Opryland USA Remnants 2007

[TheRapidsNerd]

Back in March of this year (2007) I had a chance to go up to Nashville,

Tennessee to visit what's left of Opryland USA theme park.

 

Opryland USA, was part of an over all resort (The Opryland Hotel, Convention Center, etc...) and showcased different musical attractions. It was also home to some of the then Nashville Network television shows (anyone remember Crooke and Chase?). During the summer months, this small park was a big draw for the area and just a really fun place to go. It was steeped in a spiritual vibe and something you just couldn't put into words. Had the best cheese logs I'd ever tasted too!

 

It's major rides included:

 

Wabash Cannonball - Arrow Corkscrew Model

Chaos - Indoor coaster (Revolution at Bobbejahan(?) Land is the same

basic model.

Grizzly River Rampage - Intamin AG rapids ride

Screamin Delta Demon - Bobsled coaster

The Timber Topper / Rock n Roller Coaster - Arrow(?) Mine Train

Mini Timber Topper / Mini Rock n Roller Coaster - Bradley Kaye Little

Dipper Model (Think Goliath Jr. at SSFMM)

Old Mill Scream - Shoot the Chutes ride

The Hangman - Vekoma SLC (added in 1994, sat next to Timber Topper)

Sky Coaster - The upcharge, 3 person flying straight-jacket thing

 

In 1997, the park was abruptly closed and leveled and Opry Mills Mall

replaced it soon after. All that remains is/was the Grizzly River

Rampage ride channel, it's signature corner rock, and the original Opry

Plaza area. As of July 2007, I don't know yet if the rest of Grizzly was

bulldozed or not. The plan for that mini park area, was to use it for

another hotel in the resort and expand the convention center.

 

Curiously, as I walked about the entrance plaze there was a country song

playing, "Someone I used to know...someone I used to spend some time

with..."

 

This was pretty sad for me, since I only went to the park one time back

in 1994 while at college in Nashville. Oddly, I had a bad feeling when we left that day, that in ten years time, the park would be gone. Also, only 1 picture out of a whole role of film shot there came out. It was the Wabash Cannonball looping over a car display. That pic is at the very end of this TR.

 

It was like visiting a dear friend's grave. Well, just see for

yourself...

The Wabash Cannonball.

My Opryland ticket from 1994.

One last goodbye. I took this for all of us who couldn't be here this day.

You're welcome old friend. Rest well.

I believe this sign was one of three that were over the 3 entrance

bridges from the plaze into Do Wah Diddy City. There were no signs attached to Grizzly's exit path.

Down the exit decking back to the path in front of Grizzly. At the end of this path, the station and big corner rock are to the left.

Looking out into the old park from the big corner rock. Where Imax stands is roughly where the Timber Topper mine train used to be.

Leading into turn 3. Where the little building is now, Chaos, the indoor coaster would be seen further back from the path.

The Opryland Hotel Ticket both entrance. One of a few entrances to the park besides the plaza.

Turn 3.

Here you can see some of the original walkway for the observation

deck. They broke it apart and made it a planter.

Looking back at the big turn 3 from the observation deck. The big corner rock is directly behind the camera postion.

Turn 4 and the backside of the big corner rock seen from the observation deck. There were waterfalls here as the ride finally.

Another angle on the big corner rock.

All the hardware and pumps were ripped out. They were sent to Six

Flags Kentucky Kingdom for Penguin's Blizzard River. The boats went to

Astroworld, then to Six Flags over Texas. FYI, Opryland's Tin Lizzies

are also at SFKK.

I walked this path once...

Looking back at the rock from the station area.

Looking down the wall to where the station was.

Still majestic.

The signature corner rock. No boulder or tree jokes this time. Where the bus is, is about where Wabash Cannonball sat.

Now on to what's left of Grizzly River Rampage.

Original food stall perhaps?

A theme park classic, the rock speaker. I love these!

If you had to describe Nashville, Tennessee with a picture, this comes close.

