montezooma Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Opryland U.S.A. Boy, going through old coaster stuff can really be fun. I came across all this stuff on Opryland, I probably haven't looked at it in over 10 years. This was truly a beautiful and unique park, it really is a shame what became of it. It wasn't big on thrills but it sure had a lot of talent and charm. Opryland was located just 9 miles from Nashville on 200 acres of rolling countryside. It was a tribute to Americana and America's Musical Heritage. Enjoy my look back at this wonderful park that is now a discount mall. Progress, you gotta love it Shane PS. If you love looking at old nostalgic amusement park stuff check out my thread that is dedicated to all the old parks, rides and fun stuff of the past. I will be updating it with old stuff every now and again so check back often. Shane's Amusement Attic more pictures of the park. General park pictures. Another shot of the Wabash Cannonball. This shot is a mirror image of the ride. Opryland seemed to use this mirror image in a lot of their printed material. The Rock-n-Roller Coaster. This ride was also called Tree Topper. It is now located at the Great Escape in New York. The Tennessee Waltz This unique ride was only one of two built by Bradley and Kaye. The other was at Old Chicago, the indoor amusement park in Chicago. Both rides met a similar fate. Intamin took a stab at recreating this ride and they too are all gone. I am going to venture to say that the ride just wasn't that great. But I remember liking it. The Wabash Cannonball, this is one park that I remember ran two trains at the same time on their corkscrew. One train was red and the other was blue. This was not a typical horse type carousel and if my memory serves me it was at the park for a couple of years, then it was gone. Three locomotives???? Does Disneyland even have that many...lol I find it interesting that they release the number of passengers for that season. How cool is that? Now onto the rides... $9.75 admission...those where the days! Parking was only $1.50 or a parking season pass for $7.50. You can't even park one day at Six Flags for that amount. Notice the original cost of the park and the attendance back in 1979. The Opryland U.S.A fact sheet "Sign Tennessee" a tribute show to the blues and another shot of Grizzly River Rampage, the second river ride built by Intamin The arrow development corkscrew "Wabash Cannonball", Grizzly River Rampage and Opryland Train The Jukebox Theater, Barnstormer & Nestea Plunge log flume This is the basic layout of the park showing each themed land. and finally DoWah Diddy City State Fair Area & Lakeside Area The America West theme area Old New Orleans & The Riverside theme areas The Hill Country theme area Opry Plaza theme area Park information. This book tells about each themed area, the rides, shows, games and other attractions. The Hangman....Six Flags MarineWorld got the ride, Wild Adventures got the name. The brochure celebrating the 25th season. It didn't last much longer. The entire Opryland U.S.A. complex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sticky Nicky Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Another Awesome "retro package". Keep them coming. I still don't know why this park closed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astroworldfan1 Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 I so upset that I was never able to go to Opryland USA! My mom went and she said she loved it! Looks like a good thirll park and show park! The roller coasters looked really good! Too bad it closed, same with Libertyland! Libertyland was Elvis Presley's favorite amusement park! It had a good line up of rides, too. Now it just sits dormat (Libertyland). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goliath513 Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 From what I've read, Hangman/Kong was the only successful relocation from the park. It would be nice if they could salvage some of those rides now at Old Indiana. Oh well, at least part of Opryland helped build up my home park of SFDK, even though the coaster is far from decent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astroworldfan1 Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 All of the rides that were sent to Old Indiana that were in the open field are now scrapped. Its sad to hear that because those were good rides that could have been used. Six Flags, at that time owned the property with the rides. Why couldn't Six Flags install the rides in their parks instead of having to pay for a new roller coaster? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ernierocker Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 I still don't know why this park closed. Gaylord Entertainment stated they closed the park because it was losing too much money. Same old song and dance. This was my childhood park, so I really appreciate you taking the time to put this together. It really was a shame that Gaylord couldn't of just sold the park off instead of paving it. They always seemed to care more about the hotel than the park. When they built the final conservatory, any chance of expanding the park was cut off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Top Thrill Dragster Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 ^^^Great Escape got Rock N Roller Coaster. http://www.rcdb.com/id2214.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astroworldfan1 Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 ^^^Great Escape got Rock N Roller Coaster. http://www.rcdb.com/id2214.htm Your right. But, Six Flags was really thrifty, (sarcastic)! But really, they should have installed more coasters than 2! The Steamin' Delta Demon look like a fun ride! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montezooma Posted November 25, 2007 Author Share Posted November 25, 2007 Here are pictures from around the park taken from the 1977 souvenir booklet. But first a park map from the year that Grizzly River Rampage was built. This page from one of the parks last seasons sure makes it look like the park was full of excitement and energy. So Sad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Menefee Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Another shot of Hangman's badass logo. -Sean Still proudly beating the crap out of people at Discovery Kingdom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterdude5 Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Geez I miss this place so much, I'd give almost anything to go back for one day... one day. Thanks for posting it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRapidsNerd Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 OMG!!! This is awesome!! montezooma thank you sooooo much for posting this stuff. I'm a HUGE fan of this park. You have just some incredible info and background. Please keep posting all this great stuff. It's such a gold mine! Geez I miss this place so much, I'd give almost anything to go back for one