I have a little story to go with this week’s A-Z Coaster of the Week, so go along with me here:
In the mid 1970’s, you’re a representative of Arrow Dynamics and you’re approached by a man who asks you about building one of the brand new Corkscrew model roller coasters at his park.
You say, “What is your park?”
He says, “Deer Park Funland up in Muskegon, Michigan.”
You’ve never heard of it and ask him what kind of park it is.
“It’s mainly a petting zoo right now, but I do have a few rides including a Scrambler, Tilt-a-Whirl, Spider, Mutley’s Putt-Putts, and a couple others.”
“And you want to spend roughly $1,000,000 on a roller coaster that we’ve only installed at a few, more popular parks?”
“Yep.”
That man was Rodger Jourdan and in 1979, he opened Corkscrew, the first roller coaster at then Deer Park Funland. People in the industry thought that this guy was crazy for opening this kind of roller coaster at a petting zoo, but it was the beginning of the largest amusement park in the state of Michigan. At a height of 70 feet with a drop of 62 feet at 45mph and featuring 2 interlocking corkscrews on 1250 feet of track, this ride may be short, but with a height limit of 48 inches, it’s a great starting roller coaster for kids who want to move up to something bigger but not quite ready for Shivering Timbers.
Many of these Corkscrew models were built by Arrow, but this is currently the oldest model operating in its original location. When Cedar Fair purchased Michigan’s Adventure in 2001, they painted Corkscrew to the colors it is today.
A couple other fun facts about the Corkscrew; Roger Jourden signed the contract with Arrow for the ride and payed for the foundation work before he even had financing. He had started the process of getting a loan from a local bank in Muskegon, but that bank was bought out by Comerica Bank in Detroit, who denied the loan. The loan officer he was working with from the local bank found a Small Business Administration loan of $550,000 and a $550,000 loan from Comerica, but both were dependent on $150,000 in cash from the park. He borrowed money from friends and family, most notably his mother. When the ride opened in late June 1978, attendance skyrocketed and he was able to pay everyone back.
Thanks for the additional information Jon! That’s a fascinating story and he took a big risk. I’m glad it paid off though!
No problem! He also regretted not having the money to do a loopscrew model instead of the regular corkscrew model, but that loop wouldn’t have made much difference at this point.
He took a similar risk in 1983 when he put in Logger’s Run. Arrow tried to sell him their version of the shoot-the-chutes, which he wasn’t interested in. Then they tried to keep his cost down by keeping it on the ground and having only the lift/drop in the air, which he wasn’t interested in either. He’s gone on record saying he wanted to compete directly with Cedar Point, so he didn’t want to cheap out on any rides.