The Unofficial History of Six Flags Over Texas
The Skeeball Palace was a Skeeball Games hall installed near the tower in 1974.
Tower Slide, starting at 50 foot lever of Six Flags Tower.
Tower Area Attractions :
Oil Derrick
Tower Slides
Tower Area Shows
Music Mill
Spindletop
SkeeBall Palace
The Shockwave
Spinniker
Air Racer
Bomber Alley
Go Carts
The Tower is a 300 foot tall observation tower shaped like an oil derrick. It first opened for the 1969 Season and is the park’s ninth oldest operating ride. It is billed as “the world’s largest land based oil derrick”, but of course it can not function as an actual oil tower. The Tower is the tallest structure in the park.
The ride was built by Intamin. It was constructed in an area that was a part of Skull Island which contained the Pirate Ship and cave. It replaced the Crane Ride in the Boomtown section as the park’s observation ride. The Crane Ride was closed at the end of the 1968 season.
Two high speed elevators take riders to the tower’s two observation platforms. From there the entire park can be viewed. On a clear day, guests can see all the way to Dallas on the East and Fort Worth on the West. Arlington is to the South and the mid-cities to the North. Telescopes are also available for a quarter for close up viewing.
A railing wraps around the tower at the 100 foot level. This railing is nonfunctional, however, and only provides “balance.” There is no platform at this level.
The top of the structure is 300 feet high; the highest guest platform is 267 feet high and 50 feet wide; the lower guest platform is at 255 feet and is 45 feet wide; the “fake” railing is at approximately 100 feet; the old slide level, which can function as a lower observation deck serviced by stairs, is at 47 feet and is 75 feet wide; the base level is 74 feet wide.
Originally the tower had a twelve lane slide attached to the fifty foot platform. The slides traveled off the East side of the tower, towards the area that is now the roaring rapids. The slide was removed in 1976. The platform and railing are still visible at that level.
In the 1980s, the shoulder high railing system was supplemented with a mesh fencing which caged in the entire observations deck.
The entire elevator system was rebuilt and closed for the 1998 season.
At Halloween, the Tower is decorated with a Giant Ape. At Christmas, the Tower is decorated with a star. In the 1998 season, the Ape sprung a hole and had to be taken down.
The Tower has sister towers at Kings Island in Ohio and Kings Dominion in Virginia. Although the other Towers are shaped to look like the Efle Tower, they are both dimensionally almost identical to the Texas Tower.
Views
The Six Flags Run-A-Way Mine Train was installed in 1966, and is the eighth oldest operating attraction in the park.
Although the Mine Train is the oldest of the park’s current fleet of roller coasters, it was not the first coaster in the park. The first coaster was a cat and mouse style metal coaster in the Modern section originally named the Sidewinder. The Sidewinder opened with the park in 1961. In 1962 it was moved to the Mexican section and renamed the La Cucaracha. The La Cucaracha was removed from the park at the end of the 1964 season and before the Mine Train was installed in 1966.
The Mine Train was, however, the first of its type anywhere in the world. It was developed for the park by Arrow Dynamics, a California company that also built happy cars and the flume. The coaster ride was based on technology first developed by Arrow for the Disney Matterhorn. Although metal roller coasters were not at the time novel, the Mine Train used nylon wheels and tubular steel pipe track rails for a smoother faster ride. This development paved the way for future metal coasters.
The ride originally cost $1 million to build.
As is true with the earlier rides in the park’s history, the ride is well themed. The que-house is designed to look like a mountain mine building. The cars are themed to resemble mine ore cars. Animations along the ride gave the feeling of the times.
The ride consists of 2,484 feet of track broken between three lifts, the highest of which is 35 feet. The three lifts and que-house brake the ride into four zones, allowing the use of up to five trains. One train can be at or between the loading zone and the first lift, another between the first and second lift, another between the second and third lifts, another between the third lift and the unloading zone and the last in the unloading zone. The lifts can be stopped at anytime to maintain the train separation.
The ride begins with the trip up the first and highest lift. From there it travels around the track to the second lift. The second lift is housed in a building designed to look like a rock crusher. Looking straight up as you travel through the second lift reveals a large crusher rolling above you. From the second lift, the train travels slowly “through a waterfall” allowing the guest to see the waterfall from the inside.
An animated scene of miners can be seen panning for gold in the water in front of the waterfall. The train then picks up speed as it heads downhill and through a man-made “mine” tunnel.
The train emerges from the tunnel and travels up the third and final lift into the “Ace Hotel and Saloon”. The “Ace Hotel” was named in 1974 for John (Ace) Cocharo, a Mine Train Foreman turned ride supervisor. The train travels through the hotel, allowing riders to see the “piano player” and hotel guests. The ride then descends the last drop into a tunnel which actually travels “under” the Caddo lake, emerging just outside of the que-house.
The top speed of the ride is billed at 38 feet per second, which translates to twenty-six (26) miles an hour.
In 1996 the Run-a-way Mine Train name was changed to just the “Mine Train” to avoid confusion with the newly constructed “Runaway Mountain” in the Confederate Section.
A very successful high capacity ride, the Mine Train was copied in theme parks around the nation. The ride is now a piece of history, and is still a favorite with the crowds.
JANUARY 1, 2020 by DAVIS_MCCOWN (Edit)
The Mini-Mine Train was built in 1969, making it tied with the Tower for the 9th oldest operating ride in the park. (Both have been out of operation for a season for remodeling.)
The ride was built by Arrow Development, the same company that built the Runaway Mine Train. Located next to the original “Runaway Mine Train”, the Mini-Mine train was specifically designed to be a roller coaster for the younger crowd. The lift hill is twenty (20) feet high.
The train goes around a basically circular track and back to the que house. On slow days, to make the ride a little longer, the trains are run twice for each ride.
The track was rebuilt in 1997 to accommodate the New Mr. Freeze ride.
(c) Davis McCown, 1999
The Caddo were an Indian tribe native to Texas. Much in the style of the original rides, this ride recreated a ride on an “Indian War Canoe”.
The five long canoes sat approximately sixteen guests, on benches of two adults each. They were steadied and steered by an employee, dressed in Indianan costumes, at the back of the canoe. On some occasions, an “Indian” employee sat at front of the canoe as well.
In addition to actually steering the canoe, the employee would often entertain the guests with instructions on how to paddle, as well as jokes and antidotes about the park and sights.
Much to the surprise of many of the guests, who frequently believed that the ride had some type of hidden motors or tracks, the canoes has no method of propulsion other than their paddling. In addition, the canoes were not on any type of track or guide. In fact, the Indians often encouraged their guests to race any other canoe in the area back to the dock. The canoes traveled around a small pond named “Caddo Lake”
In the middle of the water was a small island, named “Caddo Island.” The canoes traveled completely around the small island which contained a small Indian village, complete with teepees. The original loading dock for the ride was at the end of a long path that traveled between the Amphitheater and Skull Island River.
The Canoes were removed from the park at the end of the 1983 season.
The Texas SkyScreamer is a giant swing ride which opened in May, 2013.
The ride is 400 feet high and spins at 35 mph. There are 12 units, with two seats each, for a total capacity of 24. As the swings spin, the circle that they travel in becomes 124 foot wide. The ride lasts 2 minutes, 45 seconds.
The ride is a “Star Flyer” type ride manufactured by Austrian manufacturer Funtime.
JANUARY 1, 2020 by DAVIS_MCCOWN (Edit)