But the most infamous of the rides at Action Park was the Cannonball Loopan enclosed waterslide with a complete vertical loop. The Rides at Action Park (as Seen in Class Action Park) Could Literally Kill You, 'Only Murders in the Building' Will Get a Season 3, very lazy and very drunk guests often spent time, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. Action Park was reportedly one of America's deadliest amusement parks. Get the lowdown on the rise and fall of this Jersey legend. While Disneyland is described as the Happiest Place on Earth, Action Park might be considered the most dangerous (in 1984-1985, the Alpine Slide alone was responsible for 14 fractures and 26 head injuries). We strive for accuracy and fairness. [16], A few rides were closed and dismantled due to costly settlements and rising insurance premiums in the 1990s,[b] and the park's attendance began to suffer as a recession early in that decade reduced the number of visitors. The attraction closed with the park in 1996. Once on the ride, they would travel down a short incline, propelling them down the ride. . In 1998, resort developer Intrawest announced the purchase of the majority of the Vernon Valley/Great Gorge ski area, including Action Park and other developable real estate lands that GAR owned. In 2014, video footage that appeared to show riders going down the Cannonball Loop was unearthed and published online. The park opened in 1978 as the brainchild of Eugene Mulvihill, a man considered equal parts P.T. There are many other hidden gems in Kentucky, including architectural gems like Conrad Caldwell House and natural wonders like the eighteenth century Osage Orange Tree in Harrodsburg. It was also unique in that department in that all other amusement parks were fined for first offensesexcept Action Park. Some had no brakes, which meant there was no slowing down as they would zoom down the concrete slide. For example, it was accused of building rides cheaply, sporadically maintaining many of them, and failing to renovate rides to take advantage of later safety improvements to its ideas made by other facilities. "[4], Action Park's most successful years were the early and mid-1980s. Action Park was the topic of the first episode of the Relay FM podcast Ungeniused in June 2016, which explores the legacy of the park, how unsafe it was, and why people continued to visit it. That made for a bad combination with alcohol and general guest aggression. At the time of the early 80s, amusement parks in the U.S. were pretty new to the public. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The path underneath the chairlift resulted in verbal harassment and spitting from passengers going up for their turn. After the 1987 drowning, the Tidal Wave Pool reportedly was considered a pool by the state, not a ride. Length: 3.8 mi Est. [18][19], In early 1995, GAR operated Vernon Valley/Great Gorge and Action Park with no liability insurance. [2] Some early riders came back with lacerations to their bodies; when the ride was closed to determine what had caused them, teeth that had fallen out were found lodged in the interior walls. If you're really looking for the quirkiest features in Kentucky, you'll love seeing our bizarre roadside attractions. The stick that was supposed to control the sled's speed in practice offered just two options on the infrequently maintained vehicles: extremely slow, and a speed described by one former employee as "death awaits". Space Shot was a fairly-traditional drop ride (think Tower of Terror) that was only open for Action Park's final year, and was eventually bought by Six Flags in Quebec. On August 1, 1993, MTV's Headbangers Ball taped an episode at the park. [52], In 2015, Action Park planned to debut another water slide, the "Sky Caliber" developed by Sky Turtle Technologies, which would encase riders inside a bullet-like capsule for a 90-foot (27m) vertical drop and a 30-foot (9.1m) loop, at 50mph (80km/h) and 6 Gs. It continued through the parking lot, across Route 94, and came to rest in a swamp. Smooth drop-in bowls were isolated with "black top pavement" between them, according to Weird NJ, pavement that didn't even meet the bowl at a smooth edge; it was jagged. [85] In 2016, the Mountain Creek Waterpark name was restored to the park, thus retiring the Action Park name again.