Michigan's Adventure

Michigan's Adventure

Slogan	Two Parks for the Price of One, Thrills Connect
Location	Muskegon, Michigan, United States
Coordinates	43°20′51″N 86°16′44″W / 43.34740°N 86.27890°W / 43.34740; -86.27890Coordinates: 43°20′51″N 86°16′44″W / 43.34740°N 86.27890°W / 43.34740; -86.27890
Owner	Cedar Fair Entertainment Company
General Manager	Camille Jourden-Mark
Opened	1956
Previous names	Deer Park Deer Park Funland
Operating season	May through September
Rides
Total	53
Roller coasters	7
Water rides	4
Website	http://www.miadventure.com

Michigan's Adventure is a 250-acre (1.0 km²) amusement park in Muskegon County, Michigan, about halfway between Muskegon, Michigan and Whitehall, Michigan. It is the largest amusement park in the state and has been owned and operated by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company since 2001. As of 2012, Michigan's Adventure has 53 rides, more than any other park in the state.

The park also includes an outdoor water park, WildWater Adventure. The park is headlined by seven roller coasters, including the critically acclaimed Shivering Timbers, a very basic but historic Corkscrew coaster, and a suspended looping coaster, Thunderhawk. During peak season, the park opens at 11 A.M. and closes at 9 P.M.^[1]

History

The park was originally founded as Deer Park in 1956 by L.R. Beardsley, Dr. E.S. Gillam, Hardin Dey and Martin Kasichke. The park originally featured a petting zoo with deer, llamas, monkey, chickens and ducks, as well as a children's area called Storybook Lane. The first ride was built in 1958, an Alan Herschell 16-gauge train called the Deer Park Special.

In 1968, Roger Jourden purchased the park from then-owner Benny Bensinger for $115,000 and began selling off the deer and purchasing attractions, eventually renaming it Deer Park Funland in 1972. That same year, he added the first three flat rides: Tilt-a-Whirl, Merry-Go-Round and Ferris Wheel. Every few years he would add a few more attractions, with the Scrambler opening in 1975. 1976, the park's 20th anniversary, introduced the Spider, a car ride named Mutley's Putt Putts, and two rides for children.

The park's first roller coaster opened in 1979, a standard model Corkscrew from Arrow Dynamics. The park continued their relationship with Arrow when in 1983 they introduced Logger's Run, an Arrow Hydroflume. The Chance-manufactured Sea Dragon opened in 1987, along with a new C.P. Huntington Train circling the park. 1987 also marked the final year for the Spider, which was sold to Michael Jackson for his Neverland Ranch complex.

Transition to Michigan's Adventure

Shivering Timbers, the parks signature ride

The 1988 season marked a huge transition for Deer Park Funland, most notably the introduction of a new General Manager, Roger's daughter Camille Jourden-Mark, as well as a new name, Michigan's Adventure. The largest change on the midway that year was the introduction of the Wolverine Wildcat wooden roller coaster, the first coaster manufactured by the Dinn & Summers partnership. The park also introduced a Chance Thunderbolt, two live shows and a new entrance.

In 1989, the Giant Gondola Wheel replaced the Ferris Wheel, and the Falling Star and Trabant made their debut past Logger's Run. The park introduced Wild Water Adventure in 1990 in order to compete with a popular waterpark in Norton Shores called Pleasure Island (though generally considered to be the superior of the two water parks, Pleasure Island closed in 1996). Wild Water Adventure originally featured eight water slides, a wave pool, a children's play area and a lazy river.

Over the next few years, the park introduced several popular flat rides, such as the replacement of the Merry-Go-Round by the Grand Carousel in 1991 and the Flying Trapeze in 1992. Mammoth River made its debut in the waterpark in 1993, and the park's third coaster, Zach's Zoomer, opened in 1994, replacing the C.P. Huntington Train (though a new one would open up near Wolverine Wildcat and presently shuttles people to the north side of the park). Adventure Falls, a classic shoot-the-chutes water ride, opened in 1995 at the back of the park past Wild Water Adventure. 1996 saw the introduction of Chaos and a new Tilt-a-Whirl, both located behind Logger's Run.

The waterpark was expanded with a "Phase Two" in 1997, including two more wave pools, two children's play areas, a second large raft slide, and three more tube slides. The new additions doubled both the size and capacity of the waterpark. Also that year the park's miniature golf course, Rocky Point Mini Golf, opened on the lake.

The most notable change in 1997 was the start of construction on the park's next roller coaster, Shivering Timbers. When the ride opened in 1998, it was quickly considered one of the world's best wooden roller coasters. Early into the 1998 season, however, the Late-May 1998 Tornado Outbreak and Derecho damaged the Mutley's Putt Putts ride as well as a small children's ride named Drummer Boy, uprooting a lot of the trees in the park.

The park began a five-year expansion program in 1999 with the introduction of a new entrance on the site formerly occupied by Mutley's Putt Putts, a new ticketing system, and three new rides. The first to open on July 10, 1999 was the Big Dipper, the park's fourth roller coaster. Shortly after that in August the park's fifth coaster, Mad Mouse as well as an S&S Frog Hopper opened on the site where the previous entrance once stood. The Scrambler attraction was also moved near Frog Hopper to make room for future additions. The first annual TimbersFest was also held in June 1999.

For the year 2000, the park planned on adding two new attractions. Speed Splashers, a children's boat ride, opened near the Big Dipper, with the second attraction being an electric car ride named Be-Bop Blvd. Unfortunately, Be-Bop Blvd. did not open in 2000, due to a number of construction-related delays.

