Kentucky Fair: A vintage-style, history-based theme park for Louisville

[Okee68]

One week ago, I published a ten-page outline for "Kentucky Fair," a park I devised as a Kentucky-themed spiritual successor to the countless theme parks of the 1960s and 1970s designed by the legendary Randall Duell, such as the original three Six Flags parks, Astro World, Opryland, Carowinds, and others. If you're interested in reading about this very quaint, low-thrill theme park, then here's the full document:

Kentucky Fair

KENTUCKY FAIR: A brand new old-fashioned theme park by Okee68 Original draft published February 7, 2022 Behold Kentucky Fair, a fictional theme park located in Louisville at the present site of Kentucky Kingdom. In many ways, Kentucky Fair is a spiritual successor to the many theme parks of the ...

docs.google.com

 

[Okee68]

For the sake of convenience, I'll go ahead and post my outline in this thread.

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KENTUCKY FAIR: A brand new old-fashioned theme park by Okee68
Original draft published February 7, 2022

Behold Kentucky Fair, a fictional theme park located in Louisville at the present site of Kentucky Kingdom. In many ways, Kentucky Fair is a spiritual successor to the many theme parks of the 1960s and 1970s designed by architect Randall Duell, such as Opryland and the original trio of Six Flags Parks. For one thing, Kentucky Fair is themed largely around Kentucky's local history, just as many Duell parks (especially the first three Six Flags locations) were based on the chronologies of their respective states. Kentucky Fair also features all the classic attractions that defined the Duell theme parks: the mine train coaster, the log flume, the sky lift, and countless others. Another similarity lies in the fact that the park is not a venue for big thrills, rather a fun and charming spot for a pleasant day off; half the enjoyment simply comes from the atmosphere and the aesthetic alone.

The architecture of Kentucky Fair is quaint and unpretentious; its only goal is to reasonably convey a particular place and time with no added fluff, and so each building is designed with as few fake or exaggerated details as possible. There are no falsefronts or fake upper stories in the entire park, for example, and extra attention has been paid to things such as correct traditional detailing and proportions.

The landscaping of Kentucky Fair is very rugged and naturalistic, and there is always a huge wealth of fully grown trees providing excess shade; from an overhead view, the park looks practically forested. The general atmosphere of Kentucky Fair is overtly informal, like a huge picnic area of sorts, and the park very much has a "low-brow" appearance, even going as far as having dirt thoroughfares and a gravel parking lot instead of asphalt.

Exactly in the fashion of Knoebels, Kentucky Fair requires no entry fee and is completely free to roam about without experiencing any of the attractions. Admission is merely paid for tickets, or for a more expensive full-day pass. The park's free entry is one quality that allows Kentucky Fair to skirt the boundary between a theme park and a regular public space. There is nothing preventing anyone from walking in, getting a bite to eat, buying a few curios, enjoying the atmosphere for a moment, and then leaving within an hour or two.

The greater part of Kentucky Fair consists of five areas, each based on a different place and time throughout the history of Kentucky. The following sections describe each area of the park in detail.​

 

[Okee68]

GRAND BLUEGRASS EXPOSITION:

The most iconic part of Kentucky Fair, and the largest as well. The Grand Bluegrass Exposition is the first area guests visit upon entering the park, and it serves as the central point of Kentucky Fair’s Duell Loop; somebody who exits the area to the left will most likely traverse the park clockwise and re-enter the Exposition from the right, and vice-versa.

Theme-wise, the Bluegrass Exposition is a fairground scene lifted straight from the 1900s (the decade), with attractions to suit. The area is actually the least reflective of Kentucky's history out of all five. While the city of Louisville was certainly not devoid of fairground excitement and genteel public spaces at the turn of the twentieth century, the Bluegrass Exposition is mainly meant to be an aesthetic showcase with merely a light sprinkling of Kentucky culture; a pretty first impression of the park above all else.

The architecture of the Bluegrass Exposition is typical of a turn-of-the-century pleasure garden or public park: Flamboyant buildings of white-clapboard construction with hipped shingle roofs, arched arcades, lattice screens, and modest wood-carved classical detailing. Gazebos are not an uncommon sight, and some particularly stylized buildings are capped with a small, turret-roof cupola. The Exposition is also a bit of a landscaping showcase; it is more formal in this department than the other areas of the park, with lots of well-kept flowerbeds and hanging, cast-iron "birdcage" planters all around.

