Beech BendLocation: Bowling Green, KY
|
On the banks of the Barren River you will find Beech Bend Amusement park named after a bend in the river that is filled with beech trees. The park can be traced all the way into the late 1800s as a picnic destination and is now a thriving small amusement park and race center. In the 1940s the park began to add attractions such as a skating rink, bowling alley, and a swimming pool by Charles Garvin who purchased the park after World War 2.
In the 1960’s Garvin cashed in on the success of the new racing tracks that had been placed and began placing carnival type rides throughout the park. Garvin also added the first coaster to the park called Wild Mouse which still is in the park today. The park began to deteriorate in the 1970s because of local competition until Ronnie Milsap brought it back to life in the early 1980s. The park once again fell out of commission and was left to grow over. In 1984, Dallas and Alfreda Jones purchased the racetracks and began hosting national drag racing events sanctioned by the National Hot Rod Association. The couple quickly realized that with the popularity of the events and families, they should revive the theme park as well. By the year 2005, the couple had the whole park back open including the swimming pool and plans to add rides as much as they could. The couple added a twisted wild mouse coaster and a drop tower in 2005 and in 2006 the couple built the Kentucky Rumbler roller coaster. The couple used up all of their savings to build this coaster instead of their dream beach home. In 2009, Beech Bend debuted the Chance Sea Dragon ride which was purchased from Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch. In 2011 the park was to open a water park added to the theme park, and after a few short delays, actually opened in the summer. The last addition to the park was a new drop tower called Zero-G. This park has a little bit of everything for you and in 2013 plans on opening up a brand new disc swing ride called Vortex. |
Media Gallery
©1998-2016 COASTER-net.com, All Rights Reserved.
