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Paramount's Kings Island is a 364 acre (1.5 km²) amusement park located in the Warren County, Ohio city of Mason, 24 miles northeast of Cincinnati. (The mailing address is Kings Mills.) The park owns close to 775 acres of land (3.2 km²), but only 364 acres are currently developed. Kings Island is owned by Viacom, and is a part of a chain of Paramount Parks that are located throughout the United States and Canada.
History
Kings Island first opened its gates in 1972. It featured The Racer, which was two wooden roller coasters that raced each other. The Racer is credited by many people with starting the second golden age of the roller coaster. Many of its first riders were from Coney Island, a popular park on the Ohio River about 10 miles (16 km) east of downtown Cincinnati. Coney Island had closed due to frequent floods, but has since reopened.
One of the first events to draw publicity to the park was the filming of an episode of The Brady Bunch at the park. Later, an episode of The Partridge Family was shot there. While they do not mention the name of the park, they do call it "a new park outside Cincinnati." Many of the scenes feature the park's scaled down Eiffel Tower replica as a backdrop.
Kings Island has added many thrill rides throughout the years. In 1979, the park unveiled The Beast, the tallest, longest, and fastest roller coaster in the world at the time. After more than 20 years, it still holds the title of the world's longest wooden roller coaster at 7,419 ft (2,261 m). In 1981, Kings Island introduced the world's first suspended roller coaster, The Bat. However, it was plagued with maintenance problems and closed 4 years later. The first stand up coaster in the United States, King Cobra, opened in 1984, but was put into storage in 2002. In 1987, Vortex opened, and set a new record for the number of inversions (6) and took the record from The Beast for the tallest roller coaster in the world. 1991 saw the addition of Adventure Express, a mine train ride. Top Gun, the last suspended coaster built in the USA, was built in 1993. 1994 saw the addition of Action Theater, an indoor simulator ride. In 1996, the park added the world's first roller coaster powered by a linear induction motor (LIM), Outer Limits: Flight of Fear. In 1999, Drop Zone, the world's tallest free-fall, and Face/Off, a coaster, were opened. The Son of Beast, the sequel to the Beast, opened in 2000. Currently, it is the tallest, fastest, and only looping wooden roller coaster in the world. In 2002, the park added Tomb Raider, an indoor ride. Delirium, a 137 ft (42 m) rotating pendulum ride, opened in 2003.
Today, Kings Island has 12 roller coasters and many huge flat rides. But despite all of these thrill rides, Kings Island is much more than a park just for thrill seekers. Kings Island's "WaterWorks" water park was renovated in 2004 to become "Boomerang Bay (http://www.pki.com/attractions_water.jsp)," a waterpark resort that comes free with admission. Kings Island has also won Amusement Today's award for 'Best Kid's Area in the World.'
Records and Firsts
- King Kobra: First stand-up coaster in North America
- Screamin Demon: First shuttle loop coaster
- Vortex: First coaster with more than 5 inversions
- The Bat: First suspended coaster
- Scooby's Ghoster Coaster: First suspended coaster for children
- Rugrat's Runaway Reptar: First inverted coaster for children
- Racer: First coaster to run backwards
- Flight of Fear: First coaster to use linear induction magnets to launch
- The Beast: Longest wooden roller coaster in the world
- Son of Beast: Tallest, Fastest, and only looping wooden roller coaster
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