The Bluegrass Exposition has the most shops out of any section in the park. Among these are a large outdoor market providing a wide variety of locally grown flower bouquets, a photography shop which develops authentic old-fashioned portraits of its patrons, and a bookstore featuring an extensive selection of writings by Kentuckian authors, whether they be biographies, histories, or works of fiction. Also, each section of the park (the Bluegrass Exposition included) features a designated “general memorabilia” shop selling basic items such as ceramics, posters, mugs, decorative plates, and other such things—all themed either to the park or to the state of Kentucky of course.​

Attractions

>Goldenrod Plaza: Not actually an attraction in the usual sense, but still worth listing here since all of the Randall Duell parks were designed with a grand entrance mall. The Goldenrod Plaza is the park's formal but quaint-looking entrance court featuring the standard amenities such as ticket booths, small vendors, plenty of benches, and a guest relations office. The plaza is graced with lots of colorful flora, and as its name suggests, there is most certainly a lot of goldenrod—the state flower of Kentucky. At the center of the court, a large American flag flies high above the park; a slightly smaller Kentucky flag residing just below it on the same mast.

>Equestrian Arena: Beyond the Goldenrod Plaza, the very first sight guests lay their eyes upon is the grand structure housing the Equestrian Arena, Kentucky Fair’s main representative for the state’s famous horse culture. This is a show-jumping venue in which trained horses perform impressive leaps over fences of varying heights, though not for competition. Equestrian Arena is basically Kentucky Fair’s equivalent to the dolphin shows of many Duell parks.

>Shelby Lake Swan Boats: The most prominent feature of the Bluegrass Exposition is the man-made Shelby Lake. Named after Isaac Shelby, the very first governor of Kentucky, the lake is home to a fleet of pedal-operated swan boats. Constructed of elaborately carved wood, each swan seats up to six people and features a fabric canopy for shade. Guests are free to pedal these boats around wherever they please for as long as they feel is necessary.

>Flying Thoroughbred: PTC-style carousel embellished with murals portraying Kentucky's entire history, from the very first indigenous settlers to the present day. As to be expected, each of the carousel’s wooden stallions is made to appear like a thoroughbred racing horse. Just like Opryland's Carousel On the Lake, the Flying Thoroughbred is situated on a small island off Shelby Lake and requires a wooden bridge to access.

>Kentucky Cardinal: Authentic replica of a 1900s Traver circle swing, though instead of wicker gondolas, guests ride aboard the state bird of Kentucky: the vibrant red cardinal. Each of the six stylized birds is constructed of steel and has posable wings. The radius of the swing is suspended over the lake for the most part, and the ride's central tower is veneered by white clapboard.

>Grand Bluegrass Amphitheatre: A large, open-air venue for Kentucky's iconic regional music genre: Bluegrass. This is more or less the main attraction of the Bluegrass Exposition. Bluegrass bands travel far and wide to play here, and revue-style Bluegrass stage shows are often held here as well.

>Louisville Depot: The higher-profile of two stations for the Kaintuck Railroad, the park's mandatory narrow-gauge steam train ride. The engine that departs from this depot is a narrow-gauge version of the original Dixie Flyer, a passenger train built in 1892 that operated on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. The Kaintuck Railroad is mostly just a simple circle around the park, although much like the Six Flags Railroad at Six Flags St. Louis, it dips deep into the park's southern boundary in order to connect with the very central Louisville Depot.​

Dining

>Cardinal Cafeteria: The park's largest restaurant, and the place to eat for anyone who isn't in the mood for anything in particular. The Cardinal Cafeteria is one of the only restaurants in the park in which the majority of the seating is indoors. Traditional American food is served here at a very long buffet; items include glazed ham, roast beef, mashed potatoes, buttered corn, and dinner rolls among countless other things. The cafeteria also features salad and dessert bars, as well as plenty of options for people with specialized diets.

(NOTE: All eateries in Kentucky Fair defiantly serve Royal Crown Cola and other tertiary soft drinks. There is more to life than just Coke and Pepsi.)

>Exposition Express: One of four restaurants found throughout the park specializing in standard amusement park fare: burgers, hotdogs, chili, and the like. All four of these places are counter service restaurants with the exact same menu and no indoor seating.​

 

[Club Cooloholic]

Well it would give a reason to visit Louisville Kentucky! Love the idea of extra trees, in thinking why more parks don't have trees, I figure it's the added maintenance they cause.