Originally the Roy Acuff Theatre

[imdrunk]

I lived in Nashville toward the end of Opryland's tenure. My first job was there. I worked in the games in the State Fair area. I can remember spending many afternoons at Opryland. It wasn't the best park, but it was still very special to most Nashvillians. I know that the locals were very upset to learn they were plowing down the park to put up a mall. As a side note, my high school is located about five minutes away from the Opryland complex (McGavock HS).

[USRoadTripper]

I end up going and walking around that area a couple of times a year. It's bittersweet...nice to still be able to see something from the park and get that feeling that it's still there...but extremely sad to know that I'll never be able to visit the park again. Then you turn around and see the glorious mall that you can visit every day if you like

A friend of mine who used to work at Opryland said that that sign used to be over the employee entrance to the park.

And it's kinda creepy how nothing about that entrance plaza has changed. The little guitar shaped pavers are still there, some of the old gift shops are now shops for the Opry, and a few years ago there was an original drink cart and some trash cans in that area. I don't even go over there too much since it's just too weird.

 

EDIT: hahaha! Your admission only cost $13!! Gah, I miss Opryland!

 

-Julie

[imdrunk]

That sign and ramp behind the sign did lead from the employee uniform building (which is still there as it serves the hotel) to the park's rear entrance near Chaos. I walked it many times, but I don't remember what it said years ago.

[SFOGdude25]

Man, I remember going to Opryland once. I was 3 or 4. I rode my first roller coaster in that park.

I also remember Hangman, and how huge it looked.

Sad to see the park go.

 

The irony: I moved to Nashville from Atlanta in '97. THE year that Opryland closed. Since then, life has been kinda boring without a local park in town. Oh well.

 

At least I'm 3 hours away from my favorite woodie (VOYAGE!).

[ratdogg68]

Nice little stroll down memory lane. I worked at Opryland in 94, early part of 95 and 1996. I worked in the Petting Zoo. That blacktop walk was our walkway from the wardrobe dept. Would walk that path every morning to get into the park for work. Sad to see all that remains is the Grizzly river. Thanks for the stroll...,,, I miss my Goats

[Scaparri]

Yeah, I swiped my looping v-card during my lone visit to Opryland in '96. I was staring at Hangman, scared to death, but eventually decided I had to try it. It just looked like so much fun. I grew the balls and rode it. It was so much fun and.... SMOOTH! And that's pretty much how I got into coasters.

 

I had a lot of fun at the park. It really wasn't anything terribly special. Just a fun, medium-sized park. And yeah, now they have an overpriced mall in its place.

[Scaparri]

EDIT: Not really sure what happened here. Just noticed this and it's too late to delete it myself.

[Pufferfish]

It's always sad when a park is torn down. Some of my family is from the Athens area and i remember one year talking about visiting Opryland. I should have agreed.

[coasterdude5]

Man, I get sick everytime I see those pictures... I miss Opryland more and more every year since I went in '97.

 

Thanks for posting.

 

RIP Opryland.

Down with Gaylord, haha.

[Shavethewhales]

Wow, I was there last summer and had no idea that that was where Opryland once was.

 

So what happened to Opryland's coasters? Weren't most of them scrapped?

[Xxhershey818xX]

I cried so hard when I found out they closed Opryland. I really miss that place it brings back great childhood memories!

[asr]

Wow, I was there last summer and had no idea that that was where Opryland once was.

 

So what happened to Opryland's coasters? Weren't most of them scrapped?

 

Three of them went to Old Indiana and where scrapped, one was scrapped when the park closed, the SLC went to SFDK, and the mine train went to TGE.

 

Anyway, I never went to the park, but the entrance plaza looks nice, and it is always sad to have parks torn down or abandoned

[TheRapidsNerd]

Hey thanks to everyone for the kind words for the additional info on the sign and walkway.

 

USRoadTripper, I'll give a shout before hand if I'm up in Nashville again for more Opry pics. Perhaps we could meet and talk Opry sometime.

