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Knoebels Amusement Resort is a family owned and operated amusement park near Elysburg, Pennsylvania. Opened in 1926, the park boasts over 50 rides, free admission, two world-class wooden roller coasters, a 1913 carousel, and a haunted house dark ride that has been featured on the Discovery Channel. The park and its rides have won many awards from such groups and publications as Amusement Today, the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, and the American Coaster Enthusiasts.
The amusement park is owned and operated by the Knoebel family, who also operate a lumber yard next door to the park. In keeping with the Pennsylvania Dutch heritage of the region, the name Knoebel is pronounced with the hard K sound (kuh-NO-bel.) The park's name has also traditionally been spelled Knoebels, without the apostrophe, and appears that way on all official park advertising and correspondence.
Knoebels is located in a small wooded valley in Central Pennsylvania. The valley, with its creek-fed swimming hole, became a popular picnic destination in the early part of the 20th century, attracting Sunday travellers and horse-drawn hayride wagons. Henry Knoebel, who had been farming the area, began to sell soft drinks and ice cream to the visitors. As the popularity of "Knoebel's Grove" grew, Knoebel leased plots of land along the creeks for use as summer cottage sites. Some of these privately-owned cottages, as well as cottages Knoebel himself built and rented, still exist in the park.
1926 marks the official beginning of Knoebels Amusement Park. That year, Knoebel added a restaurant and a steam-powered carousel to his grove. Then, on July 4, he opened a large concrete swimming pool on the site of the old swimming hole. Featuring a filtration system that provided clean, clear water instead of muddy creek water that swimmers had been accustomed to, the pool was named "The Crystal Pool." Since then the park has grown around the pool, adding 50 more rides in addition to assorted games, concession stands, and attractions. A campground with six sites opened behind the amusement park in 1962, and as of 2004 the campground covered 160 acres with 500 sites.
On June 22, 1972, the creeks that run through Knoebels overflowed six feet over their banks, swollen with heavy rains from Hurricane Agnes. The flood destroyed several cottages and damaged many other buildings, including the park's roller rink. Rather than rebuild the buckled floor of the rink, the park converted the building into a new "Haunted Mansion" dark ride, which opened in 1973. The ride has been recognized as one of America's best dark rides by such groups as the Dark Ride and Funhouse Enthusiasts, and the National Amusement Park Historical Association.
While Knoebels had operated several small steel roller coasters over the course of its history, it did not have a traditional wooden roller coaster until 1985 when the park opened "The Phoenix," a relocated wooden roller coaster from San Antonio, Texas.
Designed and built by Herb Schmeck and the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, the roller coaster operated as "The Rocket" at Playland Park in San Antonio from 1947 until the park's closing in 1980. Knoebels purchased the ride in 1984 and dismantled it during the winter of 1985. As there were no blueprints to work with, each individual board was numbered and catalogued onsite.
The restored roller coaster opened at Knoebels on June 15, 1985. It is named after the mythical bird which rises, reborn, from its own ashes. This effort, the first large-scale wooden roller coaster relocation ever, helped spark a movement for the restoration and relocation of other roller coasters standing but not operating.
The Phoenix coaster routinely gives a fast ride with many spots where riders experience negative G forces. The floating sensation is known affectionately to coaster enthusiasts as "airtime," and they applaud the coaster as the airtime occurs. Since the inception of the Internet Wood Tracked Roller Coaster Poll, the Phoenix has consistently ranked among the Top 10.
Since 1986, Knoebels has held the "Phoenix Phall Phun Phest," a yearly October event for roller coaster enthusiasts. In 2001 alone, over 1500 roller coaster and amusement park fans converged on Knoebels, many in costume, to participate in a memorabilia swap meet and ride the rides after the park had closed to the general public.
In 1998, Knoebels began a new wooden roller coaster project. Seeking to preserve another classic ride, the park looked into acquiring the defunct "Mister Twister," a 1964 John Allen design which had been abandoned when the entire Elitch Gardens amusement park was relocated in Denver, Colorado. This time, when space constraints made physically relocating the ride impossible, Knoebels purchased the blueprints and set out to rebuild the roller coaster from scratch, modifying the design to fit the space available.
For the new "Twister," ride designer John Fetterman created a modified mirror image of the original "Mister Twister" layout, compacting the ride but preserving the highlights of the old design. These highlights included the large double helix, which now wraps around the ride's curved station, and a large swoop curve at the top of the lift hill. To keep the swoop curve in the new design, Fetterman created a split lift hill. The "Twister" train climbs halfway up the structure on one lift hill, makes a 180-degree turn and finishes the climb on the second lift. While several roller coasters use more than one lift hill in their layout, "Twister's" zig-zag lift is unique.
"Twister" opened on July 24, 1999. Taller and more intense than the "Phoenix," the coaster enjoys steady ridership and good rankings in roller coaster polls both formal and informal.
Knoebels has two carousels: a small merry-go-round in Kiddieland and the Grand Carousel, a 1913 carousel with a frame by Charles I.D. Looff and hand-carved horses by Charles Carmel. It is one of the few carousels remaining with a working ring dispenser, allowing riders on the outside row of horses to reach out and grab iron rings as they pass by. The rider who grabs the brass ring is allowed to ride again free of charge. Three band organs provide music for the riders.
The two steel roller coasters in the park are the "Whirlwind," a Vekoma design that features the only split corkscrew in America, and the 1950 "High Speed Thrill Coaster," a diesel-powered kiddie ride with exaggerated camelback humps.
The park also maintains a classic Mangels Whip ride, a set of Lusse Auto Scooters, a boat flume ride named "Skloosh!" and the one of the last remaining Fascination parlors in the United States.
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Phoenix Facts
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Twister Facts
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