day... one day. I've attempted to model several of the Opry rides on my YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?p=r&user=Platformz&page=2 and have some video of what remains of Grizzly River Rampage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBru Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 What happened to the Chaos roller coaster? It was fairly new when the park closed....... I don't buy the "it was losing money!" crap. I have been a couple times, and my mother and father went many times. The park was ALWAYS packed, even on weekdays. The mall, on the otherhand, is very uncrowded except for on the Holidays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shockwave Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Well it must have been doing something that wasn't wanted if it's not there now. Back to the pictures... Shane, this is seriously cool stuff. Looking back at stuff from years ago certainly puts a lot into perspective with the benefit of hindsight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratdogg68 Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Great trip down memory lane. I worked at Opryland from 94 til it closed. Was one of the best times of my life. I worked in the Petting Zoo and loved my job. It was a great experience many memories and good friends. Thank you for the memories. Side note: The Tin Lizzy cars are still poking around at SFKK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niiicolaaah Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Very cool. Thanks for sharing these. I've always been interested in Opryland because my dad visited there before, and we had a park map lying around somewhere. I wish park admissions were still less than $10! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Absimilliard Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 The Rock n Roller Coaster was rebuilt at Great Escape, but after years of rusting in that field, Arrow or Morgan had to come in to replace some track sections. You can easily see where the old/new track stops, because the new one is all round, like Phantom's Revenge. Even on the ride, there is a difference, because the train shuffles like crazy when its on old track and the ride is not that bad on the new one. On this picture, you can see the difference: http://www.rcdb.com/ig2214.htm?picture=23 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shockwave Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Very cool. Thanks for sharing these. I've always been interested in Opryland because my dad visited there before, and we had a park map lying around somewhere. I wish park admissions were still less than $10! Martin's Fantasy Island was close! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holtskee Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 This is wonderful! Thanks for sharing all of this great memorabilia! I visited Opryland several times as a kid and I'm still infuriated at Gaylord for closing the park. Hard to believe it's been ten years since the park was plowed down. I don't buy the "it was losing money!" crap. I have been a couple times, and my mother and father went many times. The park was ALWAYS packed, even on weekdays. Opryland never lost money, Gaylord Entertainment just thought that they could make more with a mall. Not long ago Gaylord's current management team even admitted that closing the park was a mistake...if you are able to access the The Tennessean newspaper archives you can actually look up the statement they made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montezooma Posted November 26, 2007 Author Share Posted November 26, 2007 WOW! I am getting great response to all my nostalgic postings. I hope it prompts others to go through some of their old stuff and see what treasures you have. I would love to see other threads like these. As a kid I would write the parks every year and ask them to send me brochure, park map and any other info, I never threw any of it away and I am glad I didn't...it is really nice to find all this stuff and see it again. Anyways for all you die-hard Opryland fans here is another souvenir booklet from the 1982 season. This is the "centerfold" from the booklet for all you coaster pervs. Notice the costumed character...It is Frankenberry from the breakfast cereal. WTF? I wonder if Count Chocula and Boo Berry where also mascots of the park? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montezooma Posted November 26, 2007 Author Share Posted November 26, 2007 Just a few more from a brochure that I found. Afraid I am all out of Opryland stuff now, well unless I stumble across another box full of stuff, which I probably will someday. I know that I took some super 8 movie footage of the Screamin' Delta Demon, but I have yet to find it. Opryland U.S.A. brochure 1988 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ernierocker Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 Yes, Count Chocula was a mascot as well! General Mills was a sponsor of the park and they had the mascots from their cereal brands show up in the kiddie area. I know I have my picture with the Honey Nut Cheerios Bee somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillerman1 Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 Shane this is seriously great material of what would be my current home park were it still around. Too bad it's gone as it really was a park the whole family could enjoy. I grew up going to OL every summer and loved it. Thanks for the trip back in time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texcoaster Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 Not only did Opryland have great shows, but the landscaping gave BGW a good run for its money. It was a truly beautiful park. While I had to laugh at the one brochure touting Wabash Cannonball as a "supercoaster", Screamin Delta Demon was a good ride, and Chaos was seriously cool. I rode Revolution at Bobbejaanland a few years ago, but it just wasn't anywhere near as cool as Chaos was. The music in there was awesome and the effects were great, especially in the first version with the backward clock and total darkness. The second version with the blacklight and some sort of monster at the end wasn't as good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TC Ridesalot Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 Trying to stay on topic, but Worlds of Fun also had a Barnstormer ride that I believe was even taller than 100 feet. I believe it was installed in 1976 but not for sure. It may have been 200 feet tall. I just remember it was closed often due to winds of over 20 miles an hour. It crashed and 3 or 4 planes flew off. I'm almost sure people died and soon after they took it out of the park. I rode it two or three times and it was the scariest ride by far that I have ever rode. The park look great, and I am very excited to see these great pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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