 

[Okee68]

SHAWNEE VILLAGE:

The first area clockwise from the Bluegrass Exposition, the Shawnee Village represents Kentucky's pre-contact period, when the large majority of what is now the state was occupied by the indigenous Shawnee people. The area is rife with Shawnee artwork and cultural elements, and all actors portraying Shawnee folk are of actual tribal descent. Here, visitors can purchase hand-made pottery spun on-site by Shawnee craftsmen, as well as hand-woven Shawnee textiles such as blankets, clothing, and mats. One shop sells cute plush dolls of Kentucky's various native animals.

During the summer months, the Shawnee resided in longhouses consisting of bark or woven-mat walls held together by a wood-pole frame. These structures looked a lot like Quonset huts, all things considered, so converting this architectural style into something a bit more permanent for use in Kentucky Fair is a fairly easy task.

In Shawnee Village, longhouses are constructed of rough-hewn vertical wooden boards rather than bark or mats. Their wood-pole frames are represented through protruding battens arranged in a grid pattern along their exterior and interior walls; these are merely for decoration rather than serving as a real structural element. The roofs of these longhouses, as they were in real life, are either gabled or vaulted. Many of the longhouses of Kentucky Fair also feature simple wooden awnings spanning much of their exterior; these are held in place by wood support poles.​

Attractions

>Nepernine River Canoes: A man-powered canoe ride in which every patron lends an oar at the instruction of the leading Shawnee canoeists at the front and back ends of the watercraft. This attraction is functionally the same thing as the old Caddo canoes of Six Flags Over Texas, or the Cherokee canoes of Carowinds. The waters traversed by these canoes are partially shared by James Harrod’s River Expedition, an attraction located in the next section of the park.

The word “Nepernine” in the ride's title is the original indigenous name for the Licking River in the eastern part of the state.

>Tilted Longhouse: The “tilted house” attraction, of course set inside of a Shawnee longhouse. All of the classic gags are here: the bottles rolling out the window, the “impossible chair” that some unlucky guest is always invited to get up from, the apple that rolls “up” a series of shelves on the wall, and others. Many of these gags have received simple modifications that properly suit them to the setting of a Shawnee longhouse; the rolling bottles, for example, have become heavy wooden replicas of maize cobs. The Tilted Longhouse also contains three tilted rooms instead of only two.

>Blue Lick Theatre: A modestly sized outdoor stage venue where Shawnee actors in traditional garb represent their heritage through music, song, dance, and whatever else is appropriate for the occasion. No need to worry about horrendous portrayals of savage “show Indians”; these performances are put together by actual Shawnee talent according to actual Shawnee tastes.

The name “Blue Lick” refers to Eskippakithiki, a large eighteenth century Shawnee settlement in present-day Clark County, whose name translates to “Place of Blue Licks” (as in, the local salt licks in the area).

>Cyclone Spirit: A rotor ride named after the Cyclone Person of Shawnee mythology, a benevolent spirit who resides in tornados. The “barrel-with-roof” structure is of course made to resemble the rest of the area’s architecture, in addition to being decorated with stylized depictions of swirling tornado tendrils.

>Algonquian Animal Fair: A basic petting zoo featuring ponies, goats, pigs, and other small beans. Each animal is given a suitable name from the Algonquian language, the traditional tongue of the Shawnee.

>Sky Lift to Coal Country: Kentucky Fair features a copy of the classic sky gondola ride, a certified staple of the Randall Duell parks. The terminal in Shawnee Village takes passengers to Coal Country, the eastmost section of the park.​

Dining

>Fry Bread Sandwich Shop: As its name suggests, this establishment serves sandwiches assembled on fry bread, the iconic and infamous staple of modern Native American cuisine. Looking more like fluffy, golden-brown gyros than sandwiches, these fry bread ensembles can be ordered in numerous varieties, with countless toppings available to choose from.​

 

[Okee68]

PIONEER POINT:

This fortified outpost in the rugged wilderness represents the period of American history in which Kentucky was still the western frontier. Populating this area are a lot of rough-hewn log cabins with large frontal breezeways and stone side chimneys. Iconic frontier memorabilia such as coonskin caps, knives, and imitation rifles can be purchased at several shops here, and a colorful variety of local rocks and minerals are available to pick out as souvenirs at a small geology exhibit.​

Attractions

>James Harrod’s River Expedition: A narrated river cruise similar to the old La Salle ride at Six Flags Over Texas and its doppelgangers in Georgia and Missouri. Riders travel aboard a small, canopied boat along the breezy Ohio River as the vessel’s captain explains each scene occurring along the riverbank. The many vignettes humorously chronicle the journey of explorer James Harrod and his 31 men as they encounter a variety of misfortunes on their way down the Ohio, including unlucky encounters with wild animals, an accidental detour through a river cave, and even a massively botched attempt at cooking a meal while setting up camp. They manage to make their way through, however, and the ride ends at the founding of Harrodsburg, Kentucky.

