Valleyfair is a 125-acre (51 ha) amusement park in Shakopee, Minnesota, United States. Owned by Cedar Fair, the park opened in 1976 and now features over 75 rides and attractions including eight roller coasters. Valleyfair also has a water park called Soak City which is included with the price of admission. Cedar Point and Valleyfair were the first two parks in the Cedar Fair chain (although Cedar Point Amusement Park originally opened in 1870) and a combination of the park names â€" "cedar" and "fair" â€" were used to name the company.
History
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Valleyfair opened in 1976 featuring 20 rides and attractions on 26 acres (110,000Â m2), with the roller coaster High Roller being the main attraction. The carousel in the park came from Excelsior Amusement Park which was closed in 1973. It is the oldest ride in the park. In 1978 in an effort to increase investment capital for continued park expansion, Valleyfair was acquired by Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio and placed under the management of Cedar Fair Limited Partnership. The park continues to grow every year with new rides and attractions. Since 1976, Valleyfair has invested over $96 million into the park, and today the park has over 75 attractions on 125 acres (51Â ha) of land. A height restriction was imposed in the year 2000 with the building of Power Tower. After negotiations with the FAA and the nearby Flying Cloud Airport, the FAA restricted the building height of Power Tower at 275 feet (84Â m) due to its proximity to the airport. Power Tower's original plan was to be a height of 300 feet (91Â m) and to take riders to 275 feet (84Â m).
As the park is located on the banks of the Minnesota River, flooding can become an issue during the springtime months before the park usually opens (or when the park is open for the season), notably in 1988, 1993, 1997 and 2014. Excalibur and Thunder Canyon are built outside of a pre-existing river dike, and were built with this flooding potential in mind.
Attraction timeline
Attractions
Roller coasters
Thrill rides
Family rides
Water rides
These are the water rides besides those in the Soak City.
Planet Snoopy
Planet Snoopy is a kids area within the park created for the 2011 season as part of a $9 million expansion.
Route 76
"The Route 76 area takes guests back into amusement park Americana" with the reopening of three classic rides that made their debut in the opening of Valleyfair in 1976. These rides include the Antique Autos, which was formerly deconstructed to make room for the construction of Dinosaurs Alive!, the Tilt-a-Whirl, and the Scrambler. A new ride titled 'Northern Lights' will be the main attraction of the area, featuring a roller coaster track over 300 feet in length and 42 feet in height. This family-oriented coaster will reach speeds upwards of 43 miles per hour, and will resemble the Aurora Borealis at night with colored lights in shades of greens, blues, and purples. The Route 76 area features a full service catering and picnic area, titled Picnic Point. Route 76 is located in the front of the park near Steel Venom, and opened on May 16, 2014.
Soak City
Soak City is a water park included with the price of admission to Valleyfair. Rides include a lazy river, a wave pool, and water slides. Newly added slides such as "Breakers Plunge" were added as part of the 2015 Waterpark expansion.
Fast Lane
Fast Lane is Valleyfair's virtual queue system. For an additional charge, visitors get a wrist band that enables them to get to the front of the line on the most popular attractions without queuing including attractions like Wild Thing, Renegade, Steel Venom and Xtreme Swing.
Shows
Valleyfair hosts several performance venues with a wide variety of live entertainment at no additional charge.
- The Amphitheater is a large outdoor venue that has hosted country music tribute shows, battle of the bands competitions, acrobats, and even a dog show. In 2016, the Amphitheater was remodeled and began hosting a new show, All Wheel's Extreme.
- The Galaxy Theater is an indoor, air-conditioned theater, fully equipped with professional lighting and sound. Originally, it was used to stage musical revues, but in recent years, The Galaxy has played host to various comedy and magic acts, such as Ed Alonzo and Chipper Lowell.
- The Gazebo Stage is an outdoor stage with a covered bandstand which presents a musical revue of classic and contemporary hits. The Gazebo features a 7-piece live band (keyboard, bass, guitar, drums, trombone, sax, and trumpet), setting it apart for most other "tracked" theme park shows. The venue features numerous covered picnic tables and is close to many food service locations, so park guests can enjoy their lunch or dinner while watching the show.
- Benchwarmers is a roaming brass band that strolls throughout the park and plays many classic songs as well as some more contemporary music. Some songs from previous years have been, "Thriller", "Sexyback", and "Sweet Caroline".
- PEANUTS Showplace is an outdoor venue that is next to the PEANUTS Playhouse in Planet Snoopy. It features stadium bench seating, with awnings to provide shade, and a lot of room for the interactive entertainment.
- The Acafellas is a roaming all-male a cappella group that covers many hit songs.
At the Halloween Haunt, there are special themed shows at PEANUTS Showplace, performing Halloween and spooky-themed songs for the trick-or-treaters on the nearby Trick-or-Treat Trail. Recent past years on the Gazebo there has been a show called Haunted Homecoming. On the walkways, there has been a roaming a cappella group (much like The Acafellas), called The Skele-Tones. At night, there is also Haunt Entertainment. Gazebo Stage and PEANUTS Showplace change every season or two, but as of 2015, Hacks, an improvised comedy show, has been located in the Galaxy Theater.
Former rides and attractions
- Northern Lights (19XX-2005) â€" Chance Falling Star with a space theme, removed in 2006 to make room for Xtreme Swing.
- Bayern Curve (1985-1997) â€" Schwarzkopf Bayern Curve, located next to Northwoods Grill, replaced with numerous attractions over the years, with the Wheel of Fortune currently residing on its former site.
