By
Chris Cowan
ThemeParkTimelines.com
1972
– Kings Island, owned by Taft Broadcasting, officially
opens on April 29, 1972 after 2 years of construction.
Located approximately 30 miles north of Cincinnati, it
replaces Coney Island, which was not only out of room
to expand, but was also prone to flooding at its riverbank
location near downtown. At its opening, King's Island
features a 1/3 scale replica of the Eiffel Tower (which
is still the centerpiece of the park today) and its signature
ride, the Racer, a wooden roller coaster widely accepted
as the ride that started a new frenzy of coaster building.
Other rides at opening: Bavarian Beetle, Canoe Ride, Der
Spinning Keggers, Enchanted Voyage, Flying Dutchman, Flying
Eagles, Giant Slide, Haley’s Comet, Kings Mill Log
Flume, Monster, The Rotor, Scrambler, Sky Ride, Tumble
Bug and Wheel of Fortune. The children's section, titled
"The Happy Land of Hanna-Barbera" features rides
such as the Sunshine Turnpike and Scooby Doo, a kid's
wooden roller coaster.
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1973
– Bayern Curve and Kenton’s Cove Keelboat
Canal (log flume) are added.
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1974
– Lion Country Safari & Monorail is added on
100 acres.
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1975
– Zodiac (double armed Ferris wheel), and Shake
Rattle & Roll (Huss Troika) are added.
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1976
– American Heritage Music Hall is added. Research
and design for The Beast begins.
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1977:
Screamin’
Demon (Arrow shuttle loop roller coaster) is added.
Canoe Ride is removed at end of the season to make room
for The Beast.
Forty five riders are stranded on the Sky Ride for as
long as 8 hours after high winds cause the ride to jam.
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1978
– No new rides added. Construction begins on The
Beast.
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1979:
The
Beast is added and it quickly becomes the new signature
ride. It opens with the tagline "...the biggest,
baddest, longest, fastest wooden roller coaster in the
world!"
Bavarian
Beetle, Haley’s Comet and Sky Ride are removed at
the end of the season.
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1980
– Scooby Doo is renamed The Beastie and a tunnel
is added at the bottom of the first drop.
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1981
– The Bat, the world's first suspended roller coaster,
is added. The Rotor is removed at the end of season.
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1982
– Hanna-Barbera Carousel, McScrappy’s Farm
and Jelly Bean Bowl are added in Hanna-Barbera Land. Ferris
Wheel and Viking Fury are added in Octoberfest. Timberwolf
Amphitheater is built. One side of the Racer is turned
backwards. Enchanted Voyage is reworked as The Smurfs
Enchanted Voyage.
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1983
– No new rides are added. At the end of the year,
Taft's park general managers and several company vice
presidents purchase two-thirds of Taft's interest in the
amusement park business and form their own corporation,
King's Entertainment Company (KECO).
May
13 - A teenager was killed after falling from the Eiffel
Tower He was in a restricted area when he fell.
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1984:
King
Cobra, North America's first stand-up coaster, is added.
The
Bat, plagued by maintenance problems since its introduction,
is removed at the end of the season. (NOTE: Contrary to
popular rumor, no one was ever killed or seriously injured
on The Bat.)
Admission
is $13.50.
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1985
– White Water Canyon (raft ride) is added. Tumble
Bug is removed at the end of the season.
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1986:
Kings
Islands' 15th Anniversary.
The
Flying Eagles ride is moved to the back to the park.
The
Flying Carpet (giant slide) is moved to Hanna-Barbera
Land and renamed Scrappy's Slide.
The
Coney Island area is renamed "Coney Mall" and
gets a bright new look and three new rides:
o
Skylab (in the area vacated by Tumble Bug),
o Zephyr (in the area of the former Flying Carpet) and
o Dodgems (although, technically, Dodgems is not new.
It moves to the Flying Eagles old spot, is made larger,
and has more cars added.)
The Cinema 180 Theatre is also added to Coney Mall.
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1987:
Vortex,
an Arrow "mega-looper" steel coaster with 6
inversions, is added.
The
Zodiac is SBNO this entire season.
Screamin’
Demon is removed at end of the season and eventually sold
to Camden Park in Huntington, West Virginia. (NOTE: As
of 2002, this ride is SBNO)
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1988
– Amazon Falls, a shoot-the-chutes water ride, is
added in the area vacated by the Screamin’ Demon.
The Zodiac remains SBNO this season.
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1989:
Water
Works (12 acre water park) is added. It includes:
o 15 water slides,
o a lazy river and
o "Splash Island" (children's area).
The
Zodiac and Der Spinning Keggers are removed at end of
the season.
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1990:
Flight
Commander is added in the area vacated by The Zodiac.
Rushing
River, a 700-foot family inner-tube raft ride is added
to Water Works, expanding it to 15 acres.
Flying
Dutchman is removed at end of the season and sold to Kentucky
Kingdom in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Ferris Wheel is also removed at the end of this season.
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1991
– Adventure Express (Arrow mine train coaster) is
added in the area vacated by Flying Dutchman.
June
9- Two men were killed after having been electrocuted
in a pond at Kings Island amusement park in Kings Island,
Ohio. They were trying to rescue another man who was in
the pond. He also suffered electrical shock. Also a very
drunk woman fell out of Flight Commander. This day isknown
as Black Sunday.
