Six Flags AstroWorld

***Six Flags AstroWorld*** (sometimes known as ***AstroWorld: a Six Flags Theme Park*** or simply just ***AstroWorld***) is a defunct amusement park in Houston, Texas that opened June 1, 1968 and closed on October 30, 2005 which was final night of Fright Fest.

### Names

AstroWorldAstroWorld: a member of the Six Flags familySix Flags AstroWorldAstroWorld: a Six Flags Theme park

## History

### Hofheinz era (1968-75)

#### Planning and construction

It all started with one man's idea. Judge Roy Hofheinz, who had also served as Houston Texas' mayor at that time and who was the original owner of the Houston Astros baseball team, had new ideas in the early 1960s. What inspired him was Disneyland and Texas' very first park *Six Flags Over Texas*. Also during that time, he personally saw the construction of the Houston *Astrodome*, which opened in 1965 as the world's first fully domed multi-purposed stadium and the eight wonder of the world. After that success, Hofheinz had then founded the "Astrodomain", which would include a convention center named *Astrohall*, on property hotels, and a brand new amusement park named *AstroWorld*. In 1967, Hofheinz announced the park to the public, and construction for $25 million soon began in that fall. Randall Duell helped design the park during construction, and many obstacles were cleared from the start. The first issue was that the ground was particularly wet and swampy and could easily flood, so 500,000 cu yd of fill dirt were placed. Hofheinz then noted that the humid weather would likely impact families enjoyment at the park, so the Air Conditioning group would add fans blowing from cool water into shaded areas. A long pedestrian viaduct bridge was built crossing over the Loop Interstate 610 highway connecting from the Astrodome's parking lot. At one point, a monorail system was discussed to shuttle guest in the Astrodomain properties, but this never came to be.

The parks name, as well as the Astrodome and the Houston Astros baseball team, are tributes to the newly constructed Johnson Space Center.

#### Grand opening

AstroWorld officially opened its doors to the public on June 1, 1968. The park welcomed over 50,000 guest in its first weekend. The park became successfu because of its themeing, attractions, and especially aircondition. Duell divided the park into eight different sections: *Americana Square, Oriental Corner, Plaza de Fiesta, Children's World, Western Junction, European Village, Alpine Valley, and Modville.*

#### Sections

Americana Square featured gift shops and restaurants. This section had a similar appearence to Disneyland's Main Street U.S.A.

Oriental Corner was Asian themed and featured a station for the 610 Limited (the park's train), the Black Dragon (a dragon and octopus styled carnival ride), and a station for the AstroWay (skyway lifts).

Plaza de Fiesta had a Mexican theme and featured the Lost World Rio Mysterio Adventure (AKA *The River of No Return*) which was a water attraction where riders would encounter statues and animals, with the boats of course being air-conditioned.

Children's World as the name suggests featured attractions for younger children: a boot slide, the Barnyard petting zoo, the Maypole (a tea cups ride), and the rubberdub.

Western Junction featured another station for the 610 Limited, the Crystal Palace theater, Wagon Wheel (a Chance trabant) and a Shooting gallery game.

European Village featured the Astroneedle (originally named *Skyrama*, this 340 foot long double-decker Intamin Gyro Tower was one of the centerpieces of the park), and Le Antique Taxi (French taxi car rides).

Alpine Valley featured a carousel, another station for the AstroWay, and the Alpine Sleigh Ride (the park's most popular attraction on opening day).

Modville featured the AstroWheel (a double-lifted ferris wheel), Orbiter/the Happening (scrambler), and Spinout (sport car rides).

After the success of the park, plans for expansions went forward since there was plenty of empty land to grow. In 1969, the Oriental Village Corner received two new attractions from Arrow Development: a log flume named the *Bamboo Shoot*, and the park's very first rollercoaster known as the *Serpent* (the last junior mini minetrain coaster).

