Rewriting History: Silver Dollar City invests $30M in new version of Fire in the Hole coaster

Silver Dollar City officials announced the second generation of the park’s Fire in the Hole roller coaster will be open to visitors in 2024.

Like its predecessor, which is set to close at the end of the park’s 2023 season, the new coaster will be an indoor attraction. The ride will be climate controlled for the park season that runs from May to December and will last 2 minutes, 51 seconds. Plans are for the coaster to include three drops, culminating in a water splashdown, along its third-of-a-mile length.

The $30 million project was under wraps for at least two years of planning and construction, but SDC President Brad Thomas made its announcement at a VIP and media event Aug. 14.

The ride is the main attraction for the area previously known as Fireman’s Landing, to be doubled in size and newly dubbed the Fire District. The district also will feature a retail area called Flanders Dry Goods Outpost and an eatery featuring the park’s signature pretzel dogs.

The theme park previously announced that the current season would be the last for the 51-year-old Fire in the Hole roller coaster, and officials encouraged people to visit for one last chance to enjoy the ride. In his announcement, Thomas said 25 million visitors had ridden the coaster throughout its history.

SDC officials estimate 2.1 million people will visit the park in the 2023-24 season, up from 2 million visitors last season, according to past reporting.

Thomas said the roller coaster is part of a 10-year master plan. In 2022, the park purchased 800 acres in Branson West, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting, and now has roughly 1,000 connected acres for future development and expansion.

Specific plans for the land will be announced at a later date, Thomas said.

Ride through history
The original Fire in the Hole coaster has as its theme an event from park lore that is rooted in Ozarks history: the burning of the town of Marmaros on the present site of the park by the Baldknobbers, a band of vigilantes active in the 1880s. The new coaster will carry on the same theme, with passengers riding through on train cars resembling fire pumper wagons and workers on rides in the Fire District wearing old-time firefighter uniforms.

The next-generation Fire in the Hole ride was designed by Denver-based Rocky Mountain Construction.

“Typically, we build big, giant thrill coasters,” said RMC President Darren Torr. “This is our first time doing a family coaster – a dark ride.”

A dark ride is an indoor roller coaster that takes riders through scenes, usually with high-intensity special effects, and has one or more roller coaster elements.

The project is something different for the company, Torr said, noting it is the first indoor coaster for RMC.

“It really presented us with some new challenges in terms of the mechanical switching that goes on with it and the cars, which are actually powered vehicles that go around the track,” he said.

Another challenge to introducing a new Fire in the Hole attraction is sustaining the sense of nostalgia felt by visitors who may have ridden it as their first roller coaster as early as 1972 and who have since brought their children and grandchildren to the park to experience the same thrill.

Thomas confirmed a handful of pieces from the existing Fire in the Hole ride will be incorporated into the 2024 version.

“Folks will come to ride this ride, but they’re also going to ride other things. They’re going to see our festival shows. They’re going to see our music shows. They’re going to watch our craftsmen in action,” he said. “Cumulatively, that entire experience is what puts it all together.”

He added, “We’re hopeful that this new ride just continues to enhance that experience, A, to drive more visitors to the Ozarks, and B, to make sure that when they arrive, they have a blast of a time.”

Tourism draw
The investment in the replacement coaster is the most ever spent on a single attraction, Thomas said.

He added the project is one part of an array of changes designed to make a better park experience for visitors. He said SDC already has added more than 1,000 parking spaces this season while engineering better flow into and out of the parking lots.

Thomas acknowledged that the Ozark terrain creates parking challenges for SDC that a place like Walt Disney World, built on flat swampland, never had to contend with.

“That’s why the parking lots were such a patchwork of just different spaces,” he said. “Now, we’ve made them much larger and joined them, allowing for better flow of the trams that pick our guests up and the conveyances that bring guests to us.”

Parking improvements also include tunnels and Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant ramps for visitors who park in lower-level lots, he said.

The entrance to the park also is being expanded, Thomas said, noting SDC is working with the Missouri Department of Transportation to add an additional left turn lane from Highway 76 onto the Indian Point peninsula to enter the park.

Parking and signage improvements, both completed and in progress, total a $14.5 million additional investment, he said.

“Even in the construction phase, visitors have given us better ratings on their parking experience than they’ve ever given us because they can see that it’s improving,” he said. “They’re already seeing how much better the traffic flows.”

After the announcement, Missouri Department of Tourism Director Stephen Foutes noted Branson is one of Missouri’s top tourism draws.

Foutes said the investments are a measure of the park’s dedication to drawing more visitors of all ages to southwest Missouri while keeping the area competitive with nearby markets.

In past Springfield Business Journal reporting, the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention & Visitors Bureau said the area welcomed 10.2 million visitors in 2022, a 12% increase from 2019.

Also according to past SBJ reporting, some theme park competition is under development in northeast Oklahoma, with an announced price tag of $2 billion. The developer is American Heartland, an affiliate of a Branson performing arts, animation and studio company, American Heartland Theme Park and Resort.

American Heartland CEO Larry Wilhite announced the company’s plans in a news release, noting Oklahoma is a heartlands location that is attractive as a family entertainment destination – a page right out of SDC’s playbook.

The planned 125-acre park would be part of a 1,000-acre development in Vinita, near Miami, Oklahoma. The park’s size, according to the company, is comparable to Magic Kingdom Theme Park and Disneyland Park. Camping and resort accommodations are also in the works, officials said.

When asked if nearby competition was concerning to SDC, Thomas responded, “We stay focused on Silver Dollar City.”