Thunderhead is a

wooden roller coaster A wooden roller coaster is a type of roller coaster classified by its wooden track, which consists of running rails made of flat steel strips mounted on laminated wood. The support structure is also typically made of wood, but may also be ...

located at

Dollywood Dollywood is a theme park that is jointly owned by Herschend Family Entertainment and country singer-songwriter Dolly Parton through her entertainment company, Dolly Parton Productions. It is located in the Knoxville metropolitan area in Pig ...

amusement park in

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee Pigeon Forge is a mountain resort city in Sevier County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 6,343 at the 2020 census. Situated north of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Pigeon Forge is a tourist destination that caters primarily t ...

. Manufactured by

Great Coasters International Great Coasters International, Inc. (GCI or GCII) is a Sunbury, Pennsylvania-based roller coaster manufacturer which has created several award-winning rides since its formation in 1994. Starting in 2006 with Thunderbird (PowerPark), Thunderbird at ...

, the ride opened on April 3, 2004, as the anchor attraction of a new section added to the park that season called Thunderhead Gap. Thunderhead features 22 turns and 32 crossovers, and utilizes GCI's

Millennium Flyer Great Coasters International, Inc. (GCI or GCII) is a Sunbury, Pennsylvania-based roller coaster manufacturer which has created several award-winning rides since its formation in 1994. Starting in 2006 with Thunderbird at PowerPark in Finland, ...

trains, which have been used on all GCI coasters since 1999.

History

On June 26, 2003, Dollywood unveiled plans for a third coaster addition to the park called Thunderhead for the 2004 season, following

Tennessee Tornado Tennessee Tornado is a roller coaster at Dollywood amusement park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, United States. It debuted April 17, 1999, and was Dollywood's first major coaster expansion as well as one of Arrow Dynamics' last major coasters. Th ...

, which opened in 1999. Thunderhead officially opened to the public on April 3, 2004. The ride was named after

Thunderhead Mountain Thunderhead Mountain is a mountain in the west-central part of the Great Smoky Mountains, located in the southeastern United States. Rising along the border between Tennessee and North Carolina, the mountain dominates the western Smokies. The A ...

, a peak within the nearby

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in the southeastern United States, southeast, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline o ...

that was heavily logged during the early 19th century. Thunderhead is a slang term in the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is census regions United States Census Bureau. It is between the Atlantic Ocean and the ...

for

Cumulonimbus cloud Cumulonimbus () is a dense, towering, vertical cloud, typically forming from water vapor condensing in the lower troposphere that builds upward carried by powerful buoyant air currents. Above the lower portions of the cumulonimbus the water ...

Ride experience

The train exits the station and turns right. From there, it makes its way through a left turn and climbs the

chain lift hill A lift hill, or chain hill, is an upward-sloping section of track on a roller coaster on which the roller coaster train is mechanically lifted to an elevated point or peak in the track. Upon reaching the peak, the train is then propelled from ...

. Upon reaching the top, the train drops to the right at . Riders go through a right-handed banked turn after the drop. This is followed by a left-handed curve. Next, the train approaches a right turn, heading towards an

on-ride camera An on-ride camera is a camera mounted alongside the track of a roller coaster, log flume or other thrill ride that automatically photographs all of the riders on each passing vehicle. They are often mounted at the most intense or fastest part o ...

, which takes photos of the riders. After a 180-degree right turn, riders go through a fly-through station element while traveling . The train makes a loud noise as it travels above the station. It then goes through a left-handed curve. A smaller airtime hill leads to a 270-degree helix. Riders then go through a right turn and a left turn before hitting the brakes. The train slowly turns 90 degrees to the right, passing by the transfer track. This is followed by a 180-degree left turn that leads back to the station, where riders exit the train.

Construction data

*700,000 board feet of Southern Yellow Pine *3600 yards of concrete *250,000 bolts *2,000,000 screws *185,000 feet of steel rebar

Rankings

Gallery

Image:Thunderhead (Dollywood) 02.JPG, Thunderhead's second drop Image:Thunderhead (Dollywood) 03.JPG, Thunderhead's first airtime hill Image:Thunderhead (Dollywood) 04.JPG, Thunderhead's station fly-through Image:Thunderhead (Dollywood) 05.JPG, Thunderhead's drop after its station fly-through

References

External links

Dollywood's Official Page for Thunderhead
{{Dollywood Roller coasters in Tennessee Dollywood Roller coasters operated by Herschend Family Entertainment