Parks Oregon's Adventure- A Timeline Park

[fraroc]

Hey guys....I've decided I was kind of going to go back to my roots and start fresh with a new PLC park. This park was based off an old park I built in my much younger years in RCT3...This time, I plan to make it seem a bit more realistic and flow a little better....And without further ado....

The Story of Oregon's Adventure

Year 1988

When I was a young boy, growing up in Corvallis, Oregon…There was nothing I loved more than spending my summers at one place…The premiere amusement park of the entire state, the aptly named Oregon’s Adventure. It was a rather medium-sized park with an assortment of flat rides and four roller coasters…There was a decent balance between an environment of family-friendliness and an allure to a more thrill seeking crowd. Overall, it was a great place for somebody to just have hours of fun…
That is, until 1988, when I was only 12 years old….My father gave me the sad news….The family that owned the park was having serious financial troubles…and the upshot was, Oregon’s Adventure was being put up for sale at the end of the 1988 operating season. The future of my home park, and my favorite place to be….was now in serious doubt….Best case scenario, the park gets bought by a larger company, such as Six Flags, Cedar Fair, or Anheuser-Busch. Worst case scenario, the park gets razed…and replaced with condos and shopping centers.

These pictures are how I remembered the park in my younger years….

An overhead shot of the park, showing all the rides….

Wild West World was the first themed area of Oregon’s Adventure, also the location of the first coaster built at the park…A rather modest Arrow mine train known as “Gold Rush Express-Mine Coaster” or just “Gold Rush Express” The shallow drops and turns made this a great ride for families.

The Oregon Looper is one of the two roller coasters that occupied the Main Midway. Built in 1978, Oregon Looper was a small Schwarzkopf looping roller coaster, similar to that of SooperDooperLooper at Hersheypark. It featured a single forceful vertical loop and several banked helices and bunny hops, giving a sensation of airtime.

The other coaster in the Main Midway is Hurricane, an Arrow corkscrew coaster which was built in 1979. It was a rather average, short coaster…No different than the original Corkscrew at Knott’s Berry Farm.

The Main Midway is also home to several of the park’s flat rides, such as Wave Swinger, and an Eyerly Roll-O-Plane named “Twister”

The latest area to be built at Oregon’s Adventure was known as The Forest Trail. This area was home to two exciting flat rides. Energizer, an Anton Schwarzkopf Enterprise ride, and the Bumper Cars.

The main attraction of not only the Forest Trail area, but also the entire park was Forest Flyer, a massive Charles Dinn wooden out and back coaster. Coincidentally, Forest Flyer was the tallest and fastest coaster at the park at the time. Forest Flyer was filled with many moments of exhilarating air time and g-forces and at the time, it was my personal favorite roller coaster….

As a kid hearing the news of Oregon’s Adventure being put up for sale and the possible closure of the park, it was absolutely heartbreaking to see the sun setting on my favorite place…..

Little did I know then, that a new sun was rising on the horizon for the park……

 

[fraroc]

Year 1990

In January of 1990, after a deal with Six Flags had fallen through, it was confirmed that Cedar Fair Entertainment Company of Sandusky, Ohio would be buying Oregon's Adventure for a price of 150 million dollars. Cedar Fair, being one of the largest amusement companies in the US, had big plans for the park in the coming decade, which included at least three more major roller coasters, a dedicated children's area, a park expansion, and more flat rides. Rumors had also begun flying around of a possible name change, but those remain unconfirmed....

 

[fraroc]

Year 1990

Saturday, May 12th of 1990....Marks a very significant date in this park's history. After being SBNO for an entire season, Oregon's Adventure was opening it's doors again as a Cedar Fair property. Dozens upon dozens of guests were lining up across the block for their chance to re enter Oregon's premiere amusement park for the first time in more than a year.....

The entire queue line for the Schwarzkopf classic, Oregon Looper stretched was filled to capacity the entire day!

Gold Rush Express was wildly popular amongst families and younger coaster riders!

Oregon's Adventure's ferris wheel is located in Wild West World and is aptly named "Wagon Wheel". It provides some great panoramic views of the entire park!

We can't forget Hurricane, the Arrow corkscrew coaster! It might not be as popular as the Oregon Looper, but it's definitely got its fans!

No matter how old you get, a ride on the bumper cars is always a fun thing to do!

Of course, most of the crowds gravitated twoards the crown jewel of Oregon's Adventure, the wooden airtime machine known as Forest Flyer!

