Granny, what big teeth you have! Today, we’re going to race through the misty, dark forests of Virginia and recount the almost unbelievable fable of one of the most beloved lost roller coasters ever. Born of a fable and brought to life through cutting-edge roller coaster technology, this very unique ride was a headlining attraction at what has been regarded as the most beautiful theme park on Earth. And now, it’s gone.
You’ve been part of our Lost Legends series, where we dive deep into forgotten attractions to immortalize their stories. We’ve set out to capture the tales of these rides – how they were born, what they were like, and why they’re gone today – so that new generations of theme park fans can understand what the big deal was, and why people miss these attractions even now. It’s your comments and memories that keep Alien Encounter, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, TOMB RAIDER: The Ride, the Peoplemover and Walt’s Tomorrowland, and Son of Beast alive, to name just a few.
Today, we’re hoping that you’ll help us breathe life into memories of a roller coaster that impressed fans for a quarter of a century before disappearing at the height of its popularity: Big Bad Wolf at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. This spectacular, suspended swinging coaster helped redefine what a family coaster could be, thrilling young and old as it raced through the woods of Virginia “at the speed of fright.” We’re happy to tell the tale today, but we need your help: after you read, be sure to share your memories of Big Bad Wolf in the comments below to keep its memory growling ahead into a new generation.
Busch Gardens: The Old Country
Image: SeaWorld Parks
You might imagine that the story begins with three little pigs or a little girl in a red hooded cloak, but in this Big Bad Wolf’s story, it begins in the dense forests of Virginia. Busch Gardens Williamsburg opened in 1975 as Busch Gardens: The Old Country, a European-themed counterpart to an African-themed Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida. Both parks reside in the shadow of massive breweries operated by Anheuser-Busch. And indeed, both were owned for most of their history by Anheuser-Busch as part of their Busch Entertainment division (which also owned the family of SeaWorld parks and Sesame Place in Pennsylvania. The whole portfolio was sold in 2008 and the now-standalone chain was renamed SeaWorld Parks).
Complimenting the revered and historic Colonial Williamsburg nearby, Busch Gardens: The Old Country served as a cultural landmark celebrating the origins of American immigrants during the colonial age and the traditions and stories they brought with them. Truly a theme-park, Busch Gardens is made up of elegant “hamlets” that each could stand-in for real villages from the countries they emulate. Detailed, warm, thoughtful, and given a storybook twist, these wonderful themed lands benefit from the park’s placement among the densely forested hillsides and naturally rolling terrain of Virginia with bridges, waterfalls, rivers, and gardens set among the quaint hamlets.
Busch Gardens is a rare example of the kind of theme park you could spend a full day at without riding any attractions and still leave satisfied. Maybe that helps explain why the park has been named the Most Beautiful Park in the World for 25 consecutive years without stumbling once.
Image: Rain0975, Flickr (license)
That’s not to say Busch Gardens doesn’t have thrills. It does. “Quality over quantity,” you might say, as the humble park today offers just six adult coasters (with a seventh on the way for 2017), but each is among the best of its kind on Earth due in part to the beautiful setting and to the careful and thoughtful themes and stories applied overtop what would be generic thrill machines at other parks. (For example: Alpengeist, a B&M inverted roller coaster like Cedar Point’s Raptor or Islands of Adventure’s Dueling Dragons, but here cast an Alpine ski lift terrorized by the Abominable Snowman, or Griffon a B&M Dive Machine with massive 10-across trains soaring through a delicate French village, swooping through town before landing in an photogenic splash pool, above.)
But in the back corner of the park, set back into a towering forest high above the winding Rhine River below is one of the most revered roller coasters ever to prowl through the park’s forests, and perhaps one of the most retroactively loved thrill rides in the United States.
How did it come about? As always, an understanding of the end starts at the beginning.