[86]. There would be a series of forks along the trail, and sometimes the rafts would get stuck, and riders would need to either get out and push or wait for another raft to hit them. Each stop had two stations, one for guests heading towards the Alpine Center, and one for guests heading to Motorworld. The Aerodium also caused severe injuries, for example, when a rider instinctively tried to break his fall by extending his arm, which caused shoulder dislocation, severed nerves, and near-permanent paralysis of the arm. [20] New Jersey did not require it, and GAR found it more economical to go to court than purchase liability insurance, since they relied on their own self-insurance. [10]:24:55, The vast majority of workers at Action Park, at least the ones regularly seen by visitors, were teenagers. You've probably seen something like this at other amusement parks, if you've ever gone; they're almost always an additional charge due to insurance issues. Being that the park was filled with rowdy and often-drunk teenagers, sometimes riders heading to the top of the ride would even drop their carts on riders below, making the already ridiculously dangerous ride into one where the riders would need to be concerned about heavy objects being dropped from above. I suspect that many of us may have come closest to death on some of those rides up in Vernon Valley. The new documentary Class Action Park on HBO Max looks closely at how the infamous theme park ranand these dangerous rides were the biggest draw. They also sometimes used these as bumper cars, which.is just a horrible idea through and through. "They seemed to build rides," one attendee recalled, "not knowing how they would work, and [then let] people on them. As barriers on the side of the slides were very low, lifeguards reminded every user to remain flat on their backs with their arms at their sides as they descended, since no way was possible to ride it otherwise and stay on. Some people held on too long and scraped their feet on the concrete. Surf Hill, common to other water parks at the time, allowed patrons to slide down a water-slick sloped surface on mats into small puddles until they reached a foam barrier after an upslope at the end. Newsweek says between 1984 and 1985 there were 26 head injuries and 14 broken bones just on the slide, but the most common injuries involved having skin torn from your body. Action Park's Motorworld section consisted of rides based around powered vehicles and boats on the west side of Route 94, opposite the main part of the park. 1h 27m. Action Park was officially opened on July 4, 1978. The ball shot all the way through Action Park's parking lot, ramped a small hill, and flew by a stunned construction crew, then bounced right across the Interstate, bringing traffic screeching to a halt. A 19-year-old park employee named George Larsson Jr., unable to control his speed, went down Alpine Slide far too quickly and consequently flew off the track and fatally hit his head. Sometimes they would drive off the course; one man in documentary said a guest once chased an employee down like a bull and a bullfighter. First Fidelity Bank, who lent $19 million to GAR and some 15 other connected corporations, filed suit against them in an effort to begin the process of foreclosing on the debt owed to them. Kamikaze was a fairly tame waterslide by Action Park standards, blue in color with drops and rises periodically. .css-1iyvfzb .brand{text-transform:capitalize;}We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. [2] The resort's mountain-bike route travels down the site and crosses over a few wooden footbridges that provided access over the alpine slide. The documentary tells the story of one park guest who dunked the tennis balls in gasoline before shooting them from the cannon, aflame. A Cincinnati native who has lived in Kentucky for over 10 years, Andrea's heart belongs both in the Queen City and the Bluegrass State. Healthcare workers and local residents had nicknamed the place "Traction Park",[2] "Accident Park", "Class Action Park"[3] and "Friction Park".[4]. By then, the park was responsible for six fatalities, including three drownings in the Tidal Wave Pool and the death of a 27-year-old man who was electrocuted on the Kayak Experience when his boat tipped over and he came into contact with water that had a loose wire touching it. They had a handle that went in two directions; ostensibly, you'd pull back to brake and push forward to go faster, a speed a former park employee .css-16acfp5{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.125rem;text-decoration-color:#d2232e;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:inherit;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-16acfp5:hover{color:#000;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;background-color:yellow;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}described as "death awaits.". He envisioned a theme park with slightly more thrills, one where the riders "controlled" the action. Riders would sit on a plastic sled with wheels and shoot down a steep and curved 2,700-foot long hard concrete track. It was also the parks anything goes, choose-your-own-adventure mentality. The water on the ride and in that swimming