tz
/ July 11, 2026
Adventureland is a family-owned-turned-corporate amusement park in Altoona, Iowa, just northeast of Des Moines. Founded by Jack Krantz and opened in August 1974, the park grew from a modest local attraction into one of the Midwest’s most-visited theme parks, spread across roughly 176 to 180
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tz
/ July 11, 2026
Lake Compounce isn’t just a nostalgia trip — it’s a fully modern amusement and water park that happens to trace its roots back to 1846, making it the oldest continuously operating amusement park in the United States. Straddling the Bristol-Southington line in Connecticut, the 332-acre
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tz
/ July 10, 2026
Dollywood is a 168-acre theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, co-owned by entertainer Dolly Parton and Herschend Enterprises, which handles day-to-day operations. The site traces back to 1961 as a small tourist attraction called Rebel Railroad, later renamed Goldrush Junction and then Silver Dollar City,
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tz
/ July 9, 2026
It's not just speed. From weightless airtime to blackout-inducing G-forces, here's what actually makes a coaster feel unstoppable — and why your brain believes every second of it.
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tz
/ July 9, 2026
Michigan’s Adventure sits just outside Muskegon and holds the title of the largest amusement park in the state, spreading across roughly 250 acres alongside its adjoining water park, WildWater Adventure. What began in 1956 as a small petting zoo called Deer Park has grown into
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tz
/ July 8, 2026
Valleyfair has been the Twin Cities’ go-to theme park for 50 years, growing from a 26-acre park with 20 rides in 1976 into Minnesota’s largest amusement park — headlined today by the 207-foot hypercoaster Wild Thing and the newly expanded Superior Shores waterpark. Ownership changed
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tz
/ July 7, 2026
Dorney Park traces its roots to 1860, when Solomon Dorney built a trout hatchery and picnic resort on his estate outside Allentown, Pennsylvania. The grounds grew into a full amusement park by 1884, making it the fifth-oldest continuously operating amusement park in the United States
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tz
/ July 7, 2026
California’s Great America opened on March 20, 1976, as Marriott’s Great America, one of two nearly identical Americana-themed parks Marriott built that year (the other became Six Flags Great America in Illinois). Sitting on 112 acres in Santa Clara, right in the heart of Silicon
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tz
/ July 6, 2026
Kings Dominion opened on May 3, 1975, in Doswell, Virginia, about 20 miles north of Richmond, quickly establishing itself as one of the mid-Atlantic’s premier amusement destinations. The 280-acre park is anchored by a 1/3-scale, 315-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower, a landmark visible for
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tz
/ July 6, 2026
Canada’s Wonderland has been the country’s biggest theme park for more than four decades, but two questions come up more than any other: exactly when did it open, and who owns it today? Both have simple, well-documented answers. The park opened in May 1981 north
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tz
/ July 5, 2026
Theme park news this week was as packed as a holiday weekend queue — a brand-new universal resort for young kids opened in Texas, a record-shattering giga dive coaster entered passholder previews in Arlington, Disney flipped a beloved flying-theater film into a patriotic Fourth of
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tz
/ July 5, 2026
Carowinds opened on March 31, 1973, as a joint venture meant to give the Carolinas their own home-grown amusement park, built at a cost of about $70 million after four years of planning led by businessman Earl Patterson Hall. Its most distinctive feature is geographic:
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tz
/ July 3, 2026
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom is the only Six Flags park in the country built around a working marine-life and wildlife collection, a legacy of its origins as Marine World in 1968. That means a day here mixes looping steel coasters with dolphin encounters, tiger habitats,
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tz
/ July 2, 2026
Six Flags New England sits in Agawam, Massachusetts, and traces its roots back to 1870 as Gallup’s Grove, making it the oldest park in the entire Six Flags chain. Long known as Riverside Park from 1912 to 1995, the property was purchased by Premier Parks
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tz
/ July 2, 2026
Six Flags Over Texas opened on August 5, 1961, in Arlington, Texas, as the very first park in what would become the worldwide Six Flags chain. Developer Angus G. Wynne Jr. built the 212-acre park in just a year for about $10 million, naming it
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tz
/ July 1, 2026
Six Flags Fiesta Texas opened on March 14, 1992, in the La Cantera area of San Antonio, built into the dramatic rock walls of the former Redland Quarry, which had been mined for limestone until the late 1980s. That quarry setting still defines the park
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tz
/ July 1, 2026
Six Flags Great America opened on May 29, 1976, as Marriott’s Great America before Six Flags purchased the park in 1984. Located on 275 acres in Gurnee, Illinois, it holds the title of the largest amusement park in Illinois and remains one of the busiest
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tz
/ June 30, 2026
Six Flags Over Georgia opened on June 16, 1967, in Mableton, Georgia, becoming the second park in the Six Flags chain after the original Six Flags Over Texas. Spanning 290 acres near Atlanta, the park made history at launch as the first theme park operator
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tz
/ June 30, 2026
Six Flags Great Adventure opened on July 1, 1974, in Jackson Township, New Jersey, conceived by restaurateur and showman Warner LeRoy as a sprawling entertainment complex he called Great Adventure. LeRoy—grandson of Warner Bros. co-founder Harry Warner—envisioned seven distinct parks on a single property. Six
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tz
/ June 29, 2026
Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, traces its roots to 1920 when Walter Knott began selling berries from a roadside stand. By 1934 his wife Cordelia had opened a fried chicken restaurant that drew crowds from across Southern California, and Walter soon began building
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