Back in 2003, America's newest theme park experience was taking shape in Branson, Missouri as Celebration City rose up on the spot of a former roadside funpark under new ownership of the adjacent Silver Dollar City. The park would become the home to two new steel coasters upon its opening in 2003 - Thunderbolt and Firestorm - a ferris wheel, and other classic types of rides and attractions. But what would an American amusement park be without a good old-fashioned wooden coaster? The management of Celebration City knew the answer to that, so they contracted renowned wooden coaster builders Great Coasters International to dish out some of their wooden coaster handiwork, and the four-million-dollar Ozark Wildcat began to rise up into the Cityscape. Inspired by the legendary wooden twisters of the roaring twenties, and specifically the twisted designs of Harry Traver, the design of the Wildcat's course twists and turns in and out of itself, with numerous crossovers and crossunders and a layout that doesn't let up until the very end. Although Ozark Wildcat stands a hair shorter than most of Great Coasters' past work, topping out at 80 feet, the layout of this wild beast has proven to be as ferocious and relentless as they come. The twelve curves and twists of the custom-designed coaster includes fan curves, twisting drops, and banked turnarounds, all designed for maximum furiousity and wooden coaster fun.

Celebration City guests board the Millennium Flyer trains for the Ozark Wildcat and pull down individual orange lap restraints. Thumbs up, and it's out of the station with a U-turn to the left, down a straightaway past the station, and around one more turn to the chain lift. The chain cranks the ride slowly to the eight-story-high pinnacle, giving passengers onboard an exceptional view of the City. Past the top, the train winds around a nice and easy right-hand curve, but then begins to pick up speed as it approaches the drop and, before riders know it, the rip-roaring first dive has begun, swooping back down under the lift hill all 310 degrees to the bottom. After the drop, the train whips up and around the Wildcat's initial fan curve at 45 miles per hour, only to double back at the end around a banked turnaround. The layout retraces the perimeter of the first curve and drop off the lift before sending Ozark Wildcatters through the lift structure again, this time into another turnaround curve to the left. The train hurtles back through the wooden structure of the earlier portion of the course, enhancing the sensation of speed for riders as they encounter all types of forces in a final run around a curving hop feeding into one last 180-degree banked curve. Over a hop up onto the first run of brakes, with two more small turns back to the station, the ride on the Ozark Wildcat concludes.

Unfortunately in 2008, the Wildcat's reign would come to an abrupt end, when Celebration City was closed due to "unment financial expectations." Over the years, the park, and all of its rides have sat dormant, waiting for Herschend to decide the parks fate, whether it be broken into smaller attractions or eventually reopened. With the parks future still in limbo, the Ozark Wildcat and other attractions continue to be Standing But Not Operating (SBNO). Sitting unused, Dollywood, one of Celebration City's "sister parks" under Herschend ownership, bought the single Millennium Flyer used on Ozark Wildcat for use at Dollwyood as a spare train. The coaster stands as the shortest lived wooden coaster designed by Great Coasters International, having closed only 5 years after openening, and remains the only SBNO/defunct GCI coaster to date.