area was 5060F (1016C), while other water areas were in the 7080F (2127C) range, more typical of swimming pools. Riders would get in rafts (originally with two people, but eventually upped to four), and bring it to the top of a ride and ride it down. The first death at Action Park occurred on the Alpide Slide, and his family discusses the death in the movie. Action Park's alpine slide descended the mountain roughly below one of the ski area's chairlifts, resulting in much verbal harassment and sometimes spitting from passengers going up for their turn, who would often be entertained by the accidents they witnessed while at the same time hoping to avoid similar fates. Bumper Boats was a supposedly safer ride than the Super Speedboats, but the engines often leaked gasoline, at least once requiring medical attention for one rider who got too much of it on his skin. [citation needed] By late 1991,[87] the park was closed. [38] By 1995, the attraction was removed and replaced with a beach volleyball court. Now it is the subject of a documentary. There's inherent risk in that, but that's what makes it fun. The tracks the old slides followed are still visible. Across the other side of Route 94 was Motorworld, where vehicle-based rides (of the water, land, and air variety) were housed. In Class Action Park, one former employee recalls that sessions practicing the rescue of drowning victims were often pretexts for hazing. This ride was a simulation not only of kayaking, but whitewater kayaking, which meant underwater submerged fans. Among interviewees, there seems to be one major consensus: this shit wasn't safe. For the current park operating on the site, see, Group of friends, Action Park, August 3, 1994, Factors contributing to the park's safety record. "[10]:42:15 Those injured were often happy to accept complimentary passes for future visits as compensation. New Jerseys Action Park, which quickly became known as Accident Park, had it all. . The park re-opened as Action Park in 2014-15, and this plan for a loop-de-loop slide was made public. [2] In September 1989, GAR negotiated a deal with International Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) that would result in the sale of Vernon Valley/Great Gorge, and Action Park, for $50 million. New hires often had to play the drowning victim, and after the training was over, or instead of training, were often abandoned in the water to get out themselves. Doctors treating the injured often reported that many of them were intoxicated. It evolved into a major destination with 75 rides (35 motorized, self-controlled rides and 40 water slides). [7] For the summer of 1978, Mulvihill added two water slides and a go-kart track, and named the collection of rides the "Vernon Valley Summer Park". One worker told a local newspaper that "there were too many bloody noses and back injuries" from riders. The interviewees in the documentary also said that because of the ride's long lines, and the fact that the line overlooked where guests would jump in, other rowdy guests would often berate people who were jumping into the water, calling them a "pussy" or something else of the sort. "[28] After closing at the end of the season as usual on Labor Day 1996, it launched a website where visitors could find information about rides, directions to the park, lodging, and enter a lottery for park tickets. More than 20,000 adrenalin junkies visited New Jersey's Action Park daily during the 1980s - a tourist attraction that contained at least 75 rides. Riders carried their rafts from the bottom of the ride up to the starting point. Lifeguards would supposedly make as many as 30 rescues during any given busy weekend, a stark contrast to the 1-2 that are typically found in a typical entire pool or lake season. Riders sat on small sleds that had only a brake/accelerator control stick and rode down the slide in long chutes built into the slope. Visitors would ride the ski lifts up the mountain and slide down 2,700 feet in a joystick controlled cart. [40][4] In the 2020 documentary Class Action Park, Larsson's mother and brother said that was incorrect, accusing park management of using the story of Larsson being an employee previously to get out of having to report the death. [66] Stadium seating encircled the perimeter of the Aerodium, allowing friends and spectators to watch riders fly. [38], The matches could lead to real violence. If youre craving and adrenaline rush, this incredible attraction is the perfect day trip destination for you. Brace yourself", "Mountain Creek resort in N.J. sold to developer Gene Mulvihill", "Franklin Templeton billionaire escapes contentious lawsuit", "The dangerous return of the world's most insane theme park", http://www.videoparadise-sanjose.com/1990arcades.htm, "WPHL channel 17 the