>Fort Nelson: An explorable log fortress based on the fortification of the same name established in Louisville by George Rogers Clark in 1781. The attraction is very comparable to Disneyland’s old Fort Wilderness. Crossing over the moat and beyond the stockades, guests can visit various rooms containing anything from ammunition stockpiles to jail cells to period writing desks, as well as fire wax cannonballs at special targets from the fort’s higher elevations.

>Settlers’ Trails: A water-propelled dark ride, which, like Tales of the Okefenokee of Six Flags Over Georgia fame, is populated by a cast of anthropomorphic animals. The ride follows a poor family of raccoons who decide to head west to Kentucky from their home in Virginia in search of prosperity. Riders witness the many troubles they encounter along the way, such as inclement weather, a nearly impassable stream, deadly diseases, and a band of thieving foxes. The ride has a relatively grim and atmospheric tone, especially compared to the campy and saccharine Okefenokee. Settlers’ Trails also employs top-notch audio-animatronic technology.

>Boone’s Big Game Hunt: A classic shooting gallery featuring animated targets—bears, deer, elk, and whatnot—as well as woodland diorama scenery. The faux-rifles are accurate to the flintlock muskets used by the pioneers of the era. The shooting gallery is quite obviously named after Daniel Boone, the legendary Kentucky frontiersman.

>Cumberland Plateau Picnic Plot: A quiet, shady picnic area that anyone can “settle” to eat their lunch. More of a basic amenity than an attraction, but still worth mentioning.​

Dining

>Frontier Tavern: The park’s sole table service restaurant. Here, patrons can order such hearty entrees as T-bone steak, pork sirloin, beef stew, and roasted turkey. Dessert items include delicious apple cobbler and pecan pie. The tavern’s interior features a huge painted portrait of Daniel Boone above the cobblestone mantle, as Boone actually established a tavern and trading post in 1787 at the eventual site of Maysville, Kentucky.

>Outpost Café: The second of the four “standard fare” restaurants with identical menus.​

 

[Okee68]

RIVERSIDE TOWN:

This area represents the many prosperous towns established along the Ohio River as they would have appeared during the 1840s or 1850s. Buildings here are rendered in the Federal and Greek Revival styles, with double-hung windows, gabled roofs, restrained classical detailing, and that modest "Early America" look which prevailed prior to the era of garish Victorian architecture. Construction may be of either wood or brick. Riverside Town, living up to its name, features a pretty wooded creek along its outer boundary known as Kentuckiana River, which the main thoroughfare directly overlooks.

Curios sold in Riverside Town include period hats and other textiles, a huge variety of tea and scented candles, and beautiful glass trinkets created on-site by skilled glassblowers. There is also a bakery which sells delicacies such as muffins, scones, pies, pound cakes, cookies, and fudge.​

Attractions

>Ohio River Mill Flume: The obligatory log ride, which features two different flumes. The twin log courses each feature several smaller drops before the great plunge at the end, as well as a series of light rabbit hops and a twisting spiral section. Certainly not one of the more boring log flumes. As to be expected, the ride’s winding trough stands among a small forest’s worth of local trees.

>Old Maysville Road: A horse-driven stagecoach ride named after the Maysville Road along the Ohio River, one of the earliest turnpikes in Kentucky. Passengers travel aboard an 1850s-style stagecoach along a dirt trail through the wilderness. Along the way are several sights typical of the era, such as a crude inn by the road.

>Gildson Manor: A Haunted Mansion-esque walkthrough attraction, and by far the most fiction-based thing in the park. The experience is set within a long-shuttered Greek Revival mansion haunted by the Gildsons, a massively wealthy and powerful family of river magnates whose extreme greed ultimately led to their eternal occupancy of the estate. The exterior of the attraction is the most intricately themed sight in the park: The cursed mansion, with its decrepit paint and boarded windows, is located at the end of a twisting trail leading down an overgrown, tombstone-littered lawn.

