Silver Dollar City announces new Fire in the Hole coming in 2024

Silver Dollar City officials today announced the second generation of its Fire in the Hole roller coaster – indoors and climate controlled – will be open for visitors in 2024.

The $30 million project has been under wraps for at least two years of planning and construction. When completed, it will be nearly one-third of a mile in length, officials with the Branson theme park said.

The ride is the main attraction for the newly renamed Fire District, previously known as Fireman’s Landing. The area also will feature a retail area called Flanders Dry Goods Outpost and an eatery featuring the park’s 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. This morning during a special event for park VIPs and media, Brad Thomas, president of Silver Dollar City, said 25 million visitors had ridden the coaster throughout its history.

The enclosed coaster had as its theme a historic event: 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 cars resembling fire pumper wagons.

The attraction will feature a powered incline and gravity descent with three drops and a splash-landing at the end.

The 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.”

The project is something different for the company, he 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.

Thomas said 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 additional parking spaces while engineering better flow into and out of the parking lots.

“Traffic will flow much more smoothly,” he said.

The entrance to the park also is being expanded, Thomas said, noting Silver Dollar City 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.”

Thomas said the roller coaster is part of a master plan with more announcements to come. The park recently purchased more land and has 1,000 connected acres for future development and expansion, to be announced later.