By: Brennan Brokaw & Zach Spodek





A trip to Cedar Point today is one filled with towering, record-breaking roller coasters, however, if you were to go back to the park's early days, one would be met with a small handful of roller coasters. The wooden Coaster Blue streak being the only recognizable coaster from this age. This would all change when the ride manufacturer Arrow Dynamics first created their tubular steel track design, Cedar Point, and the theme park industry was about to reach new heights.





Cedar Creek Mine Ride is a mine train roller coaster. Constructed by Arrow Dynamics, the roller coaster opened in 1969 within the Frontiertown section of the park. It is the second oldest roller coaster at Cedar Point behind Blue Streak. Cedar Creek (along with Iron Dragon) are the only two roller coasters at Cedar Point to utilize two separate lift hills.

Due to the success of Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland (made by Arrow Development before they were incorporated into Arrow Dynamics) , the tubular steel track was in high demand. Arrow developed a runaway mine train concept that could be used in a roller coaster attraction. With this came the Cedar Creek Mine Ride at Cedar Point. Designed by legendary engineer Ron Toomer, who would also design The Bat and Vortex at Kings island, along with future cedar Point attractions. A popular misconception is that Ron never rode his rides, though he suffered from motion sickness he would ride them a couple of times.





The ride features short dips and turns throughout a wooded area and also over a lagoon. The ride starts by entering a mine building, which also provides housing for additional trains.





Corkscrew is a steel coaster built by Arrow in 1976, it was the first roller coaster in the world with 3 inversions. The coaster features Arrow's first vertical loop. It was intended to be launched as the first modern-day coaster to feature a vertical loop, however “The Great American Revolution"

Corkscrew By: Jacob Caruso

The ride consists of three 24 passenger trains painted red, white & blue, a color scheme inspired by the U.S. Bicentennial, which occurred the year the ride was introduced.





The lift hill consists of 85 feet before riders are dropped 65 feet, going as fast as 48 mph. When the ride hits the epicenter of the corkscrews, it is traveling at 38 mph.









Despite Magic Mountain beating it with the modern vertical loop, Corkscrew is still the first roller coaster with 3 inversions.





Gemini is a coaster coaster with a hybrid steel and wooden track. Built in 1978 by Arrow Dynamics and designed by Ron Toomer it is currently the third (and fourth technically) oldest coaster found in the park. When the ride first opened, cedar point marketed it as the tallest, fastest and steepest roller coaster in the world.

Gemini Behind Monster By: Brennan Brokaw

Ironically, three record-breaking claims were false in nature as other coasters around the world had already beat the records Gemini claimed. The Loch Ness Monster at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia, opened earlier in 1978, and was taller while Screamin’ Eagle at Six Flags St. Louis opened in 1976 and was faster at 62 mph.





A red and blue train are mounted on two separate tracks that run parallel to each other throughout most of the ride except for a brief divergence, before coming back together to finish the ride and to see who was faster. The coaster has a 125-foot lift hill, a 118-foot drop, and goes up to 60 miles per hour.





Due to the nature of the ride, Gemini has one of the highest capacities of any ride in the park. Occasionally, Gemini's trim brakes are turned off, and a slightly faster ride is experienced. This is especially noticeable toward the end of the ride. When the attendance is low, the ride only operates one colored side. At one point, Gemini had 3 trains on each side of the roller coaster, making for a total of 6 trains overall. However, today only 4 are in use.





Iron Dragon is a steel suspended coaster at Cedar Point that was built in 1987 by Arrow. Arrow had previously built a suspended coaster at King’s Island called “The Bat” that was the first of its kind when it opened in 1981. Before Iron Dragon's debut, the Western Cruise boats (later known as Paddlewheel Excursions) navigated the waters below where the ride exits today.

This type of roller coaster features cars that hang beneath the track by a chassis that allow them to swing side to side. Some parts of the ride are over artificially made lagoons, while the track also takes riders into wooded areas. It has a max height of 76 ft and goes up to 40 mph. Iron Dragon's previous color scheme was red track with gray supports, but in 2004, the supports were repainted yellow orange, giving the ride a similar paint job to Top Thrill Dragster. Water nozzles that spray mist are also present on the ride, however these are not always active.





In 1988, Dick Kinzel, then president of Cedar Fair, saw a report on CNN about the opening of a new coaster in Japan called Bandit that emphasized height and speed but yet had no inversions. Kinzel wanted to introduce a similar coaster that emphasized steep drops and negative g-forces over the use of inversions and spins, which were common at the time. At this point in time, it had been 10 years since the last major coaster addition at Cedar Point (Gemini). Cedar Point asked for proposals from multiple coaster manufacturers to build a roller coaster without inversions or over-the-shoulder restraints. They chose Arrow, which proposed a 187 feet tall coaster. This proposal sparked Cedar Point's management into breaking the 200-foot barrier, partly because of the massive amount of publicity in having the first roller coaster to ever do so. Ron Toomer would once again design the coaster. The name Magnum XL-200 was chosen because the show Magnum, P.I. was popular at the time, and the 200 was for breaking the 200-ft barrier. The original proposal cost $7.5 million, but was raised to $8 million to account for the extension to 200 feet.





The ride has a record 205 ft lift hill, and then approximately a 195 ft drop at 72 mph down it.





It officially opened to the public on May 6, 1989 as the world's tallest, fastest and steepest complete-circuit roller coaster. On June 2nd of that same year, it was measured for the Guiness Book of World Records. Because of Magnum XL-200, the park set an attendance record that year.









Magnum was also the first coaster in which Arrow Dynamics used its Hypercoaster trains.

In 2005, the park redesigned the ride to be molly orange, instead of scarlet red which had been present since its opening in 1989.





Overall, the records Magnum-XL broke at its time of launch were world’s tallest complete circuit roller coaster, world’s longest roller coaster drop, and world’s fastest roller coaster.

It was these feats that encouraged other amusement parks to up their game and break new records in the industry. For example, Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh, PA opened Steel Phantom in 1991. At its debut, it broke the record for world’s longest coaster drop and world’s fastest coaster, two records that Magnum XL-200 previously held.





Today the Cedar Point Skyline resembles an art piece of interwoven steel supports: Millenium Force, Gatekeeper, Valravn and more glide across the park. But imagine an age before the “roller coaster capital of the world” truly existed. A place that would be transformed from a leisure park, to being home to some of the greatest roller coasters created, all because of one company's innovation. In a testament to the work of Arrow: Magnum is 31 years old, yet still stands out in a horizon of giants.





Cedar Point Skyline at Night By: Brennan Brokaw

The lights under Gatekeeper are the lift hill lights for Magnum XL-200.