#### 1970s

In 1970, the park received a new expansion and opened Fun Island, a smaller area located in the parks lagoon between Oriental Corner and European Village. This section featured two other new attractions: the *Wacky Shack* (a titled illusion funhouse) and the park's second roller coaster named the *Swamp Buggy Ride* (a small 55-foot Chance Rides Toboggan coaster).

In 1972, AstroWorld received another new major expansion, *Country Fair.* This area included AstroWorld's first major rollercoaster, *The Dexter Frebish's Electric Roller Ride* (a minetrain coaster by Arrow Dynamics), the Darefinder Binder (bumper cars), and a new carousel. AstroWorld's official mascot, Marvel McFey, made his debut around this time. The character would get his own theatre and stage show. In 1973, the Swamp Buggy was removed from the park, and its current unknown whatever happened to this coaster. In the following year a performance stage was constructed on the base of the Astroneedle.

### Six Flags era

In 1975, Hofheinz allowed Six Flags to purchase the park for a 20 year lease, and would now advertise it as "*AstroWorld: a member of Six Flags family*".

In 1976, the Coney Island/USA area would open in the Modville section which would bring a new theatre and a new wooden coaster. The Coney Island Cyclone was in danger of almost being torn down in order to expand the New York Aquarium, with AstroWorld's original idea to buy the Cyclone, but the cost was just too high. Instead, famous coaster designer William Cobb was hired to design a taller and faster mirror imaged version of the original Cyclone. Construction took longer due to a tropical storm damaging the northend of the coaster. Despite the delay, the *Texas Cyclone* opened to the public in 1976 and quickly was labeled the #1 wooden roller coaster.

In 1978, *Greezed Lightnin'* (a Schwarzkopf Shuttleloop coaster) opened in the Western Junction section.

#### 1980s

In 1980, the park began as a testing ground beginning with another new attraction, Thunder River which was the worlds first ever water rapids ride.

In 1981, the Country Fair section was given a medieval theme and renamed "Nottingham Village", with the Dexter Frebish Electric Roller Ride also given a medieval theme, a new brownish red paint job, and renamed "*Excalibur*", the AstroWheel was also removed at this time. In 1983, the park received another major expansion called "WaterWorld", a separate waterpark. In 2002, they decided to have guest give access to both parks with one ticket. Also in 1983, the park opened SkyScreamer (a first generation Intamin drop tower). Also in that year, the Alpine Sleigh Ride would close due to high maintenance run leaving the mountain abandoned for ten years.

Marvel McFey's tenure at the park ended in 1984, in favor of Six Flags' Looney Tunes characters, with many other the remaining children's attractions being rethemed and renamed *Enchanted Kingdom*. Also in 1984, the park removed half of Children's World too make way for *XLR-8* (an Arrow Huss suspended coaster), or really *Accelerate*. Several years later in Fright Fest 2002, the coaster would turn around some of its trains.

During the 80s, a TV program would be shot here named "Videocity Live" and dance club named "Studio "A" would open. *Looping Starship* was installed in 1986. Two years later, a new water log flume named *Tidal Wave* opened replacing the River of No Return. In 1989, *Viper* (a Schwarzkopf Loopingstar coaster, having a similar appearance to Greezed Lightnin') was installed in the Oriental Village.

#### 1990s

In 1990, *Ultra Twister* (the first and only TOGO Pipeline coaster to ever come to the US) was relocated from Six Flags Great Adventure and installed in the European Village. In 1993, the park opened a heavily themed coaster, named *Batman: the Escape* (an Intamin Stand-up coaster) which would be themed to the DC Comics Superhero. AstroWorld had finally found enough usage for the mountain that was previously home for the Alpine Sleigh Ride. They used this existing structure for the Batcave, and would feature props straight from *Batman Returns*. In 1995, another new coaster *Mayan Mindbender* (an indoor junior Vekoma MK-700 coaster) opened in the Oriental section. Although the coaster wasn't very tall or fast, the dark experience added an extra thrill.