great entertainer-mid 80's", "Judge Approves Sale Of Action Mountain Site", Action Park History, Recollections, News Articles and Photos from Weird NJ, "There Was Nothing in the World Like Action Park. After a few seconds of flight, the attendant operating the fan would cut the power, causing the rider to fall onto the air cushions surrounding the fan. Mulvihill's policy was to never settle suits, and only pay compensation to injured patrons following a judgement against the park and (typically) a determined collection effort on the plaintiff's part. They figured it out, and the rider on top ran off like nothing was wrong. Perhaps more than any other ride at Action Park, the Alpine Slide is one that a person with common sense simply would look at, think for a split second, and say (to no one in particular), "Absolutely fucking not. If you choose to make Kentucky your home, then you will find more charm and beauty hiding in our lovely landscape. [10]:12:50, A story widely rumored and reported in Weird NJ was that some of the test dummies sent down before it opened had been dismembered and decapitated. 1 Later, a range of epidemiological studies followed. [49] The resulting slide, called the "Cannonball Loop", was so intimidating that employees have reported they were offered $100 (equivalent to $252 in 2021) to test it. GAR's management resorted to illegal financial schemes to keep itself solvent, which led to indictments of its executives, some of whom, like founder Gene Mulvihill, pled guilty to some charges. READ MORE: The Deadliest Roller Coaster Accident in America. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. [45], Much of the Transmobile was dismantled when Intrawest took over the park in 1998. Action Park was a legendary water and amusement park, prone to injuries and even deaths. A water attraction at Action Park. This was a standard whitewater rafting ride, and one that the park (when legally forced to) reported a number of injuries. Not only was the park home to poorly-designed rides, rowdy clientele, and a whole lot of booze, but it was just objectively unsafeand that led to numerous injuries and even deaths to patrons who dared to ride the rides. Evan is the culture editor for Mens Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. Some of these rides still operate (albeit in a modified fashion) in the park's current iteration, Mountain Creek Water Park. The police also were called in on another occasion when a group of visiting bodybuilders threw lifeguards into the pool they were guarding, leading the lifeguards to bring in friends as reinforcements. Below, you can read about every single notable Action Park ride. According to one urban legend, when park owners sent a dummy doll on a test run of the ride, it came back with no head. The fall from both slides had the potential for very serious injury. [5] The park received a massive overhaul, which included extensively renovating and repairing attractions, especially those deemed either outright unsafe or inappropriate relative to Intrawest's vision of the park, with some being removed entirely. [2], "Gene didn't want to do the same old shit, where you just get strapped into something or it twirls around," Andy Mulvihill, later the park's head lifeguard, recalls of his father's philosophy in creating Action Park. [10]:16:25[42], In 1991, Action Park opened up a 70-foot-tall (21m), two-station bungee jumping tower near the alpine slide. [citation needed], Since it was closer and slightly cheaper than Six Flags Great Adventure, Action Park attracted many visitors from urban enclaves of the New York metropolitan area. In 2000 one litigant alleged in court filings that 2,400 injury claims had been filed against GAR. Located in the town of Tannersville, Pennsylvania, it had a Waterworld section with slides and tube rides, and a Motorworld section featuring many of the same racing-themed attractionsincluding Lola race cars and go-kartsas the Vernon park. By 1980, Motorworld had been carved out of swamplands the ski area owned across State Route 94. They weren't on any sort of track, and any slight fall would lead to a serious abrasion; at this point, riders were taken to an infirmary and sprayed with an iodine solution that left a serious, recognizable red mark. [33], Following the demise of GAR, Praedium Recovery Fund purchased the Vernon Valley/Great Gorge resort, including Action Park, for $10 million. A wheeled ride with no brakes that shot down a concrete-and-fiberglass track. Founder and CEO Gene Mulvihills philosophy was that amusement park visitors should be in control of their experience, envisioning a park where patrons managed the ridesincluding how fast and how high they went. The first was the Tecumseh study (starting in 1947), 2 which initiated lots of further