I had to count it up on my fingers but I have been going to SDC for 6 decades now and I have seen a lot of changes. The theme of SDC has always been the Missouri Ozarks of the 1880s. However, at the start in the early 1960s, the theme seemed to be more influenced by 1950s TV westerns than the local history. The early rides were all based on a western theme, such as the stage coach, the donkey pack train, and the steam powered train with an old west train robbery. The entertainment was old west style shootouts on Main Street. In fact, as a small boy in the early 1960s, I thought I had stumbled on to the real-world location of the western shows I watched on TV.
By the early 1970s, they seemed to be doing a lot better with the Ozarks theme. It was a showcase of tradition Ozark crafts, Ozark food, and real Ozark traditional music. It wasn’t perfect but it was unique. Most amusement parks then were just a collection of rides with very little theme. If anything, the average US amusement park had its roots in the world of the circus or Coney Island.
Silver Dollar City has grown up now. It’s not the small family-run park it used to be. It is a multiple hundred-million dollar a year corporation that has to work under all the government regulations, political correctness, and the constant threat of lawsuits from anyone looking for deep pockets. It is not just a vacation spot for locals anymore. SDC has visitors from all over the nation, and foreign countries too. Many are people that have no background or understanding of Ozark culture and history.
I am hoping that SDC planners will make an attempt to keep an Ozark theme. Personally, I’m not even insistent that they stay in the 1880s. If they wanted to develop a brand new area with a 1920s Ozark theme, I would be the first one there on opening day. After all, when SDC opened in 1960, the 1880s had only ended 70 years before. Today, the year 1924 was 90 years ago.
Imagine a 1920s Ozarks world: How about a 1920s Ozark version of Epcot’s Test-Track? You walk through the showroom of a 1920s Ford dealership full of Model Ts. You walk through the garage area and get into a Model T touring car. The car then takes off, driving through the woods, dodging trees and stumps, down a steep embankment, splash across a river, you dodge chickens and cows on the road, drive into a burning barn, then through a waterfall and into a cave, then out into the woods at night where Bigfoot runs along beside the car, and then you get shot at by angry moonshiners.
Or, how about a Ozark version of Epcot’s Soarin’ where you go flying in Rube Dugan’s new flying contraption. You go sailing over Ozarks forests where you can smell the woods, over Bald Knobs, past towering bluffs, over fields of running sheep or cows, and soar up a river until there is a towering waterfall up ahead. Then Junior Dugan struggles to gain altitude while you are sprayed in the face with mist from the falls. You barely clear the waterfall, soar over the fields while the skies darkens and turn stormy. Then you are flying directly into a tornado. It could be even better than Soarin’ if it was filmed in 3-D IMAX. (Maybe SDC should hire me as an SDC imaginer!)
Silver Dollar City is not perfect. However, I would much rather spend my leisure time at SDC than any Six Flags park or Worlds of Fun. To me, the most important thing for the future of SDC is that they keep the Ozark theme. Then I’ll keep coming back, year-after-year.