- Wild Rails (1979-1998) â€" Schwarzkopf Wild Mouse coaster, replaced in 1999 with "Mad Mouse". Moved to Jolly Roger Amusement Park in Maryland under the name Wildcat.
- Skyscraper (2005-2007) â€" 160 ft tall rotating arm ride located near the front of the park within Wild Thing's figure-eight turnaround (originally operated at Dorney Park from 2000â€"2004, and eventually relocated to Cedar Point where it operated from 2008â€"2015).
- Tot Town (1981-2000) â€" In the space now occupied by the Power Tower was once a small area of rides, a jungle gym and ball pool designed for small children.
- The Flume (1979â€"2008) â€" Known as Ye Olde Log Flume until the early 1990s, the Flume was a log flume ride. The Flume was permanently closed and dismantled at the end of the 2008 season. Soak City waterpark (previously Whitewater Country waterpark) was extended in place of the Flume to accommodate the installation of Breakers Bay, a wave pool attraction.
- Bumper Boats (1993 - closed 2009, demolished in 2010) â€" motorized bumper boats in a pool of water, a part of the Challenge Park located near the front of Valleyfair. This ride was relocated to Michigan's Adventure.
- Mild Thing (1976 - 2009) â€" A children's roller coaster, originally called Mine Train and Kiddie Coaster prior to the park's addition of Wild Thing, closed in 2010 as part of Valleyfair's revamping of the children's area, and was replaced by Cosmic Coaster.
- Chaos (1999â€"2011) is a spinning ride which starts spinning in a horizontal position and gradually lifts into a vertical position. Each individual ride unit flips 360 degrees on its own axis. Chaos was removed prior to the 2011 season.
- Skipper and Dolly Dolphin Show (1977? â€" late 1980s) was a dolphin show featuring two Bottlenose dolphins named Skipper and Dolly. Given that the dolphins could not be properly housed there during the frigid Minnesota winter months and that various other amusement parks had their own "Skipper and Dolly" dolphin shows (such as Pontchartrain Beach and Six Flags AstroWorld, it can be assumed the two animals were transferred from location to location, depending on whichever parks wanted to incorporate the dolphins into their summertime show schedules.
- Adventure Golf (1992â€"2012) was two 18-hole golf courses,a part of the Challenge Park located near the front of Valleyfair. Its last operating season was 2011, and it was closed to the public during the 2012 season. It was removed and replaced with Valleyfair's catered event area, named Picnic Point.
- Antique Autos (1976-2012) was a 1148Â ft track featuring self-controlled, gas-powered replicas of 1910 Cadillac Touring Cars. It was removed to build Dinosaurs Alive! It has returned in a different format in the new Route 76 area.
- Go-Karts (1991-2013) was a quarter mile race track located in the Challenge Park. It was removed to make way for Route 76.
- Pepsi IMAX theater (1982-2013) was demolished to make way for Barefoot Beach in 2015.
- Hydroblaster (1995-2013) Two dark slides near Planet Snoopy. The area was replaced with the addition of Breakers Plunge and Breakers Pipeline in 2015.
- Enterprise (1979-2016) A HUSS Enterprise type ride. Closed in 2016 to make room for North Star.
Halloween Haunt at ValleySCARE
Halloween Haunt is a Halloween event at Valleyfair that was originally known as HalloWeekends, which operated from 1998 to 2000 on weekends in September. The name was changed to Halloween Haunt when the event was brought back six years later in 2006. The Great Pumpkin Fest is a family-friendly Halloween event open during the day, while the park is under normal operation. After the sun sets, Halloween Haunt takes over and features haunted houses, outdoor mazes, scare zones, and live entertainment. Many rides remain in operation during the event, though some are closed to accommodate the transition.
Haunted attractions
Former haunted attractions
The Great Pumpkin Fest
Planet Spooky was added to the ValleySCARE lineup in 2011 with the parks addition of Planet Snoopy. However daytime family-friendly activities were present prior to the Planet Spooky name. In 2015 it was renamed to The Great Pumpkin Fest. It includes trick-or-treating, storytelling, live entertainment, petting zoo, corn maze, and a preview of Halloween Haunt.
Incidents
- On November 21, 2015, a fire was started at a storage building (haunt attraction London Terror). 25% of the structure was damaged, the cause of the fire is unknown. Fabric Ceiling needed replacing. No injuries reported.
- On June 16, 2011, the ride Minnesota River Valley Railroad derailed near the amphitheater at the front of the park and careened into the south train station platform. Two passenger cars left the tracks and were later placed back on the tracks by park maintenance. No injuries were reported.
- On August 5, 2010, a chlorine leak from the Soak City Waterpark sent 26 people to the hospital.
- On September 3, 2007, the ride Xtreme Swing experienced a fire in an electrical junction box. There were no injuries, and the ride reopened several days later after the problem was fixed and the ride successfully tested.
- On May 21, 2006, the rear car of a roller coaster train on Wild Thing detached from the middle car during the final brake run. 18 people were injured and 14 were taken to a local hospital, though most injuries were considered minor. An investigation later determined that a mounting bracket in the brake system failed, and the ride resumed operation on June 1, 2006.
Popular culture
- Valleyfair appeared in a scene in the baseball film Little Big League, with rides such as Corkscrew, Enterprise, High Roller, and The Wave being visible in the scene.
See also
- Excelsior Amusement Park â€" a park that operated in the region from 1925 to 1973. The carousel that stands inside the entrance came from Excelsior Amusement Park.
References
External links
- Valleyfair Official Website
- Valleyfair at the Roller Coaster DataBase