Six Flags New England - History

History

Throughout most of the 20th century, the park was known as Riverside Park. It started out as a picnic grove called Gallup's Grove in 1870, and was eventually renamed to Riverside Grove, then Riverside Park. Prior to 1900, most of the park's patrons arrived via steamship. The Springfield Street Railway extended its line to the park in 1900 and although Riverside was at the end of the Springfield Street Railway, it was not owned by the railway and is therefore not considered a trolley park, contrary to published reports. In the early 1900s, a few mechanical rides and a carousel were added. The park was purchased, in 1911, by Henry J. Perkins who is responsible for transforming the park from a picnic grove to an amusement park. He built the park's first coaster, The Giant Dip in 1912, which proved to be so popular that another coaster, The Greyhound, was added in 1915. Under Perkins ownership, the park continued to prosper, and additional amusements were added including a 300-foot-diameter pool that became known as Lake Takadip. The original Giant Dip coaster was replaced in 1920 by a new, more thrilling coaster that was twice the size of the Giant and was eventually named Lightning. A third coaster, Whirlwind Racer was added in 1928. By the following year, the Stock Market crash of 1929 took its toll on the park and by 1931 it had gone into foreclosure. For the 1932 season, the park operated only Wednesday through Sunday, and in 1933 it closed. Several attempts to reopen the park failed and it remained closed through 1939, although the grounds were occasionally used for company picnics. A drive-in movie theater was operated in the parking lot from 1937 to 1939.

Edward Carroll Sr. purchased the abandoned park in 1939 and after making improvements, reopened Riverside Park on May 29, 1940. Carroll is credit with rescuing Riverside and turning it into the largest theme park in New England. He purchased the plans and cars of the 1939 New York World's Fair Cyclone Roller Coaster and opened a new coaster in 1941. That coaster, now known as Thunderbolt, is currently operating at the park, and is the oldest coaster within the Six Flags Chain of theme parks. Carroll built the Riverside Park Speedway in 1948, replacing an open air bandstand. Edward Carroll Sr. took a liking to auto racing, a sport that was gaining popularity in the Northeast after World War II, and added it to his slate of attractions at Riverside.

The park continued to add new rides and removed some older ones. The theater and bowling alley were removed in the late 1950s, making Riverside Park a seasonal attraction. The 1960s was a popular period for stock car racing at Riverside Park. NASCAR began to hold events at Riverside Park Speedway in 1976. The winner of the first NASCAR-organized event at Riverside was Bob Polverari.

In 1977, Riverside Park added its first looping roller coaster, The Loop Coaster, later known as Black Widow. The park continued to be a successful park throughout the 1970s, and a log flume ride was added in that period. By the 1980s, the park stopped selling individual ride tickets and began charging a "pay one price" admission. In 1983, Riverside Park added its third roller coaster, which was also the park's second wooden coaster. The owners originally wanted a coaster exactly like the Coney Island Cyclone, but space was limited, so the coaster would need to take up less space and would have sharp twists and turns. It became known as the Riverside Cyclone.

In 1987, Riverside attempted to build a white water rafting ride called the Lost River Water Ride. Plagued with problems, the attraction never opened and was subsequently abandoned. A majority of the ride was demolished in 1989 to make way for Wild River Falls, a waterslide complex consisting of three sets of slides: Riptide, Blue Lightning, and Pipeline. A popular attraction, Wild River Falls remained in operation until the opening of the Island Kingdom waterpark in 1997.

In 1994, Riverside partnered with Lady Luck Gaming in a proposal to build a hotel and dockside casino complex at the park, one of several competing casino proposals in the state. The plan died after Agawam voters rejected a non-binding referendum in support of casino gambling in November.

During the 1996 season, the track on the Musik Express was damaged and the attraction remained closed for a portion of the year. A Chance Chaos was ordered and was scheduled to open for the 1997 season. During the winter of 1996, the Carroll family was approached by Premier Parks of Oklahoma City, OK, who subsequently purchased the park.

For the 1997 season, the new owners invested upward of $20 million on general improvements and several new attractions. Attractions included the Island Kingdom Waterpark which featured children's water play area, several tube slides, a couple of body slides and a wave pool. Other attractions included a Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster, Mind Eraser, Shipwreck Falls (a shoot the chutes ride), Time Warp (a Vekoma Air Jumper), and Chaos which was quickly replaced by Twister, (a Huss TopSpin), and the northern kiddieland was rethemed and renovated as Startoon Studios. In the process, some older rides such as the Bayern Kurve were removed. In addition to new attractions, many parts of the park were renovated and themed. Main Street U.S.A. was given a makeover, the Southern Center midway was themed to a 1950's city called Rockville. In the North section of the park, a Balloon Race attraction was installed, replacing the Wave Swinger which was relocated to the center of the park in the former location of the Park Offices. Other improvements were a children's play structure called Paul Bunyan's Buzzsaw Company which included to kiddie rides, a new entrance plaza and the Carousel was moved to the front gate and received a new building covering the ride.

In 1998, the park added several more attractions improving the water park which included lazy river, another children's play structure named Hook's Lagoon, a speed slide tower called Cannonball, a family raft slide named Swiss Family Tobaggan, and a multi-slide tower called Big Kahuna. The water park expansion was added to the South End of the park next to the parks log flume replacing two rides, Tri Star and Swiss Bobs, and relocated the Spider next to Mind Eraser and the Mind Scrambler (which was enclosed) to the North End under the park's Sky Ride where it sits now. With The Spider being moved next to Mind Eraser, the parks Sea Dragon was moved next to the Antique Cars.

Aside from the water park 1998, the park also added The Hellevator, a S&S Turbo Drop tower that is 21 stories tall, which was originally painted red. The park also brought back Chaos and located it next to Mind Eraser, and a (Huss Breackdance) named Barrels of Fun next to the kiddie bumper cars and the entrance to the waterpark. The park also added a new kiddie area dubbed Startoon Studios which removed a lot of the aging kiddie rides from the park and leaving only the Bumper Buggies (kiddie bumper cars) in what was Kiddie Land South and the Flying Elephants, Kiddie Himilaya and Rickie's Little Twister coaster in Kiddie Land North. Startoon Studies took over what once was Kiddie Land North and added several rides from Zamperla; Speedtrap, Rio Grande train, Bigfoot Trucks, Crazy Bus, and Kiddie Swings. A new food court was added to the North End and was partially in Startoon Studios and the North End areas in the park.