Closing Summer with a Splash: Silver Dollar City Announced new Ride

Branson's Silver Dollar City made a splash to close out the summer by announcing a new ride on Monday.

The Herschend Family Entertainment owned theme and park's new ride stands five stories tall. The new water ride, called "Fire in the Hole" will open in 2024. It's a new take on the old but beloved ride.

The announcement called it, "the largest indoor coaster in the heartland." Brad Thomas is the park's president of attractions. He said it was a "great" and "historic" day.

The history making moment revealed that the song that played in the ride for 51 years will remain but with a modern flavor. Daily and Vicent are the creative minds behind the updated song.

Silver Dollar City has a record of breaking records. He mentioned rides such as Time Traveller and Mystic River Falls among other record smashers.

This new ride also breaks records. "The new Fire in the Hole is not like any ride that has ever been created," Thomas said. He said this ride, like others, are inspired by local history.

"In 1972, Silver Dollar City opened the original Fire in the Hole." Regarding the new ride, Thomas said there are 17 scenes, the track is close to a third of a mile long and the ride also has onboard audio in addition to other features like lighting. The original ride had 15 scenes; this new ride keeps the 15 original scenes but with two additions.

The ride will feature HVAC control. Later, Thomas mentioned the makers of the ride. 

The news that the ride was made in the United States by Rocky Mountain Coasters was met with applause.

People can ride the old version of the ride until the end of December. Thomas teased that announcements are in store for 2024, 2025 and 2026. Thomas revealed that one of the announcements will be about "1,000 acres of land" that the park acquired in the last couple of years.

Earlier, The Upside with Josh and Them spoke with Erica Rutledge. Rutledge is the senior director of guest experience development at Herschend Family Entertainment. She's also the creative director. The creative director said she has not worked on anything this significant before.

"It has been years since we could say anything about this," Rutledge said. The investment for this new ride totals to $30 million.

People can watch the archived livestream of the announcement on the My 100.1 Facebook Page.