Swinging
Image: Cedar Fair
For just a moment, let’s leave behind the dense forests of Virginia and fly to the Midwest, right along the Ohio River. In 1980, Kings Island near Cincinnati was working closely with a roller coaster manufacturer called Arrow Dynamics. Arrow, for its part, had already cemented its place in the history of the roller coaster thanks to Matterhorn Bobsleds, the world’s first tubular steel-tracked roller coaster that had opened at Disneyland in 1959.
Arrow was at it again two decades later, developing a cutting-edge ride for Kings Island that would redefine what a roller coaster could be. The new coaster model, which they called a “suspended coaster”, would look quite a bit different from everything that came before. For one thing, as its name implied, the roller coaster cars would hang down from the track above. But most incredibly, those suspended cars would be hanging from jointed arms, able to sway side-to-side at each bend in the track, banking and swaying along the ride’s course.
Image: Cedar Fair
The idea was phenomenal and groundbreaking. The prototype at Kings Island? Not so much. The Bat roller coaster opened in 1981 and by 1984, it was gone. Built in an era before computer simulations could precisely anticipate the force and stress on each square inch of track, The Bat had at least one fatal flaw: the track itself wasn’t banked sufficiently, as designers expected the swinging cars to do the banking. As a result, shock absorbers in the hanging arms wore out and stress on the track necessitated the reconfiguring of steel supports and constant track work.
Image: Cedar Fair
The inherent issues in The Bat forced Kings Island’s hand and the ride closed permanently after just a few years. (Arrow did return to the same plot of land in 1987 to build a much different roller coaster, Vortex, re-using the Bat’s Victorian bell tower station. Vortex still operates on the land today, and careful observers will see a cut-out for The Bat’s suspended track in Vortex’s train barn, as well as concrete footers leftover from The Bat dotted along the ground beneath Vortex.)
A failed prototype at Kings Island should sound familiar. We recently explored two 21st century attempts at the park in their own Lost Legends entries: Son of Beast, the world’s tallest, fastest, and only looping wooden roller coaster and TOMB RAIDER: The Ride, one of the best themed thrill rides ever, much less at a seasonal park in Ohio. Both opened within two years of each other, and both lasted barely a decade before closing forever… The price of innovation in the industry.
Faced with the failure of The Bat, Arrow had to press forward. Back to the drawing board, they would refine the suspended coaster concept and in 1984, they would open two, both of which would thrill audiences for two decades. The most renowned suspended coaster ever was about to open at Busch Gardens. What was it like? Read on…
Image: SeaWorld Parks
The approach
Image: Martin Lewison, Flickr (license)
The experience of the Big Bad Wolf begins before you’ve even set foot on the roller coaster itself. After all, your first encounter with it is likely as you approach the park’s Oktoberfest hamlet from the Italian village of San Marco. It’s then that you’ll see the deep red track of Big Bad Wolf emerging from the woods at the top of a steep hill and diving toward the Rhine River below. The track curves out just above the water’s surface and tears across the waterway before disappearing back into the forest at the water’s edge. This terrain-hugging fall looks impressive enough, but to see a train roaring through it helps make sense of Big Bad Wolf’s name.
The unassuming suspended coaster ride system adds extra oomph to the already-astounding maneuver. The train growls down this epic hillside and, at the last second before splashing into the water, it swings out to the side like a serpent.
This signature moment is certainly the most picturesque element of Big Bad Wolf. Of course, that’s by default, because it’s the only moment of the coaster’s 2,800 foot-long circuit that you can see from the park’s pathways. The rest is concealed deep in the forests of Oktoberfest. That’s just how designers wanted it. What awaits aboard the mysterious coaster?
Aboard the beast
Image: Patrick McGarvey, Flickr (license)
Seated aboard the black and yellow trains hanging beneath the striking red coaster track, the Big Bad Wolf begins simply enough: with an recorded spiel inviting you to “enjoy traveling at the speed of fright.” A small, harmless dip out of the station and a turn to the left serve to remove Big Bad Wolf from the hustle and bustle of Oktoberfest, isolating the train among the endless forests.
