A Comprehensive Theory: Where is RMC’s first Wild Moose Coaster Going?

Rocky Mountain Construction has sold a Wild Moose. We have a theory on who bought it.

Back in August 2023, the company — best known for their thrill coasters — announced a brand new compact family coaster model. The Wild Moose was engineered specifically to match the footprint and tight turns of a classic Wild Mouse while maintaining the company’s trademark design layout quirks. You can read more about it here.

It appears time for one to emerge in the real world. Recently RMC has set up and commissioned a prototype at their factory in Hayden, Idaho. A notice on their website now lists a new Wild Moose to soon be delivered domestically in the United States. And company owner Darren Torr told the Amusement Warehouse podcast in July of last year that the first installation would feature a custom layout and 1200-ish feet of track. Keep that in mind because it’s a key detail.

So to draw back to the mystery box posed a couple paragraphs ago, who has bought this world’s-first roller coaster? I would like to make a very strong case study for what I firmly believe is Kentucky Kingdom. Bear with me further please.

A Formal Case for Kentucky Kingdom

Herschend Family Entertainment took ownership of Kentucky Kingdom in 2021 and spent a few years determine how to best clean house, aligning it to their vision of a true theme park destination for all audiences. The wallets promptly opened up in 2025 with the redevelopment of one park area into Discovery Meadows and then another this year into Vekoma’s hotly anticipated Flying Fox suspended coaster. The next move is to replace the 5D Cinema, which was a popular attraction among locals even if it didn’t fit the larger picture.

Park officials have previously confirmed “exciting new experiences” to debut inside the 5D Cinema space, for which ongoing interior demolition has been underway and the attached gift shop/storage rooms downsized. The building previously held the park’s original coaster Starchaser from 1987 to 1995, and could very well accommodate a new indoor coaster. So yes, I’m suggesting that this new-for-2027 project of theirs is RMC’s Wild Moose.

That prospect appears increasingly likely as a survey went out last October pitching three proposed indoor coaster ideas to Kentucky Kingdom passholders. Attraction surveys are frequently a great — if not always reliable — insight into what parks might be considering, often pointing out possible objectives and goals for future projects. Each item on Kentucky Kingdom’s survey included generic images and more crucially statistics, allowing for us to glean information supporting the potential of a Wild Moose. Let’s run through the list.

Three Indoor Coasters pitched for Kentucky Kingdom

The first was described as a “Compact Family Coaster”, featuring a top speed of 26 miles per hour, length of 1285 feet, and 14 passenger lap-bar trains. Darren Torr said to expect a Wild Moose length of around 1200 feet, and the coaster’s rolling stock is made up of single-row lap bar cars, which would explain why this Kentucky Kingdom pitch has an unusual seven-row train. Therefore I believe this to be RMC’s successful Wild Moose pitch.

But how can we judge these statistics to be legitimate and not approximate numbers? Well the second idea was a Spinning Wild Mouse Coaster, featuring four-passenger cars and a track length of 1066 feet. This is actually a stock layout actively sold by Zamperla, squeezing their standard larger Crazy Mouse design into a smaller, more ergonomic footprint. So this revelation backs up any stats as being credible information.

The third and final item was a Family Wood Coaster, an oddball proposal made weirder by the existence of two wooden coasters at the park, Woodland Run and Kentucky Flyer. Surely it would have to have been produced by Gravitykraft, who produced the latter and are based two hours away in Cincinnati. It’d be tough to visualize an indoor wooden coaster if not for Adventure Coast Southport in the United Kingdom, who back in April kindly leaked a design from company engineer Korey Kiepert.

It appears very similar to a Wild Moose. Actually, all three of these coasters share much in common.

What Does Kentucky Kingdom Want?

Superficially, all three of these offer similar ride experiences. They’re compact rides with tight turns and strong potential to be a cohesively themed indoor attraction. Here’s all three aforementioned layouts shown below;

The hardware carries more crucial characteristics though. All of these are from cheaper manufacturers (RMC, Zamperla, and Gravity Group) that require less time and budget to develop, quite unlike Mack or Intamin for example. These can more easily be built inside of the existing building space without necessitating the construction of new concrete footers for each coaster support.

Knowing the parameters of Kentucky Kingdom’s new project, I would suggest that their 2027 experience is more likely to be a roller coaster than not, and that there is a higher probability of this being a Wild Moose than a Mack Family Spinning Coaster (one of which is reportedly on order for the United States, hence why I mention it).

Herschend’s RMC History

The chain additionally has an existing working relationship with Rocky Mountain Construction at their other parks, from new thrill coaster projects like Outlaw Run and Lightning Rod, track replacement at Dollywood regarding both Blazing Fury and Lightning Rod, and an indoor coaster experience in the form of Silver Dollar City’s rebuilt Fire In The Hole. Kentucky Kingdom also built Wind Chaser back in 2016 (as well as almost a Raptor) and are therefore very familiar with the manufacturer.

Again, This is a Theory

Could the Wild Moose be headed to a different park? Absolutely. Lost Island Theme Park for example could benefit from a larger family coaster, or maybe there’s another amusement park out there waiting to surprise us. It happens all the time! But my money is squarely on Kentucky Kingdom, and if you have a different idea then I would love to hear it.

Who do you want or would see buying a Wild Moose coaster? Let us know in the comments below!