crazy patents to demonstrate that not all inventions have to work or be useful in real life in order to be granted a patent. One of these was US Patent #3,216,423 “Apparatus for facilitating the birth of a child by centrifugal force”. This was brought to mind again as Hashem Al-Ghaili recently released a video of the potential device in action that was mind blowing. To summarize the invention, it’s essentially a spinning table that literally helps pull the baby out with the same centrifugal forces you’d feel on your favorite theme park ride.

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The Closing of La Vibora at Six Flags Over Texas Ends the Era of the Intamin Bobsledding Coaster

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La Vibora at Six Flags Over Texas. An Intamin Swiss Bob Roller coaster.
La Vibora at Six Flags Over Texas by Jeremy Thompson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped)

I was sad to see the closure of La Vibora at Six Flags Over Texas on November 4, 2024. As far as I can tell it was the last standing of what was known as the Swiss Bob roller coaster by Intamin. On a Swiss Bob a bobsled like vehicle is taken up a lift hill and then released into a tubular track to free roll and mimic the action of Olympic bobsledding. Most classify this style of ride as a roller coaster even though it lacks traditional track. La Vibora is being removed to make room for a new dive coaster for 2026 (here’s a video of the demolition from Amusement Source), which no doubt will be a great addition for the park, but the uniqueness of the Swiss Bob will surely be missed.

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