An amusement park opened its gates for the first time in Shakopee, Minnesota on the 25th of May, 1976, and set out to bring traditional park thrills to a region of North America formerly without a major amusement or theme park. Going by the name Valleyfair, the park welcomed visitors in the first year to midways lined with flat rides, a carousel, a miniature railway, car ride, and the main attraction: High Roller, a classic out and back wooden coaster created by International Amusement Devices.

   Just two years after opening, Valleyfair was purchased by Sandusky, Ohio's Cedar Point as its sister park, thus forming the Cedar Fair amusement park chain which would eventually expand to include a number of parks around the country. The year after the change of ownership, the Minnesota park's first steel coaster arrived, relocated from Cedar Point, named Wild Rails (later shortened to Rails), with a compact, twisting maze of track designed by Anton Schwarzkopf.

   In 1980, Valleyfair gave thrillseekers Corkscrew, which followed in the footsteps of a similar coaster at Cedar Point as a triple-inversion steel ride from Arrow Dyanamics containing a vertical loop and double corkscrew element. At the end of the '80s, the park introduced a fourth coaster track when Excalibur debuted as a second Arrow ride, this time one of the larger mine trains to be built in the United States, with a 105-foot drop.

   With the 1990s came the addition of an adjoining waterpark to Valleyfair, Whitewater Country, containing dozens of water rides, slides, and attractions. Then, on May 11th, 1996, the $10 million Wild Thing was rolled out as the region's tallest, fastest, and longer coaster and the first hypercoaster from Morgan Manufacturing (now Chance-Morgan), with green track rising to 207 feet in height and a 5,460-foot layout spanning the park.

   After the removal of Rails in 1998, Valleyfair again worked with Arrow Dynamics to install Mad Mouse in its place the next year as a 1,257-foot long wild mouse-style steel ride. And the very next season, Power Tower was launched with three vertical 28-story towers from S&S Power either rocketing riders skyward or shooting them towards the ground at 50 miles per hour. Three years later, Intamin AG's Steel Venom struck as an LIM-launched shuttle 'Impulse' coaster climbing up two 185-foot spikes of track forwards and in reverse.

   Valleyfair continues to thrill its guests, year after year.