Happy Birthday Times Two!

The 35th Anniversary Worlds of Fun season has ended, yet 2008 won't end without a 2nd anniversary. The beginning of November marks WorldsofFun.org 11th anniversary online. The internet and the world was quite a different place back then. The Orient Express would still operate for six more seasons, Film still dominated photography as the digital camera was still in its infancy. Amazing to me at the time was that older rides were being forgotten, The Sky Hi, The Schussboomer, The Extremeroller were becoming dusty memories, long forgotten it seemed. Instead of letting those rides and their memories die off I started researching through old copies of The Star, and what little I could get from the park itself. In November 1997 on a rainy day I started a free personal website on Tripod to put some of the information I had found online. A repository so to speak. Little did I know what that little website "26 Years! The History of Worlds of Fun" would become and who I would meet along the way.

The beginning though I believe didn't start in November 1997 though, it didn't start in 1983 when I first went to Worlds of Fun as a child, it started in 1969, when Lamar Hunt and Hunt Midwest Enterprises first began planning a fun world in northern Kansas City. That is where I would like to start. The true Beginning.

History tells us the idea of Worlds of Fun began taking shape in 1969, but physical progress first began in November 1971. The official ground breaking ceremony.

There it is.... Worlds of Fun all 500 acres of it. No Zinger, No ELI, No Voyager. Just the folks that were going to make it possible. In the center is Lamar Hunt, to his right, the tallest in the picture is Jack Steadman. Present at the balloon release were Mayor Charles B Wheeler Jr (yes the downtown airport was named after him), George W Lehr (Jackson County Court Judge), Edward J Bauman (Clay County Court Judge), Richard K Degenhardt (Kansas City Chamber of Commerce), Stan McIlvaine (General Manager of Mid-America), Al Lambino (Project Architect for Randall Duell & Associates), and Charles Pafford (Construction Director Mid-America).

3,000 total balloons were released that day (along with a dynamite detonator in the background), each with a certificate attached redeemable for two passports (tickets), for free admission to Worlds of Fun during its 1st year of operation.

Concept artwork showing the Scandinavian gate. Originally the Scandinavian gate was the backgate, as the Americana gate located were the Grand Prix is today was the main gate until 1995 when the trams were discontinued.


More concept artwork, in this case for the Ski Heis in Scandinavia (now Tivoli East). The Scandinavian section was originally designed to pay homage to the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark. Ski Heis was the Scandinavia stop for the Sky Hi in Americana. It was a Von Roll sky ride that was incredibly popular for parks during that time. Von Roll sky rides still operate at Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH, the two Busch Gardens parks in Tampa, FL and Williamsburg, VA and Great America in Santa Clara, CA to name a few. The Sky Heis was removed at the end of the 1987 season.

One of my favorites, it shows the oldest artistic renderings of Worlds of Fun from the park's designer Randall Duell & Associates. First for orientation the main Americana gate is in the upper right hand corner, with the Cotton Blossom and the Henrietta already there. Notice the Sky Hi/Ski Heis is shown but appear with Balloon-shaped cars, as well as the Tivoli Theater makes an appearance, but in this case an open-air theater.

Overall the park appears more ornate in some places then it actually ended up being, especially with the two "dreams" that never actually appeared. First being the ornate carousel that appears in the upper center section (I have a feeling that Worlds of Fun's carousel idea was recycled at the Great America parks) as well as the overally ornate Tivoli Gardens in Scandinavia.

Tune in next week as we take a look as progress is made on the construction of Worlds of Fun!

Special thanks to Brandon Stanley at Worlds of Fun for letting us borrow some of these wonderful photos that you see today and in the future.

Prowler Construction 10/26/2008

Welcome back folks to blog post numero dos. Jeff and I were out again today to the Prowler construction site for more photos. Even with the rain there has been some significant progress with the structure, footers and even the beginning of the track itself.

So without further ado lets see the photos.

Bents waiting for construction in K lot.

The first look at the new work, the entrance to the helix is on the right, the return run on the left.


If you remember from last post the structure was just being built. This go around you can see the track bed starting to take shape. The track of a wooden coaster is made up of multiple layers of wood laminated on top of each other. Only the first layer has been laid in this photo.



The entire helix, showing work starting on the track crossover. It is at this juncture that the inbound and outbound run will cross each other.

A closer look at the outbound section, you can see the nice track banking that's being set up here.



The beginning of the return run is taking shape here.


A close up showing the banking the track will have as it exits the helix.


An alternate view of the same thing.

The footers leading away from the track, when Prowler is complete the train would be headed towards us. The black material surrounding the footers is set down by landscaping for weed control.


The return run will be heading back to the station here. The footers on the far right are for the outbound run.


The reverse view showing return run on the right and outbound on the left.


Last week this was just a bunch of big holes!

More excavation continues for the retaining wall! The grey gravel pathway will be the edging for the retaining wall itself. The creek is to the left, and the station itself would be out of the photo to the left.


Here is the retaining wall! Or what will be the retaining wall I should say.

Support trenches are being dug for the lift and first drop. This overall photo shows how close this area is to the train tracks themselves.


There's the train! Everybody remember to wave to the engineer now.


Trench footers are being prepped for the main drop. You can see Boomerang in the background. Mamba is also visible from the vantage but its directly to the left out of the photo.


Off to the side sits rebar for the footers themselves.


You know I usually don't like photos of me, and this is truly the first time (I think) that I have ever published any photo of myself except on my personal website. (with the also notable exception of me showing up as a red dot in one of our issues of Theme Parks Magazine). But this one isn't too bad, plus it gives a good sense of scale. Plus, you get to see once and only once the lunatic (oh did I say that?) who gets the chance to be behind this keyboard. Now be honest... does this photo make me look fat? :)

I haven't had a lot of time to post comments over the last few months due to my ambassadorship at Worlds of Fun but I am pretty excited about next year. Only problem is it seems we will be waiting a little longer then usual, it looks like that rumored April 25th opening day is pretty darn correct.

Prowler Construction from 10/20/2008

Welcome to the new Dot Org blog. Hopefully Jeff and I will keep this updated once a week with latest info and commentary on the happenings at Worlds of Fun, plus give me a chance to do a retrospective every once in awhile. (of course one of my favorite things).

For the first post of the new Blog its time to take a look at first vertical construction of Worlds of Fun's 7th coaster The Prowler. Jeff headed out Monday evening just as construction was winding down.

Our first look is at the Prowler Helix which is taking shape.




Carpenters bolt together the bents as the Helix is taking shape.


The job is never done, surveying for future structure continues.


More Helix goodness.



The Return run stands ready for the structure to come.


While most footers have been pored there are still a few left to go. This shot also shows the crossover of the inbound/outbound run.



When I first heard that Prowler was to be a terrain coaster, I was very excited to say the least as terrain coasters are a rare breed. This photo of the outbound run really shows how unique Prowler will be.

GCI of late has been using what are termed "slab" footers for their wooden coasters. Though this concept wouldn't work totally with Prowler you can see here how that idea has been modified.


As mentioned Jeff was around during some action shots. Here comes a bent in for some action.

Another angle.

And yet another view!


This is a great shot showing how wooden coasters get put together. The bottom of each bent is bolted to the steel bracket attached to the concrete footer.

This is going to be one BIG retaining wall! For scale see the red dots of men standing at the top of the ravine. This is directly east of the creek, the train tracks are in the back near the tree line.


Another interesting photo. Looking in reverse at the train trestle (on the other side is Zulu). This is where Python Plunge was, and the whole area looks completely different!


An opposite view from the retaining wall,, in foreground is the ravine that the lift will cross, in the background is the train turnaround.