8 Things Every Tennessee Kid Remembers About Opryland USA

If you grew up in Tennessee, you may remember a whitewater ride at Opryland USA that once hosted Olympic qualifying rounds.

The park closed after the 1997 season, and the rides didn’t all end up where anyone expected.

Here’s a look back at the rides, the shows and the summer days Tennessee kids never forgot.

1. Hangman

Opryland USA’s Hangman was an inverted steel coaster that launched in 1995.

The Nashville Scene says it cost about $8.5 million to build.

Its first ride was broadcast on morning TV.

If you rode the Hangman, it was during the park’s final years.

2. Flume Zoom

You may remember Opryland USA’s Flume Zoom by its later name, the Dulcimer Splash.

The ride sent hollowed-out logs through a trough of water.

It was among the rides sold in 1997.

3. Wabash Cannonball

The Tennessean says 13 Opryland USA rides went to Premier Parks in 1997, and the Wabash Cannonball was one of them.

It was a corkscrew coaster.

It was also the second roller coaster added at Opryland USA.

If you know Colony House’s “The Cannonballers,” its name honors the ride, a favorite of the band’s front man.

4. Grizzly River Rampage

Ahead of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Opryland USA’s Grizzly River Rampage served as the course for qualifying rounds.

You may remember it as a whitewater-rafting ride.

5. Chaos

You may remember Chaos, an indoor roller coaster at Opryland USA, for its light show, which the Scene called spectacular.

Chaos’s train was auctioned and its track was scrapped, according to the Tennessean.

6. Screamin' Delta Demon

After Opryland USA closed, the Scene says, the Screamin' Delta Demon was left in an overgrown field in Indiana before it was sold for scrap metal.

You may remember it as the park's bobsled coaster.

7. Beatrice and Rachel, the Locomotives

Two of Opryland USA's locomotives had names: Beatrice and Rachel.

The Scene says both were formerly coal-burning engines that were restored and converted to burn fuel oil.

The railroad looped around the park with restored antique locomotives.

Beatrice or Rachel may have pulled your train.

8. Hand-Carved Carousel

The Scene describes Opryland USA's carousel as an antique that was hand-carved in Germany.

You may remember it as the centerpiece of the park's kids' rides.

The 1972 Opening

Opryland USA, a $28 million entertainment park, opened to the public on May 27, 1972, over Memorial Day weekend.

The park covered 120 acres.

The Tennessean says Opryland USA's Rock 'n' Roller Coaster was known as Timber Topper in 1972.

By August 16, 1972, it had welcomed its one-millionth visitors.

If you visited before then, you were among the park's first million visitors.

The park's slogan was "Home of American Music."

A 1972 photo of the general store shows a sign reading "We Sell Everything."

The park's architecture drew on different eras and regions, from the Old West to the drive-ins of the 1950s.

A Nashville Public Television photo archive shows a Showboat, a candy store and an arcade, and it lists the Barnstormer and Crazy Swing among the rides.

Crowds, Shows and Roy Acuff

The Scene says Opryland USA averaged 2 million visitors a year, employed about 2,500 people a season and was Nashville's top tourist attraction every year it was open except one.

The park featured several daily shows and hosted frequent concerts, all featuring local Nashville musicians.

Roy Acuff was a frequent celebrity sighting at the park, and park patrons would often find him sitting on a park bench signing autographs.

If you worked there one summer, you may have been part of that staff.

The Final Year

If you visited Opryland USA in 1997, you saw its final season, and attendance declined slightly that year.

Gaylord Entertainment, the park's owner, announced the closing in October 1997.

Within three weeks, the Scene says, Opryland USA had sold most of its major rides to Premier Parks for around $10 million.

The Tennessean puts that sale at 13 rides.

Around 4,000 of the park's signs were sold by the end of 1997.

After the park closed, Gaylord replaced it with the Opry Mills shopping center.

Where the Rides Went

Opryland USA's rides were expected to go to the Old Indiana Fun-N-Water Park in Thorntown, Indiana.

That project ended in 2002, when the property was sold and the rides were dismantled.

Gaylord Entertainment kept the carousel, some children's rides and the gondolas.