Canyon Blaster (Great Escape)
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Canyon Blaster is a
steel roller coaster A steel roller coaster is a type of roller coaster classified by its steel Railway track, track, which consists of long steel tubes that are run in pairs, supported by larger steel columns or beams. Trains running along the track typically rely ...
located at Six Flags Great Escape and Hurricane Harbor in
Queensbury, New York Queensbury is a town in Warren County, New York, United States. The population was 29,169 at the 2020 census.US Census 2020 Report, QUickFacts Queeensbury town https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/queensburytownwarrencountynewyork It contains the c ...
.


History

Canyon Blaster originally opened as ''Timber Topper'' at the now-defunct Opryland USA theme park in
Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
. Manufactured by
Arrow Development Arrow Development was an amusement park ride and roller coaster design and manufacturing company, incorporated in California on November 16, 1945, and based in Mountain View, California, Mountain View. It was founded by Angus "Andy" Anderson, Ka ...
, the ride opened with the park in 1972 and remained its only full-size coaster until Wabash Cannonball opened in 1975 as part of a major park expansion. It carried a rustic mine train theme, though unlike many similar coasters at other parks, it did not enter a tunnel or travel underground. In the late 1970s, the coaster was renamed ''Rock n' Roller Coaster'', when its park area was rethemed to "Doo-Wah Diddy City", paying homage to the
doo wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a subgenre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, ...
music of the 1950s. As part of the re-theming, its trains and buildings associated with the ride were repainted in bright
pastel A pastel () is an art medium that consists of powdered pigment and a binder (material), binder. It can exist in a variety of forms, including a stick, a square, a pebble, and a pan of color, among other forms. The pigments used in pastels are ...
colors. After Opryland closed in 1997, the coaster was disassembled and sold to Premier Parks. After being stored at the Old Indiana Fun Park in
Thorntown, Indiana Thorntown is a town in Sugar Creek Township, Boone County, Indiana. The population was 1,432 at the time of the 2020 census. Thorntown is located in northwestern Boone County, about halfway between Lafayette and Indianapolis. History The first p ...
for several years, the ride was relocated to The Great Escape in
Queensbury, New York Queensbury is a town in Warren County, New York, United States. The population was 29,169 at the 2020 census.US Census 2020 Report, QUickFacts Queeensbury town https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/queensburytownwarrencountynewyork It contains the c ...
and renamed Canyon Blaster in 2003. On May 30, 2013, Great Escape announced that their ''Canyon Blaster'' roller coaster would be running backwards for the first time ever during 2013 season for a limited time during the summer.


Ride experience and theming

The Canyon Blaster is a gentle family-style coaster designed as a runaway mine train featuring two lift hills and a double helix. The ride has a red track with beige supports. It has three trains, blue, brown & red, but in the past few years only the brown train has been used. When the roller coaster was brought to the Great Escape, the system was modified to only accommodate one train due to a change in design features to fit the Great Escape. In keeping with the Old West theme of the Ghosttown section of the park, the coaster is decorated with broken and crumbling artifacts from the era including a stagecoach, a broken steam train and the fake bones of dead animals. The outer fence is painted with mine blast warnings and notices of when the last (again fake) accident was. Many of the decorative artifacts were once part of the defunct Ghost Town Railroad route that Canyon Blaster replaced. The broken steam train is one of the engines from the Ghost Town Railroad.


References


External links


Canyon Blaster at Great Escape's official website
{{The Great Escape and Hurricane Harbor Roller coasters manufactured by Arrow Dynamics Roller coasters introduced in 2003 Roller coasters operated by Six Flags The Great Escape and Hurricane Harbor Steel roller coasters Mine Train roller coasters Roller coasters in New York (state) Western (genre) amusement rides