‘Action Point’ brings back memories of dangerous rides as Mountain Creek prepares to open

Show Caption Hide Caption Video: Mountain Creek TreEscape Aerial Adventure Ropes Course Mountain Creek's aerial ropes course near the Great Gorge golf complex in Vernon started its first spring of operation in April 2018.

VERNON — As it prepares to open its 2018 season Saturday, a new Hollywood movie is forcing Mountain Creek Waterpark to confront the troubled legacy of its predecessor, Action Park.

Johnny Knoxville's "Action Point," released June 1, is loosely based on real stories of broken bones, concussions and deaths that made Action Park, which formerly occupied the Mountain Creek site, among the most notorious theme parks in the nation.

The movie uses a ramshackle amusement park as a catapult to launch self-injuring stuntman Johnny Knoxville of “Jackass” fame into various pratfalls. The name “Action Point” is an homage to its North Jersey inspiration, Knoxville has told several media outlets.

As the park's 1980s advertising tag line boasted: “There’s nothing in the world like Action Park.”

There was the short-lived and dangerous Cannonball Loop, an enclosed water slide featuring a complete vertical loop that required participants to be freshly hosed down lest they became stuck.

There was the Tidal Wave Pool, nicknamed the Grave Pool, which could generate waves more than 3 feet high and was the site of three drownings.

There was also the Alpine Slide, a luge-track of fiberglass and concrete set on a ski hill that would fling occasionally brake-less carts into slower ones and leave lasting skid marks on riders unable to abide by the “keep your arms and legs in at all times” rule.

The ride registered the park’s first death in July 1980, when an employee's cart jumped the track. The 19-year-old struck his head on a rock.

“It was the Wild West before 1996,” said Joe Hession, Mountain Creek president. “As much as the stories are interesting, I almost see them as stories of 'let’s make sure that never happens again.' ”

Action Park deaths, injuries piled up

Hundreds of injuries and six deaths were recorded in the 18 years after the grand opening of Action Park in 1978.

Deaths and injuries • A 19-year-old Action Park worker died after his cart jumped the track and he hit his head on a rock. • A 20-year-old Brooklyn man drowned on Aug. 25, 1987, in the Tidal Wave Pool. An 18-year-old from Queens drowned in the same pool on July 19, 1987. • Hundreds of injuries and six deaths were recorded in the 18 years after the grand opening in 1978.

The regular injuries and attitude surrounding them led to the creation of park nicknames: Traction Park, Class Action Park, Accident Park.

Underage drinking, missing signage and lax safety cemented the park’s reputation as a utopia for rambunctious teens.

“It’s fun to tell the stories,” Hession said. “But, yeah, we’re glorifying criminals. We’re glorifying people who conducted a business that really, as much as it might be funny, hurt people. I mean, people died there.”

As a Vernon native and a former general manager of the resort, Hession said he is familiar with the park’s various iterations. Before he joined the Intrawest Resorts Holdings management team, his first job was parking cars at the resort.

During the Action Park days, the ethos was to choose your own adventure and danger level, Hession said. Rides were tested until perfected.

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Action Park became Mountain Creek

Intrawest Resorts Holdings, a developer and operator of destination resorts, arrived in 1996 after a string of lawsuits against Action Park. The company changed the park's name to Mountain Creek and embarked on a mission to revive the park by installing new, safer rides and removing old ones.

Hession said he quickly accepted that rides with recurring incidents had to close. Fans of the old Action Park, however, were resentful, he said.

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“It was really quite a process to make it a safe park,” he said. “We removed a lot of things, and in the '90s I remember people saying, ‘You’re getting rid of this, but it’s the best thing.’ It was a commitment to safety. It was a commitment to being good stewards of recreation overall.”

After a six-year absence, Hession returned to Mountain Creek’s staff roughly six months ago with his management team from SNOW Operating, which works with ski resorts such as Aspen Snowmass and Whistler Blackcomb on a consulting basis with its Terrain Based Learning Program.

The resort’s ownership group recently shed the Mulvihill family, which opened Action Park in 1978 and returned after the Intrawest era in 2010.

The family revived the name Action Park and its trademark technicolor signage in 2014 to capitalize on nostalgic feelings from now-adult teenagers. “I survived Action Park” T-shirts and bumper stickers further glamorized the danger for two years until the name Mountain Creek returned.

“It could be the subject of a business school course about what not to do,” Hession said.

The park’s dangerous reputation made a brief return in 2012, when it racked up more injuries in one year than it did from 2005 through 2009.

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Cannonball Falls, Colorado River: Injuries continue

An enclosed ride that launched riders from a twisting tube into a pool 10-feet below called Cannonball Falls was the most dangerous ride in the state in 2012, with 12 injuries, state records show. The Colorado River ride was a close second, with 11 injuries in 2012.

Cannonball Falls has since been closed. The Colorado River ride now requires helmets after multiple reports of passengers bumping heads. The Tarzan Swing was shut down last year to examine safer operation, Hession said. The Alpine Slide was replaced with the Alpine Coaster.

“You can’t do what used to be done,” said Chris Haggerty, the director of resort operations, who started working at the resort as a teenage lifeguard. “You wouldn’t want to, either. You’d go out of business.”

Today, the park’s focus is on safely providing thrills, rather than using danger to boost adrenaline for its 250,000 customers each year, Hession said. In the past four years, the park has tallied between 26 and 33 injuries each summer, state records show.

The last severe injury, on Thunder Falls in August 2015, was credited to inadvertent rider misbehavior, records show.

In addition to a renewed focus on safety, the water park in 2018 and beyond will attempt to become more well-rounded for full family outings, Hession said. Many popular rides, including the 99-foot-tall H2-Oh-No! and the horizontal-looping Zero-G, are high thrill, he said.

The future of Mountain Creek

This year, the park is set to introduce its first 4D water slide, Hession said. A relatively new phenomenon, the ride includes a light and sound experience. This specific one features a snow theme to reflect the park’s winter sport connection, he said.

Other technological advancements have been installed to facilitate entry into the park using online purchasing options, Hession said.

The park is open only on weekends through June 17. Then, the summer weekday schedule runs until closing day on Sept. 3. Daily tickets cost about $30. A season pass is now available for $64.99.

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