Also, to control the wetness, rubber belts are present on the side of the rails and the height and size of those belts ultimately decide how wet riders will get. The water in the runoff acts as a brake and creates the splash. In addition, the boat does not float at the bottom of big drops. The front of the boat has a scoop to project most of the water away from riders. It brought record crowds to the park, although park management sometimes struggled with the wetness they expected guests to feel. Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH) also bought one shortly after, but it opened after “El Asserradero” (The Sawmill) at Six Flags Over Texas.Įl Asserradero opened in 1963 and was an incredible success. It replaced an attraction where guests travelled a trail in the woods on top of a mule and thus, Arrow could design a long layout that would effectively showcase what it could do. Angus G Wynne, the founder of Six Flags Over Texas (Arlington, TX), was the first one to sign for the Log Flume. In 1962, after building crude waterways out of plywood, Karl and his team had discovered the formulas that would allow him to design a constant water level in his designs.

How much water is needed? What is the proper slope for a constant boat speed? Where can a small turn be added to create a thrilling rapid? Karl Bacon wrote the book on that and he can be considered the father of the modern water ride. He used Navy research to properly understand water flow and thus, created the perfect water attraction. Karl Bacon (he had founded Arrow Development along with Ed Morgan) started studying Hydrodynamic, which is the science that explains and control the movement of water. River Caves is more of a dark ride that features a small lift hill and drop at the end.Īll those rides were popular, but the physic of water was not fully understood. The velocity of the drop is what pushes the boat toward the return channel and it is a very simple and reliable idea. In the case of Mill Chute, it features a long float in a dark cave before a lift hill and dive into the natural lake. A few examples of remaining Old Mill/Mill chute in the world are Mill Chute at Lake Winnepesaukah in Lakeview, GA and River Caves at the Pleasure Beach in Blackpool, UK.

They were also called the “Tunnel of Love” and is referred as such in many books, movies and video games. Those rides consisted of wooden flat bottom boats that floated alongside either a dark tunnel or scenery before concluding with a small wooden lift hill and a dive into the water. The Log Flume attraction first debuted in 1963, but it was an evolution of the classic old water chute attraction that dated back to the early 1900’s.

Log flume great adventure