All in all, the re-opening of Oregon's Adventure was a rousing success! A bright future was surely in store for this park, as Cedar Fair begun to make plans for Oregon's Adventure's fifth roller coaster. While the project was in the embryonic stage by 1991 and no details were known...One thing was certain, Cedar Fair wanted this coaster to be something iconic, something signature, a ride to remember...

Stay tuned for more...

 

[fraroc]

Year 1992

After the highly successful re-opening season for Oregon's Adventure, another highly successful season was to follow.... At the end of the 1992 season however, parkgoers started to notice something rather odd happening in the eastern half of the park.....

Seemingly overnight, construction crews had come to rip out several trees and tear up the grass, effectively clearing out a large portion of land that sprawled all the way from Forest Flyer to Oregon Looper....

What could it possibly be for? Is there a new roller coaster coming soon? Perhaps a park expansion? Both? All that coaster fans could do at that point was wait and speculate.....

 

[fraroc]

Year 1992

The time has come.....

When Oregon's Adventure first re-opened in 1990 to massive success, a plan was put in place to build a new coaster at the park. Cedar Fair didn't want it to be any ordinary coaster though. They wanted something iconic, something that will guarantee nothing but success and acclaim, something that will put Oregon's Adventure on the map for theme park and roller coaster enthusiasts from coast to coast.....Only one question remained though...exactly what kind of coaster should be built? A giant wooden coaster? One of those new steel "hyper" coasters? A stand up coaster? A looping coaster?

In 1991, Cedar Fair got it's answer when they saw what Kennywood in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania built...Steel Phantom, the world's first steel looping hyper coaster. In a nutshell, Cedar Fair wanted a steel hyper-looping coaster that was similar to Steel Phantom, but bigger, badder, faster, and longer...By 1992, they got in touch with Arrow Dynamics, and the plan was put into motion....

The result was DEMON FORCE, an absolutely massive Arrow Dynamics mega-looping roller coaster which spans almost the entire length of the park, filled with massive plunges and stomach churning inversions. This coaster also breaks two 1993 records for roller coasters. By 1993, Demon Force was the world's fastest roller coaster at a top speed of 82mph and had the tallest drop of any coaster at a height of 230 feet.

The ride starts off by ascending up a massive 161 foot tall first hill into a 157 foot tall swooping first drop, similar to the first drop of the legendary Crystal Beach Cyclone. Unlike Steel Phantom, there is no straight section after the first drop, instead you will break through into the first of five inversions, a large 115 foot tall vertical loop, filled with crushing G-forces!

Very similarly to Steel Phantom, the coaster reaches it's apex point after the first drop....Where you go up a 132 foot hill...but then plunge downwards into an abyss at a whopping 230 feet, giving Demon Force the status of a hyper coaster! You will then travel through the tunnel at breakneck speeds of 82mph, giving Demon Force the record for the fastest and tallest roller coaster in 1993.

After the drop and tunnel come the next two inversions, a massive batwing double inversion packed with G-forces!

After a meandering S-turn comes a high speed inverting one-two punch, a second vertical loop followed by a small, shallow hill and into a corkscrew!

After a helix, Demon Force has one last trick up its sleeve before the final brake run...A short section of trick track designed to disorient riders, leaving them not knowing where they're going!

As a companion piece to Demon Force, Oregon's Adventure also built "Little Demon", a small Zierer Tivoli model coaster, perfect for the little kids who aren't quite tall enough to ride Little Demon's big brother....Little Demon is also the first kiddie coaster to be built at Oregon's Adventure.

Demon Force and Little Demon will open to the public by the beginning of May, 1993!

 

[Kucewiczr]

Love the story line and park. Hopefully you will continue with the story

 

[Robert K]

The storyline sounds similar to my local park, Dorney Park although Dorney wasn’t really in danger of closing by the late 1980’s and early 1990’s but the owner/chairman who took over in 1985 from the two Bob Ott’s father and son Harris Weinstein sold the park to Cedar Fair in July, 1992 and retired to Florida in the fall. He passed away late October 2014. The park was founded by Solomon Dorney in 1884 as a fish hatchery but in the early 20th century was sold to Jacob Plarr, Jacob then his son Robert ran the park to the late 60’s, Bob’s son Stephen Plarr took over after his father passed away in 1966 but then Steve passed away in 1967 and the park then went to his sister Sarah “Sally” Plarr Ott, the wife of Robert F. Ott. Ott and his son Bob ran the park through 1984, with the older Ott becoming chairman of the board in 1980 and his son becoming president. Weinstein ran the park from 1985 to 1992. Cedar Fair has been the owner since July, 1992 and has been transformed into a Cedar Fair park with new rides, big coasters, Coasters Drive In, etc.