Once sufficiently out of the sight of park guests, the train reaches the ride’s lift hill: 50 feet tall. The click-click-click sound of anti-rollbacks builds anticipation on a ride that, for many, served as their first ever adult roller coaster. The train crests the lift hill and dips down just a bit. Those expecting a white-knuckle thrill and a record-breaking first drop will be surprised. Instead, this dip leads only to a banked turn.
This, though, is where the suspended coaster really gets to show off. As the train swiftly glides through the banked turn, the train swings up to the side in an extreme bank. Just ahead, a wooden building appears. As the train sways wildly, it appears you’re heading right for it! At the last second, you swing away – and right toward a Bavarian stone bridge! Likewise, you narrowly escape.
These are Big Bad Wolf’s starring moments: an entire Bavarian village is set among the hilly, forested terrain of the woods. Quaint German shops and Tudor-style homes all covered in crawling vines and flowering ivy. This is when you as the rider begin to realize, you are the antagonist in an age-old fable: you are the Big Bad Wolf, terrorizing this storybook town as you roar along its streets, doors and windows sealed with terrified residents no doubt cowering inside. The fully built village offers one near miss after another as you slalom and swing through the town, narrowly missing trees, fences, doorways, and rooftops.
The village recedes as the coaster gets its first view of an open hillside laced with interlocking roller coaster track – a relentless swaying helix you’re about to race through.
Then, the train enters the midcourse brakes and slows for a breath. Don’t get used to it! This is the prelude to one of the most explosive finales on any family coaster; a moment that looks much different on-board than it does from the safety of the bridge you stood on a moment ago.
The train crawls up a second lift hill buried among the trees. This one is twice as tall as the first: 100 feet up. At the top, the coaster teases for a moment, slowly circling among the canopies. Then, it turns to reveal the moment you knew was coming: a view out across the endless green of Virginia’s forests… and the Rhine River 100 feet below. It could be that the Big Bad Wolf has saved the best for last.
Teetering on the edge for just a moment, the train bends down and races along its biggest drop yet: 80 feet straight down. The train barrels down the drop at 48 miles per hour – its highest speed yet – and races toward the water below. Just before it skims the river, it pulls up and swings wildly out in its most aggressive move yet, absolutely rocketing as it sways up to one side, then the other.
It slaloms back and forth, burning up the tremendous energy of the plunge as it gradually weaves up the hillside and through the forest, darting alongside the bridge and over a gushing waterfall. Somehow, that single dive provided enough momentum to return the Big Bad Wolf back to the top of the hill with the safety of the station just ahead.
As always, we have to include a video that gives you a very real idea of the magnitude and power of Big Bad Wolf. Check it out below:
Legacy
Big Bad Wolf wasn’t Arrow’s first suspended coaster, but it was among the first to stick around. The ride was, by all accounts, a family ride – the kind that could serve as the first “big” coaster for generations of guests. It was thrilling but fun in the kind of balance that’s not easy to strike outside of Big Thunder Mountain style mine trains.
Speaking of which, Big Bad Wolf helped to signal that Arrow’s suspended coaster could become a new standard; the kind of customizable, family-oriented, first-step coaster role that had been filled almost exclusively by mine train rides through the 70s and 80s. And Arrow did go on to build suspended coasters at many major parks from Six Flags Magic Mountain to Chessington World of Adventures. But none were quite as clever or thrilling as Big Bad Wolf, which showcased the power and intensity that the suspended coaster could have compared to more idling, calm iterations like Cedar Point’s Iron Dragon.
