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[shavethewhales]

I know there are some DW fans on here, so I hope one of you has a photo of DW's old County Fair Falls log flume that was torn down several years ago. I'm interested in the ride due to the fact that it was a sister of the flume at Bell's Amusement park, both flumes having operated together side by side during a worlds fair in I think 1980 or 1984... too lazy to look it up.

Did anyone here ride on it? What was it like and how as it themed?

[Dukefan]

There wasn't really much to it...no theming or anything like that.  The flume just made a few turns, went up, and then dropped. 

This is an old aerial shot from waaaaayyyy back, when Dollywood was just a small tourist attraction called Goldrush Junction:



The ride was built by Arrow Development and was one of the two flumes at the 1964 New York World's Fair.  After the fair ended it was auctioned off to Goldrush Junction and moved to Tennessee in 1967.  (The other one ended up at Bell's, like said)

Being one of the earlier log flumes the drop wasn't very large.  In fact it was probably the 2nd or 3rd flume ride Arrow built after the original one at SFoT.

This is another shot I have from 1990ish:


To tie this back to the original Silver Dollar City, the flume's popularity at the Pigeon Forge park was what led the Herschends to build the American Plunge in 1981.

[sdcforever]

Thanks Dukefan!  Never knew all of that history.  You learn something everyday!

[shavethewhales]

Wow, that is completely different than the Bell's version, which was honestly a lot better. I guess they weren't mirrored copies after all, unless the DW version was reconfigured after being taken out of the fair.

I guess it was a pretty important ride though for having inspired AP.

Thanks for the info.

[adairmd]

I just hope the Bell's version is put back together, if and when Bell's makes it back.

[Dukefan]

Wow, that is completely different than the Bell's version, which was honestly a lot better. I guess they weren't mirrored copies after all, unless the DW version was reconfigured after being taken out of the fair.

Someone told me that the two flumes were actually connected at the World's Fair to form one LONG flume, however I had always assumed that they were just mirror images.  Now that you mention the Bell's flume is different, I suppose it's true that the two were actually one to begin with.

I guess the ride was split up after the fair ended.

[spinetingler]

Thanks for the log flume pic - that brings back some good memories (and some bad) of the season that I worked there (circa 80/81) mostly running that ride, but also sometimes supervising the disgusting ball pit or running the small carousel (which I loved doing (met some hot MILFs - long before they were called that, and some hot babysitters)).

While the flume wasn't especially exciting, some operators often made the last ride of the day more lively (and dangerous) by turning off the water pumps when the last boat went out. The water level would drop below the rails at the bottom of the plunge (thus not slowing the boat down) and the boat would shoot off of the end of the rails and either submarine straight to the bottom or skip like a rock on the water and slam into the end curve hard enough to rattle teeth and bones. On several occasions I was sure that the boat was going to climb over the end curve and hurtle into the crowd of departing park-goers, including one trip where I was riding with a cute girl/park groupie and I'm absolutely certain that I could have reached out of the boat and touched an old lady standing outside the flume.

Good times.

The other big deal with the flume was the frequent failure of the lift motors, which required all of the operators to run across the swamp to the lift to pull guests out of the boats (and send them down an escape ladder) as the boats piled up in front of the unmoving lift, creating a dam in the water. The boats then had to be lifted by hand up onto the belt lift. If the boats were left blocking the water, the water would continue to rise until the trailing boats (and the guests) would be spilled over the sides of the flume (a 10-12 foot drop in many places). A spill never happened during my summer, but it was a close thing several times.

[betamike]

Sorry to bring up an old post, but as a 1964-1965 New York World's Fair aficionado, it's well known that Dollywood's old log flume was transported to the park.

I just found a really neat old magazine illustration of the same log flume as a preview to the World's Fair

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthunterross/7864735084/