epidemiological projects . In 2012, Mountain Creek introduced an alpine coaster, which combines elements of an alpine slide and a roller coaster. Upon exiting the tunnel, riders would twist and turn some more until they reached a small rock pool, and slowly floated out. "[42], A rider also reportedly got stuck at the top of the loop due to insufficient water pressure, and a hatch had to be installed at the bottom of the slope to allow for future extractions. In theory, each rider was in charge of their own speed, but the devices were almost always broken. It should come as no surprise that the high-summer months of July and August bring . "He wanted to take the idea of skiing, which is exhilarating because you control the action, and transfer it to an amusement park. Melbourne, Australia. [34] The investment group put Angel Projects in charge of managing the resort, and aimed to spend $20 million to upgrade the ski resort's equipment and trails and remodel the water park. In 1984, according to the Weird NJ story, a man was so stunned by the coldness of the water that he had a heart attack and died. It consisted of a large foam sphere in which a rider could be secured, and then rolled downward. The plan was to do it on a track with PVC pipe as its outer rails, and one was built alongside a ski trail. [2], Since many rides routed their lines so that those waiting could see every previous rider, many played to the audience with risque and bawdy behavior when it did finally come to be their turn. Let us know in the comments below! The sand was used to raise the ground for the construction of the surrounding neighborhoods. You control the speed in this action-packed thrill ride with dips, high-bank turns, and spectacular views. Action Park's 2,700-foot-long (820 m) alpine slide descended the mountain beneath one of the ski area's chairlifts, which provided guests access to the top of the slide. Over the course of a day, three shows were put on, and the guests who ran the fastest obstacle course times in the earlier shows were brought back to compete against each other later in the day. The effort failed because only 643 of the 937 signatures on the petition came from registered voters. Action Park was an amusement and water park located in Vernon Township, New Jersey, United States, on the grounds of the Vernon Valley/Great Gorge ski resort. [9] Despite this, people continued to come in massive numbers. The Alpine Slide was called Action Park's most popular ride in a 1986 New Jersey Herald article--one that a park official declared "the safest ride there is," noting that a 90-year old grandmother and mothers with babies on their laps had taken a ride on it. The area is the perfect spot for a day of fun, including options for zip-lining, horse-back riding and of course, several cave tours. Action Park was finally closed in 1996. Alpine Center was the home of the ski lift and the. That's who your heart really bleeds for," Chris Gethard, a comedian and former guest of Action Park said in the documentary. Versions of this slide, and the same splash pool at the bottom, still exist at Mountain Creek today. The park greatly overestimated these abilities,[c] and this was a factor in many accidents, as well as the drownings, according to park officials. It survived the Mountain Creek redesign. Opened in Vernon, New Jersey, in 1978, Action Park was one of the first modern water parks in the United States. The ride was only officially open for about a month in 1985, before the Advisory Board on Carnival Amusement Ride Safety shut it down. [42], The park also sold beer in many kiosks on the grounds, with similarly relaxed enforcement of the drinking age as with other restrictions in the park. DeSaye faults management's decision to broaden the customer base by advertising in Spanish-language media as contributing to the accident rate, since few employees spoke Spanish and no written information was made available in that language. It contained just about half of the park's attractions overall, and was also the location of most of the park's deaths. They also say that these boats were riddled with snakes. In 1976, Eugene Mulvihill and his company, Great American Recreation (GAR), the owners of the recently combined Vernon Valley/Great Gorge ski area in Vernon Township, New Jersey, wanted to make money during the summer off-season. However, sometimes the most incredible locations in any given place are closely guarded secrets that only locals know. The park is no longer the lawless playground it once was, and the Alpine Slide is long gone (thank god), but Action Park has retained much of the original spirit that made it great. [21][22] However, they ultimately purchased liability insurance from Evanston Insurance Company in May of that year to cover Action