Image: Patrick McGarvey, Flickr (license)
For 25 years, Big Bad Wolf raced through the forests of Oktoberfest and dove toward the Rhine River below, delighting generations. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t stay around much longer. Busch Gardens had plans for Oktoberfest, including a brand-new, 21st century coaster that would build on Big Bad Wolf’s legacy… and its land. What replaced this storied ride? Read on…
The end
On July 24, 2009, the park announced that that summer would be Big Bad Wolf’s last. They cited a 25-year shelf-life recommendation from the manufacturer, Arrow. Also worth noting: even after The Bat, Arrow had a tumultuous history all its own, enduring takeovers, changing tastes, and engineering problems culminating in a December 2001 deathblow when the prototype “4th dimension” coaster X at Six Flags Magic Mountain proved too complex and expensive to handle. The ride’s very-delayed opening ultimately bankrupted the company, whose assets today continue on in S&S Sansei.
And indeed, in its 25th year, Big Bad Wolf was one of very few suspended coasters left in the world, and by far the oldest. Only five suspended coasters remain today; the eldest four are Iron Dragon at Cedar Point (1987), Ninja at Six Flags Magic Mountain (1988), Vampire at Chessington World of Adventures (1990), and Vortex at Canada’s Wonderland (1991).
Image: Cedar Fair
The fifth might surprise you: taking everything they’d learned since the failure of The Bat at (then Paramount’s) Kings Island, Arrow returned to the site of their first and failed suspended coaster and constructed Top Gun: The Jet Coaster in 1993. In a bout of nostalgia, the ride was painted orange in 2014 and renamed The Bat as a nod to its predecessor, though this Bat still swoops through the forested hillsides of Ohio today.
Big Bad Wolf was demolished, leaving only its concrete footers visible along what had been the iconic river dive finale. The vacant station and now-empty woods were a visible and unfortunate reminder of what had been, and families no doubt lamented the loss of such a wonderful introductory roller coaster. But such prime real estate wouldn’t stay vacant for long. Some park fans imagined that the massive plot of land Big Bad Wolf had occupied might be reborn as a brand new themed hamlet for the park – perhaps Russia or Spain might finally join the park’s Italy, France, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, and England.
But the park had other plans. For one, the concrete footers left along the river remained intentionally. They would be used again…
Oktoberfest
Image: SeaWorld Parks
In September 2010 – about a year after Big Bad Wolf’s demolition – the park announced that the Oktoberfest hamlet would soon undergo a radical transformation, restoring the entire land to a glorious and vibrant style of maypoles, banners, live entertainment, and more. The smell of fresh pretzels and beer would radiate through the land, as dancers, singers, and authentic German details would take center stage.
This all-at-once refresh of Oktoberfest would give the hamlet a consistant identity and style, uniting its many shops, restaurants, streets, and the towering Festhaus with the look and feel of a real celebrating village. The transformation would begin in 2011 with the opening of Mäch Tower, a thrilling 246-foot tall drop tower holding 30 riders in a revolving ring, complete with on-board audio and first-ever vibrating seats.
Image: SeaWorld Parks
But while all eyes were drawn skyward to the new tower, something decidedly darker was taking shape in the woods that Big Bad Wolf had rampaged through for 25 years. The radical rebirth of Oktoberfest was all leading up to something sinister. The forest would become home to a new family roller coaster that would take Busch Gardens’ careful fusion of thrills and storytelling and create a follow-up to the Big Bad Wolf that would amaze fans of all ages.
Construction walls blocking Big Bad Wolf’s vacant Bavarian station were adorned with warning signs and a peculiar omen: a metallic V with a lightning bolt shape tearing through the center.
Verbolten: Brave the Black Forest
Image: SeaWorld Parks
Verbolten opened in 2012. Inspired by the Autobahn and legends of the mysterious Black Forest, the ride’s queue sends guests into the old Big Bad Wolf station, now redressed as sister-brother duo Gerta and Gunter’s Tours and Rentals. Gerta greets guests in the Tour Center via television, welcoming them to Oktoberfest and encouraging them to enjoy their driving tour through the German countryside. “But,” she warns emphatically, “whatever you do, do NOT go near the Black Forest. It is verboten.”
The warning is ominous, but clear: stay away from the stone wall that keeps the Black Forest at bay, lest you find yourself drawn into its deadly branches. Should you find yourself near the forest, petal-to-the-metal! Head for the old covered bridge; it’s the only way out.