 

OldJJMan had a great idea first with the panaramas. Remembered I made some *cough* slightly crappy *cough* ones of GRR and was inspired to post them anyway.

[Holtskee]

Wonderful photo report. Thanks for sharing.

 

Makes me sad though...hard to believe 2007 marks ten years since Opryland closed.

[DCody]

I think I started drooling the minute I saw "remnants" in the subject line. (I have a tiny obsession with defunct parks, even though they make me sad.)

 

I went to Opryland once when I was just a little squirt. Sucks that I'll never get to revisit it, especially since I was too small (and too big of a wuss) to ride any coasters.

 

Thank you for the TR. I made a similar pilgrimage to the old Riverview site in Chicago and took loads of depressing pictures of crumbled asphalt. I would scan them in if they weren't so darned emo!

[robbalvey]

Man, I really wish I was taking more photos when I went to Opryland in '96. It was during my "early days" of doing theme parks and I went there on a whim, popped in for a couple of hours, did a credit run, a lap around the park and headed out.

 

It was nice.

 

Had there been ANY clue that it would be gone a couple of years later I would have taken photos, but I wasn't really into that at the time....

 

Oh well...thanks for sharing!

 

--Robb

[thrillerman1]

I grew up going to OL every summer. Shame it's gone. It's demise has really hurt us here in Nashville with our tourism. Thanks for those pics. I've been tempted to hop the fence and walk down the GRR on several occasions.

[Axman]

It's a good thing that the GJ is still there. I tell people that I rode Hangman (Kong), after Opryland closed. No one belives be.

 

I went to Opry Mills shortly after a rainstorm one day. The GRR was flowing with about an inch of water; It almsot looked as though it could have been operating...

[MidtownCoaster]

It is sad to see all of it. When I was at Vandy, I would go over there a couple times a year, too. Most of my friends with me didn't realize why I would pause near those rocks. It's a shame the park was lost, especially since the new management at Gaylord pretty much made it clear that closing the park was a bad move and they don't knwo the motivation behind it. With all the space, I really can't believe they haven't really looked at putting a park in around the mall. I think a parking structure, shuttle, etc. could make for a very workable solution with all three segments. But, that's their call. It was a great park that my family loved when I was a kid.

[USRoadTripper]

A little off topic, but I'm sure you will all find this funny in that "I really wanna kill someone" way.

A few months ago, Gaylord sent out a press release saying that they had an announcement, and that it would concern how they were going to "make it up to Nashville" for closing Opryland. So all the local news stations talked about this, and made everyone really anticipate this announcement...

Turned out that the announcement was that they are building an overflow hotel for the Opryland Hotel, and adding more convention space.

Yeah, that really makes up for it, Gaylord. I'm sure that everyone looks back on their childhood and says "Wow mom, remember all those great times we had in that convention space?"

Get real. That company needs to burn.

 

-Julie

[TheRapidsNerd]

DCody - Me too! Love taking pics of old buildings, ruins, about to be demolished malls, old parks, etc... There's an odd beauty and artistic slant in the decay. Getting into more b&w for that sharp contrast look. You should post your park pics. If a wacko newbie like me can shamelessly do it his first week on the boards, you can. Go for it!

 

Robb - I shot a whole roll of film in 94 and only 1 pic came out. There may have been greater forces at work during both our visits. Besides, you've more than made up for it with your exhaustive video and picture documentation of parks since. How could any of us have known? That's why we share our pics, vids and good times now, and why we build recreations too.

 

Some time later I'll post a couple stories from my Opryland trip. They're embarassing, but humorous.

 

A buddy of mine in Nashville says the Opryland hotel can't even fill the rooms it has and wonders why they need another hotel, etc.

 

Axman - Great joke! Gonna remember that one!

 

I'm glad to share the pictures and can't get over the warmth and good nature of this group. Really glad to be here with all of you.