Transition to Cedar Fair

On May 7, 2001, Cedar Fair L.P. announced their intent to purchase Michigan's Adventure for $28,000,000, a deal that went through on June 1. Larry MacKenzie replaced Camille Jourden-Mark as General Manager to help the park through the transition, but he would soon leave for Valleyfair at the end of the year, bringing Jourden-Mark back as General Manager. The season's only new attraction would be the short-lived Royal Hannerford Circus.

In 2002, the park introduced $5,000,000 worth of new rides, attractions and improvements. Eight new attractions were installed including the park's tallest ride, RipCord, as well as introducing the PEANUTS characters and the state's largest Snoopy Boutique. 2004 introduced Swan Boats, moved from Cedar Point where they were removed for the pond turnaround on Maverick, and in 2005 the park introduced a new water slide named Funnel of Fear. In 2006, for the park's 50th anniversary, a new white water rafting ride called Grand Rapids opened in a previously un-developed area past Adventure Falls. The renovation also included a new 50's themed restaurant called Coasters, which is located at many Cedar Fair parks, as well as a new train station named Grand Rapids Junction.

In 2008, Michigan's Adventure opened the state's first suspended looping coaster, Thunderhawk, which was moved from sister park Geauga Lake. Thunderhawk was the first new roller coaster in Michigan's Adventure since 1999. In 2010, Bumper Boats were added just north of Logger's Run, after previously operating at Valleyfair. In 2011, Michigan's Adventure introduced an attraction in the water park, Beach Party, featuring the world's first giant geyser, blasting water 90 feet (27 m) into the air as well as 150 different interactive water-related features. For the 2012 season, the park is focusing on new offerings, including some new food choices, VIP Tours, and the Fast Lane virtual queue system. Just prior to the 2012 season, the Falling Star ride was removed from the park.

Current rides and attractions

Roller coasters

Thrill rides

Family rides

Children's rides

Water rides

Up-charge attractions

• Ripcord -A SkyCoaster Experience. For one to three riders, RipCord takes riders 183 feet (56 m) in the air before plunging them in a pendulum motion after pulling the RipCord. This thrilling flying experience can be related to skydiving. (Riders must be 48 inches (1,200 mm) or taller)

• Go-Karts -An extra-charge Go-Kart attraction. (Gas-Powered. Themed to NASCAR)

• Rocky Point Mini Golf -A mini golf course along the lake. This course is designed for families, but also features many difficult water hazards and sand pits.

WildWater Adventure

WildWater Adventure

WildWater Adventure, opened in 1991, is Michigan's Adventure's water park. After the addition of the WildWater Adventure, the slogan for the park became "2 parks for the price of 1" since the regular gate admission allows full day usage of both the amusement and the water park, rather than a separate fee for both.

Fast Lane

Fast Lane is Michigan's Adventure's virtual queue system. For $50, visitors get a wrist band that enables them to get to the front of the line without queuing on 10 of the most popular attractions.

Awards

• In 2007 Michigan's Adventure won the tourist attraction of the year award in the state of Michigan.
• Shivering Timbers has been rated in the top 10 wooden roller coasters by Amusement Today since its debut in their annual Golden Ticket Awards.
• Shivering Timbers and Thunderhawk have earned places in the top 50 coasters in the world on Coasterforce.

Festivals

• The park formerly hosted Timberfest, a festival targeted at roller coaster enthusiasts, featuring early admission and extended ride time. Timbersfest ran from 1999-2009.

• The park also formerly hosted Rock the Coast, a Christian music mini-festival, in May. It was organized by Alive on the Lakeshore, the organization which created the Unity Christian Music Festival.

Logo

The original Michigan's Adventure logo featured a cartoon lion.

When Cedar Fair acquired the park in 2001, they replaced the lion with Snoopy from Peanuts, who appears on the logos of other Cedar Fair parks.

The logo was changed twice in 2007; once to reflect Michigan's Adventure's part in the Cedar Fair chain, and again to re-add Snoopy. After Cedar Fair's acquisition of the Paramount Parks, all of their parks were given new logos featuring the same font and style which has been popularized by Cedar Point (with the trademark flag-dotted-"i").

Slogans

• 1956-1972 - "Fun, Fun, FunLand!"
• 1991-2009 - "2 Parks For The Price Of 1!"
• 2010–2011 - "The Fun And Only!"
• 2012 - "Thrills Connect"

Ride malfunctions

• Two of the rides were damaged after the Late-May 1998 Tornado Outbreak and Derecho storms which took place during Memorial Day Weekend, the traditional start of the summer tourist season. The storm destroyed Mutley's Putt Putts, and a new entrance opened on that location the following year. It also damaged the Drummer Boy ride, which was sent to the manufacturer for repairs. The storm also leveled many of the taller trees in the park, leaving shade a rare commodity for the next few years until transplanted trees could begin filling out.

• The park's Gondola Wheel once malfunctioned prior to Cedar Fair ownership, and an aerial truck from the Norton Shores Fire Department had to rescue people from the top compartments of the ride.

• On July 30, 2001, the upper rotating portion of the Chaos ride separated from the stationary portion, leading to a sudden collapse of the passenger ride wheel. The rotation was immediately halted, and several of the passenger cars suffered severe damage. Of the thirty-three people on the ride, thirty-one were taken to area hospitals, most with minor injuries.^[2] The last two passengers were removed from their vehicle after nine hours.^{[citation needed]} An investigation subsequently found that loose bolts bent and broke under the riders' weight, causing the collapse.^[3]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michigan's Adventure

• Official site
• Video of Shivering Timbers
• MA Screamscape page
• Michigan's Adventure at RCDB

Constructs such as ibid., loc. cit. and idem are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (July 2010)