Some of the tamer scenes encountered near the beginning of the attraction include a haunted piano playing eerie tunes all on its own and a hallway of menacing Gilson family portraits that stare guests down as they move by. Things become far spookier deeper into the mansion, when the Gildson ghosts themselves appear one by one to give guests a thorough lesson in terror. Gildson Manor gets plenty of mileage from the classic Pepper’s Ghost effect, which most of the well-dressed apparitions are rendered by way of. The whole aesthetic of the experience is defined by colorless, ghastly displays of early nineteenth century interiors and fashions, a bit like A Christmas Carol in some regard.

>Kaintuck Folk Theatre: This small indoor performance venue offers patrons a bottle of cream soda and a generous helping of regional folk music. Short stage shows are brought to life here by the sounds of fiddles and mandolins.

>Mule-Go-Round: The exact same mule-powered carousel from the original Six Flags parks. Definitely fits the area's aesthetic. No further explanation required.

>Paducah Depot: The lower-profile railroad depot of the two; the engine that departs from this station is a narrow-gauge replica of the Quigley, a locomotive built in 1859 for the young Louisville & Nashville Railroad. The station is named after Paducah, a river town near the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi.​

Dining

>River Country Kitchen: Premier eatery for Southern food. Things like fried chicken and catfish, cured ham, dumplings, and biscuits with gravy are served here. Breakfast items are also sold.​

 

[Okee68]

COAL COUNTRY:

This area represents the many and numerous coal mining communities of Eastern Kentucky, particularly as they were around the 1920s. Buildings here are basic and utilitarian; most are simple boxy structures with vertical wood siding and gabled roofs of corrugated tin. Some buildings have porches and homely windows, while others appear more like barns or industrial mining structures. Coal Country also features the iconic wooden “hangman” lamp posts, a trademark of the Randall Duell parks. In Coal Country, guests can purchase homemade candy and confection popcorn, uncommon glass-bottle sodas (such as Nehi, Boyland, and Bubble Up), and old-fashioned toys, gags, and novelties.​

Attractions

>Blue Heron Mine Train: The mine train coaster, named after the former coal mining town of Blue Heron on the Cumberland River's Big South Fork. The coaster careens through a lush deciduous forest and several underground tunnels crowded with timber supports and old-fashioned coal mining equipment.

>Dixie Flyer Antique Cars: The archetypal antique car ride. The Dixie Flyer, not to be confused with the passenger train of the same name, was an automobile manufactured in Louisville from 1917 to 1923. Of the models produced was a one-seat roadster—the ideal car for this type of attraction. Riders travel through covered bridges and past quaint podunk scenes, including an accurate replica of a period service station. Each car can be steered left and right slightly.

>Bootlegger Blitz: Representing Kentucky’s history of bootleg whiskey production is this Intamin Drunken Barrel ride. Each oversized keg is labeled like a moonshine or whiskey barrel, and the ride platform is surrounded by boiling stills and other antique bootlegging equipment.

>Wagon Wheel: A simple Trabant or Wipeout ride embellished to resemble an enormous old-fashioned carriage wheel.

>Penny Arcade: A classic penny arcade, as its name suggests, filled with countless coin-operated amusement machines from the 1920s and prior.

>Sky Lift to Shawnee Village: Carries passengers to the western extent of the park.​

Dining

>Lickskillet Smokehouse: An eating establishment whose primary offerings include pulled pork, barbeque ribs, and smoked turkey and chicken legs.

>Hilltop Grill: The third of the four “standard fare” restaurants.​

 

[Okee68]

TRAPPER'S CREEK:

This is a very small water park located north of the main park; it is more or less treated as its own separate entity. Trapper's Creek is accessed either from Riverside Town or from its own designated back entrance. The water park isn't themed to any particular place or time, although it shares visual elements with both Pioneer Point and Riverside Town.​

Attractions

>Swimming Hole: A huge man-made pond which exists for the sole purpose of leisurely swimming. Several water slides supported by timber beams whisk people down into the hole, and swinging ropes provide another means of entry. The Swimming Hole requires neither a ticket nor a day pass to enter; it is totally free to enjoy.

>Lazy River: An artificial river whose current propels people forward at a sedate pace. An innertube is required, and there is no limit to how many times a person may float through the course.