 

[fraroc]

Year 1993

In 1993, after two years of debate, Cedar Fair finally decided to change the name of Oregon's Adventure to coincide with it's new ownership and usher in a new era of thrills for the park, especially with the construction of Demon Force, the world's tallest and fastest looping roller coaster. Initially, the park was going to be renamed "Oregon's Great America", but was dropped in favor of "Cedar Plains", a reference to their flagship park in Ohio, Cedar Point. (The "Great America" suffix would later on be used in Cedar Fair's Tennessee location.) [AUTHOR'S NOTE: Tennesee's Great America was one of my RCT3 parks] When Cedar Plains opens for the 1993 season, Oregon's Adventure merchandise will be sold for 90% off. A good opportunity for people to nab some retro park memorabilia!

 

[fraroc]

Year 1993

When Cedar Plains opened for the first time under it's new name for the 1993 season, people instantaneously started flocking to the new coaster on the block, Demon Force!

Even with an efficient three-train operation, multi-hour long lines were still reported for Demon Force opening week.

Another full house about to plunge down the first drop!!

All in all, despite being the most popular attraction at Cedar Plains, reviews for Demon Force were rather mixed. The new coaster relieved large amounts of praise for its first half. The first drop and loop have received tons of praise for being forceful and thrilling and the 230 foot second drop into the abyss is widely considered to be one of the greatest elements on any coaster.

However, the second that the train traverses through the batwing inversion, is when the not-so-good part of the ride begins. Why? One word. HEADBANGING. and lots of it. Especially during the batwing and the corkscrew after the second loop.

However, the most painful part of the ride with the most headbanging happens during the very last element of the ride, the trick track. Where both sides of your head slam into the restraint in succession with one another, leaving you with a pretty intense pain on both sides of your head before the brake run.

While Demon Force has a lot of elements that are fun and exciting, some parts are very rough and a bit painful, leading to a rather polarizing coaster experience. Some people love it while others hate it. However, one can't deny the sheer popularity of the ride as it became known all throughout the country, appearing in magazines and roller coaster books everywhere.

Other rides at Cedar Plains are still getting a lot of love! A good example would be Energizer, the Schwarzkopf-built Enterprise.

Twist And Shout is closed again due to maintenance issues...While this Eyerly Roll-O-Plane is a classic, it has become rather costly to maintain...It's definitely foreseeable that this ride could get removed in the near future.

GoldRusher Express still provides a gentle, yet fun ride experience perfect for families or thrill seekers looking to mellow out!

The park's sole woodie, Forest Flyer has been getting some not-so-good feedback for being rough at times, however it still gets a lot of praise for it's high amount of airtime!

 

[Bullethead]

Is this post supposed to have images? I just see text.

 

[Kucewiczr]

Your park looks awesome. Will this be uploaded to the Workshop?

 

[Bullethead]

Oh geez, the images showed up and WOW! You gotta do POVs on all these awesome coasters!

 

[fraroc]

Year 1995

As expected, Twist And Shout, Cedar Plains' Eyerly Roll-O-Plane finally bit the dust in 1994 as it had become too costly to maintain. By 1995, it could be plain to see by all that a huge plot of land has been cleared where Twist and Shout used to be.

Not only was land cleared at the former site of the flat ride, but also around the lake; nicknamed Cedar Lake, as well. What could this possibly be, a new coaster? A new flat ride package? All we can do is wait and see....

 

[Kucewiczr]

Love this park can't wait to see what is in store for this area.

 

[fraroc]

Year 1995

This past weekend, a roller coaster enthusiast caught a glimpse of some roller coaster track and a few support beams located just outside the main parking lot to Cedar Plains, confirming that the new attraction rumored for 1996 will in fact be, a steel roller coaster!

Peeking through the iron fencing, this enthusiast managed to make out the fact that the track is Bolliger & Mabillard/Giovanola's signature style track. However, there really isn't any telling on what kind of B&M is coming to Cedar Plains? Will it be a sitdown twister like Kumba? A standing coaster like Iron Wolf? Or an inverted coaster like Raptor? Only time will tell....

