Nestled in the small town of Bowie, Maryland (population currently under 60k) is Six Flags America, a park with a fifty-one year history. My family was fortunate enough to be able to visit this park twice - one in 2021 after reopening due to Covid, and yesterday.
Opened July 15, 1974 as a drive-through animal safari called The Wildlife Preserve (funded by Texas tycoon Ross Perot), which shuttered for a few years in the late ninteen seventies. In 1980 it re-opened as Wild World with this drive-through safari as well as a few amusement rides plus some water slides and play areas. In 1983 it expanded to include additional amusement rides and a large wave pool (which saw a very sad tragedy that summer). Soon thereafter the safari portion was removed and the park focused mainly on water features.
In 1985 the owners added back amusement park rides to make the park profitable in cooler months. The opportunity arose to purchase Paragon Park's wooden rollercoaster, Giant Coaster, which had been operating since 1917 and renamed it "The Wild One" which is still functioning at Six Flags America (although I personally thought it looked its age).
In the early 1990's with maintenance costs becoming too high, the park was sold to Tierco Group Inc who renamed the park "Adventure World" in 1994. Many improvements were made to the park including adding new rides including Intamin's free-fall drop-tower ride now called Voodoo Drop. Tierco Group Inc (renamed Premier Parks) acquired the Six Flags amusement park chain in 1998 and renamed "Adventure World" to "Six Flags America" in 1999. They also added Looney Tunes and DC characters to assist with a push in marketing and theming. In 2000, Superman: Ride of Steel opened (and its the most popular ride in the park). In 2001, the water park area was renamed "Six Flags Hurricane Harbor" and renovated.
In 2014, the park re-themed an area with Mardi Gras in addition to a new coaster, Ragin' Cajun.
In 2016, a twenty-four story ride named Wonder Woman: Lasso of Truth was added and its the tallest ride in the park.
For the 2019 season, the previous Apocalypse ride was rebranded Firebird and converted into a floorless coaster.
Sadly, when Six Flags and Cedar Fair corporations merged just last year, everyone knew the new entity would probably start closing some of its forty-plus parks. Although Six Flags America had just invested a large amount into a new water coaster and re-theming an area into SteamTown (a fun steam punk theme), the corporation announced in May of this year, just before the start of summer season, that they would be closing Six Flags America. Hurricane Harbor (which is inside the park) closed September 6th while Six Flags America will close November 2nd.
Our visit coincided with kid-friendly albeit scaled-down Boo Fest which consisted of a trick-or-treat trail, some stage and street entertainment shows, a very short parade with costumed entertainers handing out beaded necklaces. They were not running Fright Fest and the park closed at 6pm. My youngest child thought the trick-or-treat trail inside the dark, black-lit repurposed haunted house was too scary. The halloween stage show had creepy-looking costumes and the pumpkin decorating cost $5.00. There were Boo Fest special food items for sale at the nearby counter services.
November 1st and 2nds are the last days the park will be open, 11am CST to 7:00pm CST on Saturday and until 6:00pm CST on Sunday. Pretty sure the last day will be the busiest. The stores are already clearancing out all their merchandise so there might not be anything left at that point.
For more information:
sixflags.com/america
