Carowinds Zone > Carowinds History

*Zone Navigation*
	Home History Rides Food & Fun Boomerang Bay Media Forums Store Contact About Links
*Carowinds Links:*
	Park Hours Buy Tickets Ride Guidelines Jobs/Careers

The history of Carowinds
Carowinds Timeline Sections:
-Pre-opening- -1973- -1974-1979- -1980-1988- -1989-1999- -2000-2004- -2005-2008-

	1974 Whlie various improvements were made to the park were made to the park, attendance went down from 1973. The park drew less than one million visitors during the year. The biggest improvement was the Stagecoach, a large restaurant and lounge. The restaurant seated 144 people The Stagecoach is now the Country Kitchen. Admission to Carowinds was $6, and the Monorail was included.

	1975 Family Leisure Centers, Inc. purchased Carowinds for 16 million dollars. The Happy Land of Hanna-Barbera opened in 1975, complete with children's rides and Scooby-Doo, a family-friendly wooden roller coaster. Also the Wagon Wheel and Waltzer rides were added. Footers were popping on along side the Carowinds & Carolina Railroad near the Stagecoach.

	1976 Thunder Road, a massive racing wooden roller coaster. The movie "Thunder Road" depicted moonshining in the mountains of the Carolinas. The original trains for Thunder Road were brought from Riverside Park in Chicago,IL. The trains were discarded later to increase the capacity, attendance finally starts to head back to the million mark but does not hit it.

	1977 White Lightnin',the world's first launched roller coaster reaching speeds of 58 MPH, White Lightnin' blasted you into a loop and up a 137 foot spike. White Lightnin was and still is the park's tallest roller coaster, but was removed in 1988 for RipTide Reef.

	1978 Thunder Road got new trains, A second gate was added between Thunder Road and Hanna-Barbera Land. The Surfer was removed in 1977, and the Black Widow took the place of Surfer.

	1979 The County Fair area makes it's debut with Wild Bull(Bayern-kurve), Whirling Dervish(Wave Swinger), Dodgems(Bumper Cars), and Meteorite(Enterprise). Thunder Road became the centerpiece of the new area.