### Premier Parks era

In February 1998, Premier Parks, led by CEO Kieran Burke acquired Six Flags Entertainment, with the having since been renamed "*Six Flags AstroWorld*", but most people would call the park as simply "AstroWorld". A year prior, SkyScreamer was removed and replaced with *Dungeon Drop* (a second generation Intamin Drop tower). Also in 1998, the *Texas Tornado* (a Schwarzkopf multiple looping coaster, briefly named *Taz's Texas Tornado*) was opened and would be popular for two seasons. The same year Texas Tornado and Dungeon Drop opened, the classic coaster, Excalibur was finally closed after 26 seasons. The land Excalibur occupied was used the following year on May 29, 1999 to open *Serial Thriller* (a Vekoma SLC), which would be the last coaster to ever be added in the park.

#### 2000s

The year 2000 proved to be a rough year, as Texas Tornado closed due to it having frequent tackling breakdown problems from the humid days, and one of AstroWorld's original attractions, the Astroneedle was dismantled.

In 2003, the park decided to return its roots as a testing ground. During that year, the park debuted SWAT (the world's first ever spinning Skyswater ride by S&S) and Diablo Falls (another rapids ride). But little did audiences know, was that these were AstroWorld's last additions. In 2003-04, the coasters received new coats of paint: Batman: the Escape received a yellow & black scheme to make sense with Batman's actual color, Ultra Twister received a new better green & blue scheme replacing its original bluish white, and XLR-8 received a much brighter teal blue & orangish yellow scheme replacing the original blackish blue & gray.

Unfortunately, when the Houston Texans Football team created in 2002, the Astrodome had been joined by a new next door neighbor, Reliant Stadium (now NRG Stadium) which is a much larger facility. NRG Stadium would not only host football games, but other special events, including the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. Since AstroWorld and the Astrodome had shared parking lots, now with Reliant Stadium, finding parking for either venue became a difficult problem.

#### Closure & Demolition

On September 12, 2005, CEO of Six Flags, Kieran Burke announced that AstroWorld would not reopen for the 2006 season due to decrease attendance, increasingly rude visitors, strong neglections, and unfortunate profits. The parking issue was the main reason Burke sited for the closure. They expected to receive $150 million for the land the park is on. Six Flags AstroWorld would have its final day of operation on October 30, 2005. Following the closure, Six Flags inspectors had to spend a course around $20 million to demolish the park and clear the land. The goal $150 million for the land was not completed as it was sold for only $77 million, which was nearly far below what was expected. These events prompted Six Flags shareholders to make a decision to remove Kieran Burke from the position of CEO. In addition, some are blaming the Houston Texans, Reliant Stadium, and HLSR for making this an eyesore.

As of 2022, the lot formerly occupying the park is empty, and despite it being sold, nothing was built on it. Half of the land is sold to a nearby car dealership. The other half land now includes a a beautiful great field of green grass. It's stabilized and partly paved with asphalt, and is used ironically a few time a year as additional overflow parking for the HLSR. The parks longtime friendly neighbor, the Astrodome had sadly saw a similar fate, and now sits unused as a warehouse, leaving the entire Astrodomain empty. One last structure of the former amusement park still remains: the pedestrian bridge the crosses over Loop 610.

Since 2018, American rapper Travis Scott (who grew up in Houston) would make a tribute album and would bring a festival.

Ever since AstroWorld's demise, there was a development for a new amusement park in New Caney, Texas, which is just 10-20 minutes away from Houston, called *Grand Texas Theme Park*, which will have several Texas history themes. Construction was originally going to begin in 2013, but there were so many delays. The groundbreaking really started in 2015-2017, and Grand Texas' Speedway Track, Storage, Hotels, and Big Rivers and Gator Bayou waterpark are currently on operation. The real park is set to open in the mid 2020s. But everyone will never forget that it all started in Six Flags AstroWorld.