OnPoint! - The Cedar Point Blog

If you missed the special ceremony we had last weekend to celebrate Magnum's 20th Anniversary, then you missed all the special speakers.

One of whom was Jim Futrell, the historian for the National Amusement Park Historical Association (NAPHA).

Jim reflects on the impact Magnum had on the amusement industry:

"Looking back on my more than thirty years as a coaster enthusiast, it is hard to believe how much the world has changed.

It was a much different time for amusement park enthusiasts as the 1980s were not the best decade for roller coasters.

The race to build the tallest and fastest roller coaster had come to a halt in 1981 and the world’s amusement park operators shifted their attention to water rides and simulators in search of that next great attraction.

Few roller coasters were being built and new ideas were scarce. A paradigm shifting roller coaster was desperately needed.

In this pre-digital era, amusement park and roller coaster enthusiasts could not log on to the internet to catch up on the latest rumors and reports of activity at favorite parks.

Rather we would anxiously await the arrival of that newsletter or magazine and spend hours on the phone, then a land line, swapping stories of park visits – What did you see? What did you hear?

Cedar Point with its well established reputation during the roller coaster arms race of the seventies with the additions of Corkscrew and Gemini seemed to be a natural to launch a new roller coaster era and by the summer of 1988, the chatter began – “Cedar Point is up to something…”

Then in August, the official announcement finally came and the reaction in the enthusiast community was almost universal…..

More than 200 feet tall???!!! Nearly a mile long???!!! Over 70 miles per hour???!!! And there are no loops????

Magnum XL 200 broke completely new ground in roller coaster design. In addition to previously unheard of height and speed, the ride took a traditional inversion-less out and back layout previously used only in wooden roller coasters and took it to an entirely new level.

The success was evident from the start, people flocked to Cedar Point and lined up for hours to be taken places a roller coaster had never traveled before.

And in early June, Cedar Point hosted the first Magnum Mania, now Coaster Mania. Hundreds of enthusiasts flocked to Cedar Point from around the world to experience this groundbreaking ride.

As someone who attended that first event, I will never forget Magnum’s skyline changing profile on Cedar Point as I drove across the causeway. About how small, Gemini, a previous record breaker looked as I climbed Magnum’s lift hill, or that incredible feeling of falling over that first drop and flying over the hills.

Magnum’s place in history was assured. The roller coaster arms race was relaunched and over the next decade about 270 new roller coasters would open in the United States, compared to only 90 in the decade prior to Magnum’s opening.

Now discussion was focused on just what a roller coaster such as Magnum should be called. After all, it had no loops like most of the other large steel coasters of the time and was so much bigger and faster than its non-looping brethren. After a couple of years, the name everyone agreed upon was hypercoaster.

A new roller coaster genre was born, and today almost every major amusement park in the world feels compelled to add one to be considered a roller coaster mecca.

But the influence of Magnum XL 200, not only transformed the identity of Cedar Point, but the excitement it generated propelled the enthusiast community to new levels. What was one a group that numbered in the hundreds, soon numbered in the thousands.

As Magnum XL 200 enters its third decade, it place in history cannot be denied. It redefined just what a roller coaster could be and launched at new roller coaster arms race that led to the development of its bigger brothers – Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster.

While no longer the tallest ride at Cedar Point, it is arguably the most historic and even today, remains a favorite of roller coaster connoisseurs the world over."