Six Flags White Water is a
water park
A water park (also waterpark, water world, or aquapark) is an amusement park that features water play areas such as swimming pools, water slides, splash pads, water playgrounds, and lazy rivers, as well as areas for floating, bathing, swimming ...
located northwest of
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
, in
East Cobb, Georgia. Originally opening in 1984 as White Water Atlanta, the park became part of the
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 ...
family of parks in 1999. Today, it is marketed as a second gate to
Six Flags Over Georgia
Six Flags Over Georgia is a amusement park in Austell, Georgia, United States. Opened in 1967, it is the second park in the Six Flags chain following the original Six Flags Over Texas, which opened in 1961.
Six Flags Over Georgia is one of t ...
, and the two parks often cross-promote each other. In 2012, the park hosted 505,000 visitors, ranking it #12 on the list of the top water parks in North America.
History
Six Flags White Water was constructed by Silver Dollar City, a theme park company known today as
Herschend Family Entertainment
Herschend is a privately owned themed-entertainment company that operates several theme parks and tourist attractions within the United States, and as of 2021, one of its aquariums in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Founded by Hugo, Mary, ...
, as a corporate sibling to their
White Water
Whitewater forms in the context of rapids, in particular, when a river's gradient changes enough to generate so much turbulence that air is trapped within the water. This forms an unstable current that froths, making the water appear opaque ...
park in
Branson, Missouri
Branson is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. Most of the city is situated in Taney County, Missouri, Taney County, with a small portion in the west extending into Stone County, Missouri, Stone County. Branson is in the Ozarks, Ozark Mountain ...
and their
White Water
Whitewater forms in the context of rapids, in particular, when a river's gradient changes enough to generate so much turbulence that air is trapped within the water. This forms an unstable current that froths, making the water appear opaque ...
(Now Hurricane Harbor Oklahoma City) waterpark in Oklahoma, and first opened in 1984. In June 1998, the park was the site of an ''
E. coli
''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Escherichia'' that is commonly foun ...
'' outbreak, which sickened at least ten children, including the son of then-
Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Eas ...
baseball player
Walt Weiss
Walter William Weiss (born November 28, 1963) is an American former professional baseball shortstop and manager and current bench coach for the Atlanta Braves. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1987 through 2000 for the Oakland Athlet ...
. In May 1999, the park was sold to the group of limited partners that own the nearby Six Flags Over Georgia theme park, with the park becoming "Six Flags White Water," and, like its sister park, being managed by Six Flags Theme Parks. Today, the two parks operate together, despite being roughly 15 miles apart, with each offering promotions for the other.
Six Flags White Water is one of five stand-alone Six Flags water parks, and the only one of the group to not use the
Hurricane Harbor
Hurricane Harbor is a chain of water parks that are part of the Six Flags theme park chain. Although the parks are not identical, common features include a variety of body slides, speed slides, tube slides, wave pools, lazy rivers, and shopping ...
name.
In late 2010, Six Flags began the process of removing licensed themes from attractions. They terminated several licenses, including their license with
The Wiggles
The Wiggles are an Australian children's music group formed in Sydney in 1991. As of 2022, the group members are Anthony Field, Lachlan Gillespie, Simon Pryce, Tsehay Hawkins, Evie Ferris, John Pearce (entertainer), John Pearce, Caterina Mete ...
. Wiggles Water World was renamed ''Buccaneer Bay'' in time for the 2011 season.
In July 2011, Six Flags introduced the
Flash Pass
Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Fictional aliases
* The Flash, several DC Comics superheroes with super speed:
** Flash (Jay Garrick)
** Barry Allen
** Wally West, the first Kid Flash and third adult Flash ...
at Six Flags White Water, and it became the first water park in the world to feature the virtual queue system for their
water rides
Water rides are amusement rides that are set over water. For instance, a log flume travels through a channel of water to move along its course.
Notable types
* AquaLoop
* Bumper boats
* Fishpipe
* FlowRider
*Lazy river
* Log flume
* Old Mill
...
.
Following the system's success, nine more Six Flags water parks implemented the system in 2012.
For the 2013 season, White Water added Typhoon Twister, a five-story bowl slide.
In August 2013, Six Flags announced the addition of Hurricane Harbor, a seven-acre water park at Six Flags Over Georgia.
When asked about the addition of a new water park when Six Flags already owned one in the area, communications manager Emily Murray replied, "With all the surveys that we’ve seen and the demand for a water park and the growth White Water has shown, White Water is still a large part of Six Flags, and
hite Water and Hurricane Harborwill complement each other."
As part of the same announcement, Six Flags released plans to expand White Water's popular "Dive-In Movies" program, where films are shown on a screen to guests in the Atlanta Ocean wave pool, adding a stage at the wave pool for daytime concerts and music events. The stage was completed midway through the 2014 season. For the 2016 season, White Water added a mat racing slide, Wahoo Racer.
