Over the years, Texas has became a theme park paradise, but amusement parks--now that's a different story. Most coaster-enthusiasts know of Texas because of the apparent monopoly by Six Flags, Inc. on the theme park industry there. Dallas and Fort Worth have the original Six Flags park, Six Flags over Texas. Houston had Six Flags Astroworld, and lastly, San Antonio had a marine wildlife park, Sea World San Antonio, which appeared to be the only non-Six Flags park that was ever going to make it in Texas.

Looking for a definite thrill park, Gaylord Entertainment, also the owners of the late Opryland park in Nashville, Tennessee, decided to build a theme park in a rock quarry, previously owned by USAA, and call it Fiesta Texas. They began construction in the late 1980’s and early 1990, and many structures and rides rose to form what would become one of Texas's major theme parks.

On March 14, 1992 , the park opened to the public, but the grand opening ceremony didn’t occur until the weekend of May 22nd, 1992. Opening with sections such as Crackaxle Canyon, Los Festivales, Ol’ Waterin’ Hole, Rockville, and Spassburg, the park was filled with some of the biggest thrills around. As a matter of fact, the park had one huge record breaking coaster, Rattler.

The opening year of the park brought many intense rides and the star attraction being the record breaking wooden coaster, Rattler . Designed by John Pierce, Rattler had a fair share of modifications and was considered to be one of the most intense coasters in the world. At opening, the ride boasted heights of over 179 feet, an originally 166 foot long drop that had the record title of the biggest drop on a wooden roller coaster, and speeds over sixty five miles per hour. Twisting through the canyon through nearly one mile of track, Rattler pulled in the thrill seekers to the park.

Fiesta Texas didn’t forget about kids, families, or those that aren’t brave enough to conquer Rattler. The park built Pied Piper, a Vekoma Junior coaster, which has now come to be known as Kiddie Koaster, as of the 2011 season. A mass of track with numerous twists and turns thrilled the younger and gentle thrill seekers. Many other flat and gentle rides opened with the park. The park also didn’t forget about wild and wet attractions, Ol’ Waterin’ Hole provided the park with many wet and intense slides and soaked family fun as well.

In 1993, the park didn’t expand with more rides to add to its state-of-the-art thrill lineup. But with numerous improvements that year, 1994 brought a new themed section to the park. The new section, Fiesta Bay Boardwalk, provided the park more attractions with numerous flats and upcharge attractions. The star attraction for this expansion would be the Crow’s Nest Ferris Wheel from Chance Rides, other rides include S.S. Overboard, Wave Runner, and Wipeout (SBNO). More park improvements came in 1995, but the next year would bring the park its biggest change.

In 1996, Six Flags came into the scene and decides to manage the park, though the park is still owned by USSA. With the new management, Fiesta Texas changed its name to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. The park became the eighth Six Flags park added on to a growing list of Six Flags properties. To prove Six Flags had entered the scene, the park added a new roller coaster, and in true Six Flags style, themed it after a character from DC Comics. Located in Fiesta Bay Boardwalk, the infamous Joker was back with a vengeance with the construction of Joker’s Revenge, Vekoma Hurricane coaster. This ride contains three inversions and seemed dull by today’s looping-coaster standards, but, when Six Flags made the trains on Joker’s Revenge take the course on backwards, it added just enough extra thrill to make it a decent thrill ride.

Alongside of [i[Joker’s Revenge[/i], a relocated Enterprise ride from Six Flags over Texas, called Wagon Wheel, was added to the Crackaxle Canyon area. Even more additions came in the transformation in the form of four new attractions being added to the Ol’ Waterin’ Hole water park. Four new activity areas were also added, including the family pool, Ol’ Swimmin’ Hole, and the “adult” activity pool, Crackaxle Springs.

In 1997, Six Flags contacted Arrow Dynamics for a new Mine Train coaster for Fiesta Texas. The result would be the last Arrow Mine Train ever built, Road Runner Express. A lengthy, family-friendly ride, Road Runner Express has two lift hills and goes through nearly a half-mile of track.

Two attractions left the park in 1997, Rennsporplatz and Bayside Paddle Boats were removed. In 1998, Six Flags buys out Fiesta Texas and USSA drops out of the amusement business. Three more attractions were added to Six Flags Fiesta Texas, the first being Bugs’ White Water Rapids a river rapids ride, Der Twister, a Huss Top Spin, and Frisbee, also from Huss, all made their debuts for the 1998 season. Four attractions were removed at the end of the 1998 season, including two water park attractions, Cap’n Willie’s Shrimpboat, and Seaside Golf.

Six Flags Fiesta Texas’ didn't stop there. In 1999, one of its biggest year ever for construction, three new major attractions were added: Boomerang, a Vekoma Boomerang clone, Poltergeist, a Premier Launched coaster using the standard spaghetti bowl layout seen in Joker’s Jinx at Six Flags America and the Paramount Flight of Fear clones, and Scream!, a triple-shot S&S combo tower that towers over 200 feet above the park’s skyline.

Also in 1999, various new Looney Toons themed rides were added and a new flat ride, Chaos, a Chance Chaos was added too. Ol’ Waterin’ Hole water park changes its name to Armadillo Beach and introduced a new and unique Texas-shaped wave pool called Lone Star Lagoon and a new Texas Treehouse family area. Two water slides were removed from Armadillo Beach, Pipeline and The Gusher, during the off season.

The new millennium brought in the Man of Steel himself in one of the most intense and picturesque coasters in the planet. Superman: Krypton Coaster was added in 2000. The ride was built by B&M as one of their popular Floorless coasters. Another coaster was to be added in 2000 as well, but didn’t show up, Boardwalk Canyon Blaster was announced, but was instead built at Warner Bros. Movie World Madrid in 2002. In 2000, Daffy’s Duckaneer was removed from the park.

The next year, 2001, brought no major additions, except for a name change to the Blow Out water slide, which changed into Ozarka Splash and a new upcharge attraction was added, Turbo Bungy. Screamin’ Skycoaster was removed from the park that year as well.

The additions became a bit spooky in 2002 with the addition of a mysterious and haunted attraction to the park. This new interactive, family dark ride called Scooby Doo’s Ghostblasters- The Mystery of the Haunted Mansion, was added to the Fiesta Bay Boardwalk area. More upcharge attractions were also added to the park in, as Tempest, a skyscraper ride, was added.
The 2002 season was also a time for some refurbishments and retrofits to some of the major rides, as well as a year for some rides to see their final days at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. New restraints were added to Poltergeist, as the rides old shoulder restraints were replaced with lap bars. But that’s not the only bit of coaster news from the park, for the entire season, Joker’s Revenge was standing but not operating and was removed from the park at the end of the season. Joker’s Revenge found a new home though, it was moved to Six Flags New Orleans as The Jester. Joker’s Revenge was not the only ride to be removed from the park, The Triple Dipper water slide was removed from the park as well.

The year after, 2003, brought no major additions but the park’s Wipeout ride remains standing but not operating. The year after brought the addition of a new water slide to Armadillo Beach, Tornado, a Proslide Tornado ride. The slide is known for its distinct giant funnel which riders go through on cloverleaf tubes. The 2005 season brought many touch-ups to the park and the water park’s Crackaxle Springs activity area closed down.

A true party in Texas is brewing at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. Housing great theming and unique thrills such as Superman: Krypton Coaster. Six Flags Fiesta Texas remains to be a gem in the Six Flags chain, including some of the best entertainment at parks, winning the Golden Ticket awards for Best Theme Park shows since 1999.