The Cajun Cliffhanger was a

rotor ROTOR was an elaborate air defence radar system built by the British Government in the early 1950s to counter possible attack by Soviet bombers. To get it operational as quickly as possible, it was initially made up primarily of WWII-era syst ...

-type amusement ride at

Six Flags Great America Six Flags Great America is a amusement park, theme park located in Gurnee, Illinois, within the northern Chicago metropolitan area. The theme park originally opened as Marriott's Great America on May 29, 1976, as one of two theme parks built ...

. and was one of the earliest Chance Industries Rotors produced. Due to the popularity of a Velare Rotor Ride at Chicago's Riverview Park, which closed in 1967, a similar ride made by Chance was purchased by

Six Flags Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an American amusement park company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It was formed on July 2, 2024, following a merger between longtime rivals Cedar Fair and the former Six Flags ...

, for Marriott's Great America when it opened in 1976 and was called the Cajun Cliffhanger. The ride was a large circular room with felt-lined walls which passengers entered through a door and took a position freely standing against the wall. The door would be closed and the room would begin to rotate. When the rate of rotation was sufficient, the floor would drop a few feet, leaving the riders pinned to the wall by

inertia Inertia is the natural tendency of objects in motion to stay in motion and objects at rest to stay at rest, unless a force causes the velocity to change. It is one of the fundamental principles in classical physics, and described by Isaac Newto ...

. On July 19, 2000, two girls, aged 11 and 13, were injured on the ride. Both girls sustained injuries to their feet; at least one had broken bones. The girls' feet were caught between the moving floor and the wall. Witnesses reported the floor was raised at the wrong time. The ride model was also known to create a gap between the wall and floor over time from wear. After inquiries found the operators negligent, they were fined $1,000. The ride remained closed until it was demolished and scrapped during the 2001 off-season.

The Joker The Joker is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson, the character first appeared in the debut issue of the comic book ''Batman (comic book), Batman'' on ...

is currently operating in its place.

References

External links

Cajun Cliffhanger page
on park website
More Information about Chance Rotors
{{Six Flags Great America rides Six Flags Great America Amusement rides introduced in 1976 Amusement rides that closed in 2000 Amusement rides manufactured by Chance Morgan