![]() Quickly, Log Flumes became exceedingly popular and became staples of amusement and theme parks across the world, with much of the design remaining relatively unchanged since. ![]() Their first installation was ‘El Aserradero’ (The Sawmill) which debuted at Six Flags Over Texas in 1963, and is still in operation today, with ‘The Mill Race’ following it only a few weeks later at Cedar Point. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that the modern log flume was truly perfected by a company called Arrow Development. And old mill rides, which usually just had a boat that floated along a trough, through darkened mill-building tunnels. The modern-day log flumes are a variant of the shoot-the-chute rides, which still continue to be built today, and featured a larger passenger boat that would slide down a chute and skip along the water at the bottom before being manually hoisted back up the slope. Such rides were the precursor of the modern log-ride amusement park rides.Īs theme park rides developed and evolved into the early 20 th century, boat and chute rides began to pop up, taking their inspiration from this fun-looking logging technology. A ride down the flume would surely rival that of the modern day amusement park ride, as due to gradient of some of these transport channels, the speeds could reach up to 50 miles an hour. On occasion, despite being exceedingly dangerous, flume herders and others would ride down the flume in small crafts or boats, either for inspection or for thrills. Take a POV (point of view) front row ride on Race for Your Life Charlie Brown.Employed by these sawmills, were ‘flume herders’, whose main responsibility it was to inspect the length of the channels, to ensure the lumber wasn’t jamming up and to watch for leaks or breaks in the flume. After many obstacles and conflicts, Woodstock’s raft, consisting of sticks and a leaf, is the only one to cross the finish line! ![]() In the movie, Charlie Brown and the rest of the PEANUTS gang enter a summer camp raft race against a group of cheating bullies. Hopkins company and renamed in 2010 to Race for Your Life Charlie Brown after the 1977 PEANUTS movie by the same name. One of the few remaining original attractions from Coney Island that still operates at Kings Island, the ride was completely overhauled in 2001 by the O.D. To align with Rivertown’s nod to the pioneer days of the 1800s and Cincinnati’s past as a river city, officials named the ride Kings Mills Log Flume. The ride moved to Kings Island for the park’s opening in 1972 and found a home in what is now the park’s Rivertown section. ![]() Manufacturing company Arrow built Race for Your Life at Cincinnati’s Coney Island in 1968 for $500,000, making it the most expensive attraction ever installed at Coney Island. Not the safest, but hey, with no Netflix or Kings Island, what else could you do for fun? Amusement parks used this technology as inspiration for the log flume ride, and the rest is history.įast forward to the late 1960s. Sometimes the chutes became damaged or had backups, so workers known as “flume herders” inspected the chutes by hopping on a log and going for a thrilling ride. To transport lumber over rough terrain, sawmills moved the lumber in man-made channels with flowing water. ![]() The inspiration for log flume rides comes from the 19th century lumber industry. Many have taken a dive on this ride since Kings Island’s opened in 1972, but to know the full story we need to go further back to a time before Charlie Brown missed footballs and horses and buggies were a common sight. Whatever the reason, log flumes like Race for Your Life Charlie Brown have entertained families for decades, and one of Kings Island’s most popular rides has an interesting past that dates back to before the park’s opening. Perhaps it’s the simplicity of feeling your stomach drop on that final water fall and cooling off with the whole family. No matter what record-breaking coasters pop up at amusement parks, something always seems to pull us to a log flume. ![]()
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