History
The park was created by John McAfee, a former Red Deer lawyer, and 15 other investors from British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario. Around 1979, the group paid $500,000 to Hanna-Barbera Productions for the licensing rights to the characters and locations in The Flintstones. While the original TV show ended in 1966, various Saturday morning series continued the basic plot lines, including The New Fred and Barney Show (1979) and The Flintstone Comedy Show. In addition to the Flintstones theme, a Victorian motif was planned for the park; similar to the Grande World Exposition of 1890 in Canada's Wonderland, which opened in 1981. It was presumed by park founders that parents' entrance fees, along with food and gift purchases, would pay operating costs.
Originally planned as Flintstone Fun Park, the project was to cost $8 million; costs "mushroomed" during an energy and real estate boom. The park cost $25 million, including $3 million for the primary corkscrew roller coaster.
Read more about this topic: Calaway Park
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Social history might be defined negatively as the history of a people with the politics left out.”
—G.M. (George Macaulay)
“When the history of guilt is written, parents who refuse their children money will be right up there in the Top Ten.”
—Erma Brombeck (20th century)
“To a surprising extent the war-lords in shining armour, the apostles of the martial virtues, tend not to die fighting when the time comes. History is full of ignominious getaways by the great and famous.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)