Park layout

Six Flags White Water is made up of four separate sections, each with a number of attractions. When it first opened, the park consisted of what is today Wildwater Lagoon, Slippery Ridge and Pine Valley. Flash Flood Canyon was added in 1998, prior to the acquisition by Six Flags.
Wildwater Lagoon includes the park's main entrance and its primary services, including Guest Service and First Aid. It is built around an activity pool, which includes splashdown areas for the three Body Flumes, the two Rapids raft flumes, the Mutiny Chute plunge slide and Lizard's Tail kids' slides are also located here. The area's newest attraction is Typhoon Twister, a large water slide that consists of a 67-foot bowl.
Pine Valley is home to the park's
wave pool
A wave pool is a swimming pool in which there are artificially generated, large waves, similar to those of the ocean. Wave pools are often a major feature of water parks, both indoors and outdoors, as well as some leisure centres.
History
Th ...
, the Atlanta Ocean, and its
lazy river
"(Up A) Lazy River" is a popular tune and song by Hoagy Carmichael and Sidney Arodin, published in 1930. The melody is by Arodin, arranged and with words modified by Carmichael. It is considered a jazz standard and pop standard, and has ...
, known as the Little Hooch, named in honor of the nearby
Chattahoochee River
The Chattahoochee River () is a river in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern United States. It forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida and Georgia border. It ...
. Children can play in the Captain Kid's Cove Buccaneer Bay and Treehouse Island play areas, while their older siblings and parents can slide into the giant blue and yellow funnel of
Tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...
.
In Slippery Ridge, visitors can experience the high-speed Dragon's Tail speed slides, or "compete" on the park's new-for-2016 Wahoo Racer six-lane racing slide tower, which replaces the older 100-Meter Splash slides.
Raft riders can enjoy the enclosed Black River Falls and Gulf Coast Screamer slides solo, or share the experience at the Caribbean Plunge. The Bahama Bob-Slide uses large round rafts with up to six riders at once, while the adjacent Tidal Wave body flume lands in a splash pool connected to the Little Hooch lazy river.
Flash Flood Canyon contains the park's tallest single slide, the Dive Bomber, which shares a tower with the Run-A-Way River family raft slide.
Slides and Attractions
American Adventures
First opened in 1990, the American Adventures
family entertainment center
A family entertainment center (FEC) in the entertainment industry, also known as an indoor amusement park, family amusement center, family fun center, soft play, or simply fun center, is a small amusement park marketed towards families with small ...
operated next door to White Water, even used the same parking lot. This facility included a number of small scale carnival rides, indoor and outdoor mini-golf, go-carts, games & video arcade, play area, and restaurant. All attractions were geared towards families with small children and originally visitors had to use a series of tickets to use the park (much like the old Disney ticket system.) Eventually visitors paid a single fee to play at the park.
Unlike most parks, American Adventures did not have a gate. Visitors could enter the attraction of their choice simply by walking across the parking lot. White Water maintained a single point of entry and the two promoted each other often, to the point of having a connecting pathway between the open plan of AA and the WW park entrance.
In an attempt to build attendance, the indoor mini golf course was removed to make way for an interactive "theater." Several years later (and for the same reason) the main building's central attraction, an antique carousel, was removed in favor of a four-story foam ball play structure appropriately named "the foam factory."
When Six Flags acquired White Water in 1999, American Adventures was included in the purchase, and the park was considered one of Six Flags' minor parks.
However, in June 2008, the park was leased to a new operator, Zuma Holdings, which no longer co-branded the park with Six Flags White Water. In 2010, American Adventures closed its doors for good, citing "circumstances beyond our control."
After the closing of American Adventures by Zuma Holdings, Six Flags Atlanta Properties took the property back over and now uses the property for trainings, HR, storage and the employee cafeteria. One of the rides, the Scrambler was removed and taken to
Six Flags Great Adventure
Six Flags Great Adventure is an amusement park located approximately southeast of Trenton, New Jersey, Trenton in Jackson Township, New Jersey. Owned and operated by Six Flags, the park complex is situated between New York City and Philadelph ...
and renamed Déjà Vu (now known as Scrambler) in 2012.
Incidents
March 2016: Two individuals broke into the park, went past three fences, and skateboarded down the Tornado water slide as a half pipe. They were arrested on felony charges of criminal damage to property, causing an estimated $20,000 in damages to the fiberglass coat covering the slide.
References
External links
Six Flags White WaterAmerican Adventures
{{Six Flags
Buildings and structures in Cobb County, Georgia
White Water
Whitewater forms in the context of rapids, in particular, when a river's gradient changes enough to generate so much turbulence that air is trapped within the water. This forms an unstable current that froths, making the water appear opaque ...
Water parks in Georgia (U.S. state)
Tourist attractions in Cobb County, Georgia
1984 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)