Cornball Express is a wooden roller coaster at Indiana Beach in Monticello, Indiana, that opened on May 18, 2001. Built by Custom Coasters International, it was one of the manufacturer’s final designs before the company closed its doors in 2002, giving the ride a bittersweet place in coaster history.
Despite its modest 55-foot height, Cornball Express earned an outsized reputation. Its layout was woven through and around the structures of the park’s other rides, including the Hoosier Hurricane, giving riders a sense of speed and closeness to the surrounding attractions that belies its compact footprint.
Stats at a Glance
- Park: Indiana Beach, Monticello, Indiana
- Manufacturer: Custom Coasters International
- Opened: May 18, 2001
- Height: 55 ft (17 m)
- Top speed: 45 mph (72 km/h)
- Length: 2,100 ft (640 m)
- Inversions: 0
The Ride Experience
Cornball Express packs a lot into its 51-second run, with quick drops, tight turns, bunny hops, and a helix that keep the pacing brisk. Six two-row cars carry riders through a layout that threads past and through the neighboring Hoosier Hurricane and Tig’rr Coaster, occasionally passing over the park’s Kiddieland and near Rocky’s Rapids log flume, making the ride feel far bigger than its footprint suggests.
A Late Classic from a Vanishing Builder
As roughly the 48th coaster from Custom Coasters International, Cornball Express arrived just before the company shut down in 2002, making it one of the last wooden coasters the storied manufacturer ever produced. The ride’s design impressed enthusiasts enough that ThemeParkCritic.com named it the world’s top wooden roller coaster in 2002, and it has repeatedly placed in Golden Ticket Awards rankings for wood coasters in the years since.
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Cornball Express Photo Archive: June 2002
These are original ThrillZing photos of Cornball Express taken at Indiana Beach on June 28, 2002, restored and upscaled from the original camera files. They show the Custom Coasters wooden twister in only its second season: the ride sign, trains cresting the hills, and the wooden track carried on its gray steel frame as the layout threads through the park’s crowded midway. All photos are free to reuse under a CC BY 4.0 license with credit to ThrillZing and a link to this page.
Cornball Express FAQs
How tall do you have to be to ride Cornball Express?
Riders must be at least 46 inches (117 cm) tall to ride.
Who built Cornball Express?
It was built by Custom Coasters International, with trains designed by Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters, and opened in 2001.
Does Cornball Express have any inversions?
No, it has zero inversions — it’s a traditional out-and-back style wooden family coaster focused on drops, turns, and airtime hops.
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