White Canyon ( ja, ホワイトキャニオン) was a

wooden Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin tha ...

roller coaster located at

Yomiuriland Yomiuriland (よみうりランド, ''Yomiurirando'') is an amusement park in Inagi, Tokyo, Japan that first opened in 1964. It is situated on hillsides, and features rides such as roller coasters and water flumes. It is home to Yomiuri Giants ...

near

Inagi, Tokyo 270px, Inagi City Hall is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 92,585 in 41,592 households, and a population density of 5200 persons per km². The total area of the city was . ...

, Japan. It was one of the first wooden roller coasters in Japan, and one of the largest Cyclone-style roller coasters in the world.

History and construction

Before White Canyon's construction in 1994, there was only one wooden roller coaster,

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...

(built in 1992), which had ever been built in Japan. This was largely due to strict, earthquake-related building codes which restricted the height of wooden structures in Japan. White Canyon was built as a collaboration of

Roller Coaster Corporation of America Roller Coaster Corporation of America (RCCA) was an amusement ride manufacturer based in the United States. The company's first major project was the Rattler at Six Flags Fiesta Texas in 1992, while their most famous coaster was the Son of Beast a ...

TOGO Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

, D. H. Morgan Manufacturing, and John Pierce Associates. The coaster was built with 2,360 cubic meters (one million

board feet The board foot or board-foot is a unit of measurement for the volume of lumber in the United States and Canada. It equals the volume of a length of a board, one foot wide and thick. Board foot can be abbreviated as FBM (for "foot, board measure ...

) of

southern yellow pine In ecology and forestry, yellow pine refers to a number of conifer species that tend to grow in similar plant communities and yield similar strong wood. In the Western United States, yellow pine refers to Jeffrey pine or ponderosa pine. In the ...

and the construction involved extensive prefabrication in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

before the components were shipped for final assembly at Yomiuriland.

Track layout and ride experience

The layout of the White Canyon was quite similar to the famous

Coney Island Cyclone The Cyclone, also the Coney Island Cyclone, is a wooden roller coaster at Luna Park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. Designed by Vernon Keenan, it opened to the public on June 26, 1927. The roller coaster is on a plot of land at the ...

. Before White Canyon was closed in 2013, it was the longest——and tallest——Cyclone-layout roller coaster in the world. The ride produced fairly high lateral G-forces of up to 1.5 lateral Gs. Before it closed in early 2013, a single ride on the White Cyclone cost ¥900. The ride was restricted to individuals who were above in height. It was also restricted to riders under 60 years of age and at least in junior high school.

Closure

White Canyon was closed on January 14, 2013. A total of 5.35 million people rode on White Canyon during its 19 years of operation. In its last year of operation, Yomiuriland organized a "White Canyon Thank You" campaign that involved the planting of thousands of trees. The campaign received funding from several environmental and government organizations.

References

{{reflist Roller coasters in Japan Roller coasters manufactured by TOGO Amusement rides that closed in 2013