Image: SeaWorld Parks
Continuing out of the Tour Center and toward the garage where you’ll board, guests pass through a small shed serving as a makeshift office for Gerta’s elusive brother Gunter. The sights within hint that – unbenownst to Gerta – Gunter’s intentions are nefarious; his office is crawling with parastic vines and brambles, escaped from strange experiments he seems to be conducting on seedlings from the Black Forest. The sinister vines creep through his makeshift laboratory and ensnare piles of hidden luggage from missing tourists…
What follows is a sincerely stunning family roller coaster that just so happens to include a first-of-its-kind-in-the-US feature that stuns even repeat riders. Verbolten launches through a disorienting layout filled with sincerely surprising scenery. Then, it enters a second act beyond the walls of the Black Forest where… well… we can’t give away the secrets.
Image: Anna Marie, PullOverandLetMeOut
We’ve got to admit – we’re huge fans of Verbolten and chronicled its many details in a Behind the Ride feature that’s well worth a read… if you don’t mind spoilers.
By the end of Verbolten’s course, it races through a finale that recalls Big Bad Wolf. And that’s on purpose…Is Verbolten a worthy successor to the Big Bad Wolf? Absolutely. Verbolten is a truly spectacular roller coaster all on its own, sometimes derided unfairly by park fans simply because of the ride it replaced.
Image: SeaWorld Parks
Of course, its not Verbolten’s fault that the park retired Big Bad Wolf (perhaps before its time had really come), and viewed without the cloud of Wolf’s legacy around it, Verbolten is one of the best family roller coasters on Earth – a perfect blend of thrills, theme, and thoughtful placement – it’s a world-class addition to a world-class park, and it’s every bit the family thrill Big Bad Wolf was. For themed coaster aficionados, Verbolten is well worth the trip to Busch Gardens.
Remembering
And before you go thinking Busch Gardens would rather forget Big Bad Wolf than celebrate its legacy, think of Verbolten as an extended tribute:
- One of Verbolten’s five “German roadster” trains has an apt license plate: “WOLF X ING.”
- Once launched beyond the stone wall and into the Black Forest, one of the three scenarios riders encounter is the train being stalked and surrounded by a pack of howling wolves.
- Verbolten’s finale is practically a shot-for-shot recreation of Big Bad Wolf’s iconic river drop act, intentionally re-using the concrete footers for the dive toward the water and the slaloming return trip to the station.
I
Image: Devin Olson, Devin Olson Media
Even if the loss of Big Bad Wolf stings, at least it’ll be remembered forever as a legend, quite differently from its next-door neighbor – a coaster so unimaginably painful, it lasted only a few years. The story behind Busch Gardens’ dreaded “Franken-coaster” is so wild, we chronicled it in its own in-depth Disaster Files: Drachen Fire feature that’s a must-read for Busch Gardens fans.
The truth is, Busch Gardens’ fans are right to mourn the loss of Big Bad Wolf, a truly exemplary family coaster and perhaps the pinnacle of the suspended coaster, too. It may be that no roller coaster built on that hallowed ground could satisfy the generations that cite Big Bad Wolf as their first “grown-up” thrill ride. But maybe they can rest assured in recognizing that, for a whole new generation, Verbolten will be every bit as memorable and, objectively, a worthy successor to a beloved ride.
Now it’s up to you. In the comments below, share your memories of Big Bad Wolf to preserve this delightful ride for future generations. Did you get to ride Big Bad Wolf? What was your favorite part? Was it your first “big” coaster? How does it compare to other suspended coasters you’ve ridden? Are we right to say that Verbolten is a fitting follow-up and tribute, even if it’s hard to see that because of Wolf’s legacy? We can’t wait to see the memories you share of this one-of-a-kind coaster.
Then, set course for your next Lost Legend with a trip to our In-Depth Feature Library.
