[PKT] Adventure Highlands

Hey TPR, I would like to go back down memory lane with you and tell you the history and story of the wonderful Adventure Highlands Amusement Park, located just outside of the western city limits of Indianapolis, Indiana. I grew up with this park and have some great memories visiting it and would love to share the many twists, turns, ups, and downs the park has had in the past 25 years. But, without spoiling anything, lets head right back to opening year, 1991.

Adventure Highlands Amusement Park opened on April 20, 1991 with a plethora of attractions, food, rides, and most importantly, two coasters. The park was funded, opened, and operated under Chateau Parks, LLC. Never heard of them? Probably because they only opened this park and sold it off pretty quick to another buyer, but that's a story for a later date.

The park opened with a mostly circular layout, with the coasters outside of the ring and most flat rides inside. In total, 2 coasters,

The park had some pretty standard flats, Dodgems/bumper cars, tea cups, and a pretty revolutionary 3D cinema at the time that showed various films through the year.

The park also opened with an Eli Bridge Scrambler, a massive sky tower, a HUSS Enterprise, as well as a Wave Swinger

The park had one of the first E&F Miler coasters, Triceratops. It is tame enough for kids but not pathetic enough to scare off any credit whores. Don't worry, you don't need to borrow a kid to ride it.

Finally we get to main show of the park, Rex, the king of the dinosaurs, and now coasters. Standing at a staggering 190 feet tall with a 198 foot drop into a trench, this Arrow Dynamics Mega Looper brought enthusiasts and GP to this new park in the midwest. The ride features 4 inversions, a vertical loop, a "bowtie loop" and finally a corkscrew after the vertical loop. This set the park on the world stage of the theme park industry and possibly the main reason why it garnered so much attention and attendance early on.

Rex's lift extends 190 ft. to the sky, being one of the tallest full circuit coasters in the world, really only behind Cedar Point's Magnum XL-200. The first drop is absolutely incredible with tons of airtime in the backseat.

After the first drop, Rex goes up into a second hill that provides actually good airtime. After diving to the left, it reascends to the right, turning into a helix before, once again, diving back to the ground to enter the first inversion. The vertical loop provides some good forces but is near identical to any other on Arrow coaster's since Corkscrew.

Rex then enters the next element, a "bowtie inversion", inverting riders twice, it's very similar to Vortex's batwing inversion, this just continues in the direction it entered. It then enters the MCBR, which in standard Arrow Mega-Looper fashion, kills all momentum for final half of the ride.

The ride then enters the final inversion of the ride, a standard corkscrew.

After the corkscrew, Rex hops over an airtime hill, turning to the right and ending with an upward helix.

Although Rex isn't a good coaster by today's rating, it is a monster of a ride and generated a ton of hype for the park. When it opened, many people could get over the head-banging and bad transitions, and was smooth where Ron Toomer didn't do the engineering with a wire coat hanger. A lot of the problems that plagued this ride were similar to that of Steel Phantom, the ride has an incredible drop, and was pretty good when it didn't invert. But for now, it was a crowd favorite and blew away many people, even a good amount of enthusiasts.

Late into the first season, the park began showing signs of adding a new flat ride with groundwork obviously showing.

What will it be? That's up for you to guess. What's the fun in story telling if the audience already knows? But it WILL BE A FLAT.

I will be updating you all twice a week, every Sunday and Wednesday unless something comes up.

Until then,

-Coaster Directed

I apologize for instantly not following my set schedule, but life is life and school is school.

Anyway, onto the park update.

ADVENTURE HIGHLANDS- 1992

Adventure Highland opened with a relatively successful first season and everything seemed to run smoothly aside from a few minor breakdowns. As teased last time the park opened the 1992 season with new flats. That's right, not just one new flat ride, but multiple

Or to be even more specific, three.

Opening day, 1992.

The park surprising opened without its now cherished carousel. This gem was bought and brought to AH after the closure of another small park across the country. The park refurbished the pipe organ and polished the entire ride so it look as if it were new!

The park also added a brand new ferris wheel. By no means a large one but still a nice addition.

The most notable and exciting edition of 1992 was easily the new HUSS Topspin called Cyclone. This thrilling ride would flip you over many times and was just as much fun to watch as too ride.

Groundwork for project '93 started to show about halfway through 1992. The site was relatively small but there were tons of rumors of the park buying a new Arrow Dynamics coaster.

At the very end of the year, the park finished digging and filling a small lake towards the front of the park.

The park had an extremely successful second season, with over double the attendance of the first year. And with the underlying whispering of a new coaster for 1993, people were very excited to return the next year.

On December 21, the park concluded the year with one crucial hint of the upcoming ride.

"Take Flight 07/10/40"

Calling it now: suspended coaster.

Calling it now: suspended coaster.

Maybe, maybe not....

Take Flight 07/10/40