 

[fraroc]

Year 1996


By 1995, Cedar Fair had completed market research for a new roller coaster in their Corvallis, Oregon location...They had gotten into contact with the manufacturer Bolliger and Mabillard, based in Switzerland. Initially, the idea was for a small to medium-sized standing roller coaster similar to Iron Wolf or the two Vortex coasters. However, in the end, Cedar Plains thought it would be better to have a roller coaster that interacted more with the large lake at the center of the park. After seeing rides like Raptor at Cedar Point and Top Gun at Paramount's Great America, the solution was simple....

The result was FIREBIRD, a brand new B&M inverted roller coaster! At the time of it's opening, Firebird was one of larger inverted coasters with a top speed of 56mph, a height of 122 feet, a 100 foot tall drop, and a total of six inversions!

After the first drop, the train goes into the first two elements, an 89 foot tall vertical loop and an 87 foot tall immelmann loop flying over the lake!

Afterwards, the train goes straight into a 66 foot tall zero-g roll and then busts right into a 80 foot tall cobra roll element!

Unlike most other large-scale inverted coasters, there's no mid-course brake run. Meaning directly after the cobra roll, the train goes into a banked hill and then into a corkscrew, travelling through the element at a very high speed.

Finally, the train goes through a large and very forceful helix before traversing through the final brake run.

 

[Kucewiczr]

Love the new coaster I like the story line as well.

 

[fraroc]

Year 1996

(Local Oregon news broadcast about Cedar Plains and Demon Force circa August 1996)

"In other news today, the new Firebird roller coaster at the Cedar Plains amusement park in Corvallis has become a fan favorite among adrenaline junkies in the Cascadia region. However, for the rest of the 1996 operating season, the park will be operating without its signature coaster due to an incident that occurred a week prior.

"Cedar Plains has been known to be an amusement park that caters to both families and X-Treme thrill seekers. At the beginning of this year's operating season, they opened a new ride named Firebird, an "inverted" roller coaster in which the riders dangle below the ride's rails, similar to a ski lift. Ever since it opened, queue lines for Firebird has been consistently over an hour long with hundreds of riders ready to feel the heat! Firebird was constructed by a swiss manufacturer known as Bolliger and Mabillard, known for rides such as Batman the Ride at Six Flags Great America and Kumba at Busch Gardens."

"However, the park's signature roller coaster, Demon Force has been temporarily closed for the rest of the operating season. Demon Force is a record shattering "hyper looping" roller coaster built by the Utah based coaster company, Arrow Dynamics. Demon Force takes the concept of a hyper coaster, a coaster that exceeds 200 feet in height, and adds loops to it's layout. To date, there is only one other looping hyper coaster located at Kennywood in Pennsylvania. When Demon Force opened three years ago, it took the roller coaster fans by storm and put Cedar Plains on the map for coaster enthusiasts."

"Last week, a woman reported feeling "dizzy and delirious" after riding Demon Force and was rushed to the hospital. It was there that they found out she suffered a moderate concussion, most likely caused by the woman's head hitting the sides of the over-the-shoulder harnesses during the second half of the ride, which has been criticized by coaster enthusiasts for being very rough. After the woman filed a formal complaint to Cedar Fair and several other people reported that they have received bruises to the side of the head after riding Demon Force, the company decided it would be best to temporarily shut down the coaster while they attempt to make Demon Force a more comfortable and enjoyable experience.

There is currrently no exact date on when Demon Force will reopen, but Cedar Fair officials guarantee it will be open by sometime next year."

 

[Kucewiczr]

Will this be uploaded to the Steam Workshop? Love the story line so far.

 

[fraroc]

1998

Before the 1997 season, Arrow Dynamics made the decision to add a series of trim brakes on the banked S-bend after the batwing inversion of Demon Force. They determined that the roughest parts of the ride occurred after the batwing due to the train traversing through the final few elements at a much higher speed compared to most other of Arrow's custom loopers. The trim brakes made for a much smoother ride experience. However, a substantial loss of intensity during the second half of the ride was noticed.

By 1998, parkgoers noticed a large plot of land was cleared adjacent to the Wild West area. Due to the up and coming prevalence of the world wide web in the late 90s, speculation was abound. Could it be a new coaster? A new expansion? A new flat ride package? Only time could tell...