>Old Mill Stream: An attraction consisting of a water trough circling around a wooden shed with a large water wheel protruding from it. The water wheel continuously pours a torrent onto the circling people in their innertubes as the current gradually gets faster. This attraction is located on the large “island” formed by the Lazy River.

>Creek Breeze Picnic Plot: A picnic area next to the Old Mill Stream.​

Dining

>Riverview Grill: The remaining “standard fare” restaurant.​

 

[Okee68]

Well it would give a reason to visit Louisville Kentucky! Love the idea of extra trees, in thinking why more parks don't have trees, I figure it's the added maintenance they cause.

Theme parks with an abundance of fully grown trees are always the best-looking ones, without a doubt. In a lush, green state like Kentucky, not having a ton of trees around is kind of inexcusable. Opryland USA, just one state below, practically looked like it was built inside of a forest not even too long after it opened.

 

[Okee68]

One of the reasons I came up with this park is because I find it fascinating how all the Duell parks had essentially the same basic roster of attractions (the original three Six Flags parks especially), but each time an attraction was reused, it was made to fit into its park's specific theming. For example, all the Duell parks had a mine train coaster, and at Six Flags Over Georgia it's called the Dahlonega Mine Train (Dahlonega being Georgia's local gold rush town), while at Six Flags Over Mid-America it's known as the River King Mine Train (the River King mine being a coal mine in St. Louis).

I've always wanted to take that same classic roster of attractions (mine train coaster, log flume, antique cars, tilted house, etc.), give them a Kentucky coat of paint, and package them all into a Kentucky-themed amusement park that matches the general style of all those Randall Duell parks from half a century ago. I made several attempts over the years, but I never got around to actually committing to it until very recently.

 

[Okee68]

Another reason I came up with Kentucky Fair was because I've always had this desire to "outclass" the original three Six Flags parks at their theming. As quaint and history-based as the first three Six Flags parks were initially, it can't be denied that even from the beginning, their theming was very flawed. The concept of themed areas based on the various sovereign entities which had once controlled some or all of a park's respective state may have worked well enough for Six Flags Over Texas, but the insistence on reusing this theme for the Georgia and Mid-America parks resulted in some very dubious theming.

First, it needs to be noted that because Texas is the only state which had actually been under the control of six national flags, it was the only state which this concept could truly work for; Six Flags Over Georgia and Mid-America had to "cheat" by using state flags. It was even more egregious in the case of Mid-America as not even the Missouri flag was enough, and so the neighboring Illinois flag (and by extension, the flag of Great Britain, which flew over Illinois for roughly fifteen years) had to be tacked on, resulting in a park which bizarrely appeared to cover the histories of both Missouri and Illinois for some strange reason.

The bigger problem here, however, is that the attractions that were built throughout these areas often had absolutely nothing to do with the areas themselves. Six Flags Over Georgia featured an antique car ride as the sole attraction of its Great Britain section, while Six Flags Over Mid-America had Injun Joe's Cave—a dark ride about Mark Twain characters—in the middle of the park's Spain section. There are countless instances of discordant theming like this appearing all over the original Six Flags parks, even in the original Texas park to some extent.

Diving even further in, you encounter the ultimate redpill of the original Six Flags parks: It was never an ideal arrangement for these parks, which were meant to be based on local history, to instead be restricted to having half their themed areas based on the old colonial entities of Spain, France, and Great Britain when those empires often had no lasting effect whatsoever on the history of the park's state, and hardly made for any place or event worth building an attraction around to begin with. Georgia's periods of control by France and Spain ultimately yielded no cultural or historical significance to the state, while Spain's control over Missouri and Britain's control over Illinois had no influence on the culture or history of either of those states. Forcing the themed areas of Georgia and Mid-America to adhere to the "six flags" motif meant arbitrarily dwelling on meaningless footnotes in the histories of those states instead of allowing the parks' areas to be based on the actual meat and potatoes of their state histories.

By restricting the Georgia and Mid-America parks to that "six flags" theme, we ended up with a Spanish fort in Georgia, a Wild West boomtown in Missouri (this was Mid-America's "Great Britain" section, no joke), and plenty of other drastic misrepresentations of the histories of the involved states. From a theming standpoint, it's quite easy to see that the six flags motif never had any business being exported outside of Texas. It's because of this extremely dubious theming that I've always wanted to see "de-flagged" versions of Georgia and Mid-America: What would these parks have looked like in their heyday (the early 1970s) if they had never reused the extremely specific motif of the Texas park and instead had been designed with six themed sections which properly adhere to their state history?