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1992:
Boats
and water are removed from The Smurfs Enchanted Voyage
and it is reworked as Phantom Theater.
Scooby
Zoom, kids steel roller coaster with 8 ft drop, is added
in the space that was formerly the outside boat-loading
area for The Smurfs Enchanted Voyage.
Paramount purchases King's Entertainment Company on July
31, 1992.
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Paramount's Kings Island:
1993
– The park becomes Paramount’s Kings Island.
A suspended roller coaster, to be named Thunder Road by
the former owners, is added and named Top Gun, beginning
Paramount’s trend of naming most major new rides
after one of their movies or television shows. Top Gun
is located in what was once part of the Wild Animal Habitat
and has the longest queue in the park. The Wild Animal
Habitat & Monorail are closed at the end of the season.
American
Heritage Music Hall, Name changed to The Paramount Theater
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1994:
Days
of Thunder (motion simulator ride) is added in a previously
undeveloped area between the turnaround points of the
Racer tracks.
The
Wild Animal Habitat theme area is renamed Adventure Village.
Sunshine
Turnpike and The Scrappy Slide are removed at end of the
season.
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1995:
Nickelodeon’s
Splat City is added in the area vacated by The Scrappy
Slide and Sunshine Turnpike.
Extreme Skyflyer (upcharge attraction) is added.
Flight Commander is removed at end of the season.
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1996
– Outer Limits: Flight of Fear is added in a previously
undeveloped area on the far side of the Racer tracks.
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1997
– Water Works nearly doubles in size to almost 30
acres, including Surfside Bay, a 600,000 gallon wave pool,
a sunning area and Buccaneer Island, a new children’s
play area.
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1998:
Wipe-Out
Beach, a body-board surfing attraction, is added to Water
Works.
Three new rides are added to Hanna-Barbera Land:
o
Scooby’s Ghoster Coaster,
o Yogi’s Sky Tours and
o Atom Ant’s Airways.
Scooby Zoom is renamed Top Cat's Taxi Jam.
Days
of Thunder Motion Simulator, transformed into James Bond
007: A License To Thrill, also official name of Theater
is changed to Paramount Action FX Theater.
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1999:
The
Adventure Village theme area is renamed Paramount’s
Action Zone and two rides are added to this area:
o
Drop Zone (Intamin Giant Drop) and
o Face/Off (Vekoma Invertigo roller coaster).
Amazon Falls is renamed Congo Falls ("Congo"
is a Paramount movie title).
Son of Beast construction begins.
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2000:
Son
of Beast, a wooden "hyper" coaster with a vertical
loop, is added in part of the former Wild Animal Habitat.
Seatbelts are installed on the Beastie.
Cars are redesigned on Scooby’s Ghoster Coaster.
King’s Mill Log Flume, one of the few rides remaining
that was moved from the original Coney Island park, is
SBNO this season.
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2001:
Nickelodeon
Central is added as a new theme area, replacing the upper
part of Hanna-Barbera Land and the lower part of Rivertown.
King’s Mill Log Flume, renovated and renamed as
The Wild Thornberry’s, reopens as part of the new
Nick Central area.
The name “Outer Limits” is dropped from the
ride now known as simply “Flight of Fear”
and the shoulder bars are replaced with lap bars.
Kenton's Cove Keelboat Canal is removed at the end of
the season.
Paramount
Action FX Theater changes James Bond to the 3-D 7th Portal.
The first 3-D film to premier in the theater.
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2002:
Tomb
Raider: The Ride (an enclosed Huss Giant Topspin) is added
in the area vacated by Kenton’s Cove Keelboat Canal.
King
Cobra is removed at the beginning of the season.
Vortex
gets repainted.
The
Beast's sled brakes are replaced with magnetic brakes.
Phantom
Theater's last day of operation is July 14th. Construction
on a new ride immediately begins in the building.
On July 16th, during a morning test run, an empty train
on Top Gun collides with a maintenance vehicle parked
too near the track, causing the first three cars to derail
and become badly damaged. Top Gun reopens with the one
remaining train on July 18th.
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2003:
Three
new rides are added:
o
Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle (an interactive dark
ride), located in the former Phantom Theater building
and using the same cars (although modified as "Mystery
Mobiles") and track.
o
Delirium (a Huss Giant Frisbee), located on a portion
of the former King Cobra site and situated to swing out
over the Action Zone midway.
o SpongeBob SquarePants, a 3-D motion simulator film.
Metal
detectors are added at the front gates.
The fountains on International Street are refurbished
and repainted.
A large American Flag is added to the Eiffel Tower.
The turn after the first drop on The Beast is re-profiled.
Top Gun's second train re-appears with four new cars.
The queue area is extended for Drop Zone.
Most of the theme effects on Adventure Express are refurbished.
Octoberfest Gardens is remodeled and renamed Bubba Gump's
Shrimp Shack.
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2004:
Water
Works is totally refurbished with an Australian theme
and is renamed Crocodile Dundee's Boomerang Bay.
Zepher
is repainted.
The
Scambler is refurbished.
Beast,
Racer, and reaceR all receive seatbelts.
EDITS
by: Dane Thomas, Aaron Bort