Park and the skiing facilities. Gas up the car and prepare for adventure, because fun awaits at this incredible Kentucky park. In 2017, Action Park was featured in an episode of Defunctland. Only one of these slides remains today, and the track was replaced with one that was not as steep. Larsson was in a coma briefly before succumbing to his injuries and dying at age 19. When a guest who fell out of his kayak tried to get back in, he accidentally touched the wiring of the fans and it sent him into cardiac arrest, killing him. It was arguably Americas most dangerous water park. Below, an outline of all the major rides that were located in Action Park. [36] The Motorworld section of the park remained in place, undisturbed, until at least mid-2000, when work began on Mountain Creek's Black Creek Sanctuary. Participants would ride a ski lift up to the top of a hill, grab a cart, and hope for the . Others had the brakes locked on, causing the rider to crawl down the slide, inevitably being hit in the back by another, speedier, rider. [citation needed] Height- and weight-based restrictions were often ignored. After earning an education degree and working in that field for a number of years, Andrea began to pursue her passion for writing over 6 years ago. [24] Law firms owed money for services rendered between 1991 and 1993 also began filing suit. It also had a miniature golf course and standard pools and rides for children. During news media coverage of the ride's opening, Andy Mulvihill pushed a television reporter who refused to make the jump off the platform, at the direction of his older sister, then head of public relations for the park. "[44], The slide was open for only a month in 1985 before it was closed at the order of the state's Advisory Board on Carnival Amusement Ride Safety, a highly unusual move at the time. The Colorado River Ride, which still exists, is a two-person raft ride that winds its way down a heavily wooded area on the side of the park, with numerous forks allowing riders to take different routes. Guests could not drop very far, and were tethered to a weight that prevented them from bouncing back up to the top of the tower. Riders would also get hurt, as the documentary interviewees said, when they would get into a fight with fellow aggressive, often-drunk guests in the pool at the end of the ride. Gene's dream had only just begun to be realized. [4] The next summer, the tower was upgraded to four jumping stations.[43]. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. [29], As the 1997 summer season approached, GAR remained optimistic that Action Park would open as expected on June 14, in spite of massive layoffs at the end of the prior ski season. But for a generation of kids from the Tri-State area, nothing will replace the dangerous thrills of a hot summer day at Action Park. This was kind of a demented version of a lazy river ride, where it was meant to simulate actual rough Colorado river rapids. Fun times! [76][77][78] The film was released under the title Action Point by Paramount Pictures on June 1, 2018. Park guests' flights were limited to a maximum of 6 or 7 feet (1.8 or 2.1m) above the ground, about 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60cm) over the instructor's head. If riders distributed their weight incorrectly, they would often go head first when leaving the slide, injuring themselves. Guests would compete against park employees who were found by scouting local gyms, according to a 1992 Daily Gazette news snippet. The waves also reached up to 40 inches in height, and it wasn't entirely clear that the water in the pool was getting deeper when it indeed was. In the summers of 1995 and 1996, it was opened for several days before further injuries forced its permanent shutdown. General news/sports, police, criminal and civil court reporter/on air journalist/newsreader. He wanted to change that. There's so much to love about The Bluegrass State In addition to stunning landscapes and incredible people, Kentucky is home to all sorts of incredible things to do. If they hit another tank's sensor, that tank would become incapacitated and spin around for 15 seconds. [89] In 1999, the site was redeveloped into the Pine Hill Golf Course. The park's fortunes began to turn with two deaths in the summer of 1984, and the legal and financial problems that stemmed from the ensuing lawsuits. Kentucky Action Park - CLOSED. It revamped the Waterworld section of Action Park, and reopened it for the 1998 season as Mountain Creek Waterpark, while the Motorworld and Alpine Center sections were demolished. Alpine Center was the home of the ski lift and the Alpine Slide, which is just the most obviously dangerous ride you can ever imagine in your life.
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