Silver Dollar City Permanent link to this item in the archive.

We spent most of the day yesterday at Silver Dollar City in Branson and it was a very good time. They do a very good job executing their 1880's theme and had some of the cleverest rides I've ever been on. Three really stick out. Fire in the Hole is an indoor underground roller coaster in the theme of an old school riding haunted house - except faster. Powder Keg is a new fast moving metal coster with a lateral rise to the launching station followed by a cool explosion for the guests at the observation point and the train shooting from 0 to 50 MPH in less then three seconds. Best was The Flooded Mine. It's a slow moving boat ride through haunted house like displays excepts that all of the seat have a light gun attached and ever display is a shooting gallery. We rode twice in a row - really fun.

It turns out that we picked the right day to go as school around here started Wednesday so they had about 1/3 of the normal number of people in the park. Another thing that really struck us is the age of the workers. Shari and I met operating bumper cars at HersheyPark and the average age of the ride operators there is 18. At Silver Dollar City I'd put the average at about 58.

We had kids of 11, 7 and 2 in the park and they all had a very good time. The biggest issue was the heat. Wow, it had to be getting toward 100 and I was definitely dragging by the end of the day. We finished with some soaking water rides which felt really good. I really liked the park and I'd certainly go back if I came this way again.

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