Mr.Wood

I've been a pass holder for years at Knott's and I'm leery about this ride. If only because it's involving Boot Hill but that's the only place that is being disturbed. The one old building they tore down was to be tore down anyway Maybe if they repaired it (the building) years ago they wouldn't have had to tear it down. I was leery about Silver Bullet and I love the ride but I don't like it at Knott's or at least where they put it. I don't think Knott's is going down hill. Well Jonny Rockets? Panda Express? Giant Swing? OK they have made some odd decisions but I think Sierra Sidewinder is not one of them. To me the jury is still out on Pony.I just hope they restore the creek with the guy panning for gold.

I can only speak from my one visit there in a long time. Remember I'm comparing ( and maybe I shouldn't) to what the park was years ago. Is that wrong? Maybe, but on my visit there were trash cans so full there was trash all over the ground around them and the park was empty. It took forever to get served at food counters. If this is "better" than I'm really glad I haven't spent my dollars there.Now that being said I have read all of your posts and talked to a lot of people who are fans of the park and that's why I bought passes for the 08 season and I'm looking forward to visiting a lot this year.

That says it all. Take care of what you have. How many years has the fountain in front not worked. It is amazing what landscape, paint and cleanliness does to a park and how patrons look at it.

Blink makes a good point. Theming is a very important thing. You can do a lot with landscaping. Look at Batman it's the only ride at SSMM that had a "art director" when they built it and it really shows. I went this last Sept. to SSMM for the first time in 23 years and it was sad. ( I've posted this before) One of the things I was most disappointed in was Revolution. This is one of the most important coasters in the world. This is the one that started it all, a Schwarzkopf IBSG custom and they treat it like dodo. Look at how Disney treats the Matterhorn. They know they have a legendary coaster. That ride is on it's 3rd set of cars and it's 49years old plus it's in water. All SSMM has done is let the Revolution fall into disrepair. It's sooo rough now. Revolution should get a complete rehab with new cars , paint and maybe a time line telling everyone about the history of this "Revolutionary" coaster.

I was hoping for brown supports. I'm not sure about the orange track. The red looks (to me) like a bench dolly. I don't think it's part or the ride.

Welcome Bob Barber.For those of us who are Kontt's fans this is the site to bookmark "bear-ytales" Bob runs a great site.Thanks for the pics Bruno. Great Job.

I see that Eric and I are close in age and I too as a kid use to call MM my home.The Mountain Express was the 1st coaster I road alone when I was around 10. It was right near where Flachback is (was). The entrance is all the same. But the booths in front are different and the security check points. I agree with Robb that area will go to HH but I don't see SSMM doing anything until they get the park cleaned up. For now that area may get turned into a little bit more of a beach and staging area.

Great pics, good job Rob.Yea it's probably the right thing but it's still sad.My son and I got our passes yesterday foe SSMM Yippie!

that's right

Sidewinder is great. A boat load of fun and family friendly. My 8 year old daughter loves it. Knotts has a tough deal. They have to keep their past but grow the park. To me I feel they should work on building a great dark ride. That terrible Kingdom of the baby Dinosaurs is gone and there is a nice ride system already there. They should do a Charlie Brown dark ride or something to do with Halloween. They could do a Peanuts theme Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and then change it around for the Christmas season. Hell they took out Rolly Crumbs great Knoots Bear-y Tales. That was a great sweet dark ride. I just hope they are done with coasters (for a while) after Pony X.

I give it a year. ACErs/enthusiasses love to yammer about coasters that are gone and people cannot ride any more, and especially love to talk about how amazing they were. Just another form of immature bragging. The yammering will last a lot longer than a year. How long has Drachen Fire been gone yet you still hear constant bemoaning about it's demise like it had been the second coming of coasters? I agree it's more about bragging rights, both these rides were obviously crap and destroyed for good reasons. Had they actually been any good, the parks would have easily found a sucker to unload these piles on when they were for sale, and they'd still be operating somewhere. The fact that both weren't worth anything more than scrap metal to anyone speaks volumes. True (again I never rode it) but it's sad (to me) to see something that someone worked so hard on designing and building from concept to paper model to 1/16 scale metal and or wood model to contracting a builder to riding it. At one time it was someone's baby.........But then again so was the AMC Pacer.

I never rode it but everyone tells me it was a headache machine.

That's great. Break out the Kiln.

HH is a blast.I take my kids every year and we have a wonderful time. I think if I was younger without kids I wouldn't be into it. Speaking of being beat up HH is a mess. Half the stuff doesn't work and hasn't worked in years.It's funny when parks build stuff and let fall into such disrepair that it can't be repaired so they tear it down.Remember that stupid water sphere in Tomorrow land. After a year it was all jacked up and they left it in without fixing it. It was an eye soar. I wish they would repair things as they break.I wish they would have left Flashback and maybe had it open during summer or something like that but not tear it down.My last visit to MM my son and I walked all through Flashback.The gate going to the ride was open so we went in.It was creepy like walking into a ghost town. Who knows what they will do with the area. Maybe they could store more old attractions.

I'm saying these things about MM because I lived there as a kid and I loved the park.When Six Flags bought it it started to go down hill. I went less and less. My son was born in 93 and it wasn't till 3 months ago that I went to MM. Hell I live 30min away but I had no interest in going. When I went in September I was sick at what I saw. The place was empty (not a bad thing) and really dirty but the employees were nice and friendly. It was just a shock to see the place get so beaten up in the last 15 years. Remember I'm new to this coaster stuff. I was always scared to ride them. I loved reading about them watching them get built but ride them......NO WAY!! I just started to ride and I'm enjoying myself. I just want to see MM do well. It's so close to me I would love to get a pass but I'm still not sure. I hope the new team has the parks best interests in mind and not just the bottom line.

The funny thing is that entire park needs an overhaul. There is just no TLC in that park. Revolution is a wreck and it was always a great ride. The load for Gold Rusher is falling apart . When you ride Colossus you need a kidney belt and a mouth guard and so on and so on but can you really expect anything else from a park that slaps a coaster down in the parking lot and doesn't remove the parking strips under it. The park has a great layout but it's hurting.

The "rumor" that is going around is that they are going to shut down that whole back side of the park.They want to unload Deja Vu and remove Jet Stream and kill that entire back end of the park where Spllicken corners use to be. It's all part of a stream lining of the park. Again it's a rumor does anyone know more?

It was not for sale in this last year. They were going to give it away to any body who would remove it.Remember Flashback has already been relocated twice. In 1985 when it opened in Illinois to 2 years later when it went to Georgia then to Magic Mt. When you see the torch cutting in the middle of the track you know it's scrap time.

I was at Knotts on Saturday the 29th and it was wonderful. Not crowded at all. There was no "toys for tots" going on so there was about 6 to 7 thousand patrons in the park. Over the "tots" drive they were getting 35 to 40 thousand patrons. At Knotts that's crazy crowded. They can't handle the big crowds. Pony X scares me a little because they are messing with Boot Hill. I know this is a custom Zamperla coaster so you can't move this thing over another 10 ft? LEAVE BOOT HILL ALONE!!! I love Knotts and I don't want them to lose their identity.

thanks, I'm new (well it's my first post, I've been watching for a year) I don't know how to work all this but we will figure it out. I took it from the pic above.

I never rode it but it was always haunting to look at as I visited Hurricane Harbor. I'm really new to this coaster stuff. I always loved to look at them but REALLY scared to ride them. Last year my son turned 14 and I didn't want him to be a woosie like his dad so I started to try coasters.So far so good.The thing about Flashback is it's the only one (maybe there is a good reason for that) and now it's gone.