Wild One
Specific Type: Wooden
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The story of the Wild One began in 1917 when a wooden coaster that the legendary John Miller had erected opened at Paragon Park, a seaside locale in Hull, Massachusetts. Dubbed the Giant Coaster, it was a larger wooden coaster for that time, at 98 feet tall, with a double out and back layout and surprise double-dropping first plunge. The Giant Coaster suffered a fire in the early 1930s, but was rebuilt and redesigned by Herb Schmeck. Nearly seventy years after the Giant first opened, the ride's final fate would have to be decided when Paragon Park closed forever in 1986. Thankfully, the Giant Coaster escaped the forces of the wrecking ball and became one of the few wooden coasters of its time to be relocated, finding a new home at Largo, Maryland'sWild World (now Six Flags America) courtesy of the Charles Dinn Corporation, and reopening as Wild One with an improved ride and reworked layout including a speedy 540-degree helix finale into the track. Since that time, other layout modifications have come to the out and back ride, including a double-up ascent to compliment Wild One's far double-down hill, with the shortening of drops taking place to accomodate crossovers by 1997's Typhoon SeaCoaster; and the enthusiasts continue returning to Six Flags America to experience Wild One, now one of the oldest coasters still operating to this day.
Twenty four riders load into a four-car Philadelphia Toboggan Company train in Wild One's station, located in the Southwest Territory section of Six Flags America, and the rails start rolling along beneath passengers as the train leaves the loading area and heads for a first turn to the lift. Around an L-turn to the left, the front car engages on the chain and Wild One begins to travel up the lift slope to the 98-foot peak. After the lift, passengers make a slight turn to the right and begin to dive, pulling out of the drop ten feet from the ground at fifty-three miles an hour. Over a camelback hump Wild One flies, then sends thrillseekers underneath theTyphoon SeaCoaster and through a small airtime hop. The train rockets up the first half of the first double-up element to the top of the far turnaround and banks slightly to the right as it rounds the U-turn, then dives back down and into the double-down back to the ground. Speeding along the white wooden track, the train flys over a hop and heads back under the SeaCoaster structure, climbing over another hill just a hair higher than the first camelback. The train climbs into the structure of the lift hill and dives down again, careening over several more small hills and then rising into a warm-up S-curve for the final element. Diving to the right, the train banks around the last 540-degree helix, throwing riders to the side of the train and then rising onto the brake run, two 90-degree right-hand turns leading back to the station. |
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