A few years ago, I actually did whip up a few anemic outlines for "alternate universe" versions of the two parks in question; just simple lists naming the themed sections and their respective attractions. They were cute little concepts, but the big takeaway I got from them was that I could take that same idea (reworking the original attractions of SFOG and SFOMA and suiting them to better themed areas) and apply it to a theme park for my home state of Kentucky. I wanted the theming of this Kentucky park to be solid, and I wanted it to not awkwardly skimp out on its own state history like the original Six Flags parks did. Now having created this fictional park, I can say that I am fairly proud of it, and even though its theming isn't 100% stellar or anything, it's still very nicely done in my opinion, and certainly better than whatever was going on at Six Flags.

 

[Imagineer Brandon]

great stuff. i'm very into this sort of lo-fi theme park.

 

[Okee68]

great stuff. i'm very into this sort of lo-fi theme park.

Glad you like it, my guy. That low-brow, informal feeling that I describe is one of my favorite aspects of the park. When I envision Kentucky Fair, I envision dirt pathways, rough-hewn wooden fences, a huge grown tree rooted straight through the ground in front of you, and a cool breeze ruffling a massive canopy of limbs and leaves overhead. I would never want this park to even remotely resemble the garish parking lots littered with coasters that are the modern Six Flags parks, or even really the Disney parks, with their very stylized detailing and focus on fantasy elements. As I envision it, Kentucky Fair has sort of a realistic quality to it that makes it stand out from the rest; the atmosphere of the park is something like a reconstructed log fort at a state park, but obviously with amusement rides and a lot more buildings thrown into the mix.

 

[spacemt354]

Nice job with this!

 

[Okee68]

Nice job with this!

Thanks. I put a lot of research into the project, and I definitely think it would serve as a better representation of Kentucky's history than any of the original Six Flags parks were for their own state histories. I'm still not done adding details to it.

 

[cdunlap]

OK! I guess I'm doing this. This is a document that contains all of my recent AU Six Flags Park Concepts. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FhFBKmgl5qcmdqjKvax2DCoF71FCR7HIhmRWF-nPONs/edit

 

[cdunlap]

Spanish fort in Georgia

That theming mishap brought about one of the most bizarre things to exist! Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys And Girls, I give you Horror Cave!

Traumafessions :: Mickster on the "Horror Cave" at Six Flags Over Georgia | kindertrauma

It is summer time, which makes me think back to summer trips from my childhood. This always included a week-long trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama without fail. However, it is a day trip to Six Flags over Georgia in the summer of 1975 that left me scarred for life. Sounds like fun right? A day

www.kindertrauma.com

 

[cdunlap]

Theme parks with an abundance of fully grown trees are always the best-looking ones, without a doubt. In a lush, green state like Kentucky, not having a ton of trees around is kind of inexcusable. Opryland USA, just one state below, practically looked like it was built inside of a forest not even too long after it opened.

View attachment 621157

Where was this taken? Opryland, probably, since Okee mentioned it and it looks like TN.

 

[cdunlap]

>Gildson Manor: A Haunted Mansion-esque walkthrough attraction, and by far the most fiction-based thing in the park. The experience is set within a long-shuttered Greek Revival mansion haunted by the Gildsons, a massively wealthy and powerful family of river magnates whose extreme greed ultimately led to their eternal occupancy of the estate. The exterior of the attraction is the most intricately themed sight in the park: The cursed mansion, with its decrepit paint and boarded windows, is located at the end of a twisting trail leading down an overgrown, tombstone-littered lawn.

Some of the tamer scenes encountered near the beginning of the attraction include a haunted piano playing eerie tunes all on its own and a hallway of menacing Gilson family portraits that stare guests down as they move by. Things become far spookier deeper into the mansion, when the Gildson ghosts themselves appear one by one to give guests a thorough lesson in terror. Gildson Manor gets plenty of mileage from the classic Pepper’s Ghost effect, which most of the well-dressed apparitions are rendered by way of. The whole aesthetic of the experience is defined by colorless, ghastly displays of early nineteenth century interiors and fashions, a bit like A Christmas Carol in some regard.

Was this inspired by the Bloodmere Manor concept for Haunted Mansion? It is also a walkthrough that follows guests touring a decrepit Greek Revival manor and cemetery belonging to a wealthy 19th century family who eternally occupy the house due to a mysterious calamity that befell them in the past.