Volume 1, No. 6. April 20, 2001
It’s a roller coaster!
Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, announces the arrival of Wildfire, April 4, 2001 (155 feet high, 3,073 feet long, 66 mph). Delivered by Bolliger & Mabillard.
Though the new coaster opened to the public with Silver Dollar City’s season, the first official ride was taken on March 13 when the park combined a local tourism conference attended by Missouri Governor Bob Holden with a press preview of Wildfire. "We invited Gov. Holden to be the first rider, and we planned for him to ride it once," said Martha Hoy Bohner, a park publicist. "But he wanted to ride it again and again, so we let him." Three times, in all.
The media was invited back for exclusive ride time on Wildfire in the hour before the park opened Friday, April 6, in conjunction with the first day of Silver Dollar City’s annual World-Fest. Bohner said 180 members of the press, including their families, attended that re-introduction of the $14 million coaster, the largest ride ever built in the four-decade-old park.
For a virtual ride on Wildfire, visit the park’s web site www.silverdollarcity.com.
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