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PARK HISTORY In 1972, the Taft Broadcasting Company first proposed building a 1.50 km&2 (370 Acre ) theme park in the small village of Maple , now part of Vaughan, Ontario. Several other possible locations were considered, including Niagara Falls, Ontario , Cambridge, Ontario and Milton, Ontario , but the site in Maple was finally selected because of its proximity to the City of Toronto and the 400-series of highways. Other companies had seriously considered the greater Toronto area as a spot to build a theme park, including the Conklin family (whose Conklin Shows ran various midways around North America, including Toronto's C.N.E. midway) and Walt Disney who considered the area prior to his expansion plans in Florida. He eventually decided that the area would not make a suitable park site, the main reason being that the climate was too cold, thus the operating season too short to be sustainable. Construction of the park was opposed on multiple fronts. Many cultural institutions in Toronto such as Ontario Place , the Royal Ontario Museum and the operators of the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) felt that the new theme park would put them out of business because the Toronto market was not large enough to support more competition. Other groups that fought the building of Wonderland included a Vaughan residential association (called 'SAVE') who felt the increased traffic would reduce property values. Some of the concessions from the company included a landscaped berm around the park to reduce noise and the appearance of the large parking lot. Taft was concerned about opposition, going as far as to fly a group of opponents and regional councilors out to Cincinnati to show residents and town councilors the positive impact of one of their theme parks within the local community (it should be noted that up until the 1970s, amusement parks had the reputation of being poorly designed and 'unsavory'). People in the region were concerned that the new park would be similar in aesthetics to a Carnival or midway. Canada's Wonderland was also responsible for changing the master development plan for the Province of Ontario. The government wanted to increase residential and commercial development to the east of Toronto in the Regional Municipality Of Durham , which includes Pickering and Oshawa , while having the lands to the north of Toronto remain agricultural (see Greenbelt (Golden Horseshoe) ). Wonderland was able to convince the province to amend the planning policy for the region, and the park secured infrastructure improvements (including a highway overpass and sewage systems) to be expanded and built out to the site. These improvements paved the way for increased development throughout the region. Concerns were also raised about the cultural implications of allowing an American theme park to open in Canada. Many felt that it would be a " Trojan Horse " for American Culture . To offset the criticism, Taft planned to open Frontier Canada, a part of the park devoted to Canada's history. Early park maps show the area encompassing what is now Splashworks, White Water Canyon, the Paramount F/X Theatre and the southern part of Kidzville, as well as proposed attractions, including a steam passenger train. While Frontier Canada was never built, several elemental themes remain in the area. Unlike its sister parks, Kings Island and Kings Dominion , it was decided during the early planning stages that centre piece of the park would not be a replica of Paris, France 's famous Eiffel Tower . Instead the parks designers chose to build a massive mountain, known as Wonder Mountain. Situated at the top of International Street, Wonder Mountain featured a huge waterfall and interior pathways which led visitors to a look-out point. Other elements which were never built include a hotel and conference centre (to have been built north of the park). On June 13, 1979, Ontario Premier William Davis depressed the plunger on an electronic detonating device, triggering an explosion on the site. Construction on Canada’s Wonderland began immediately and continued through to early 1981. Canadian companies partnered on the preliminary design and engineering of the project and helped to mould the dream into a reality. Two years later, on May 23 , 1981 , Canada's Wonderland was officially opened to the public by then Premier Of Ontario William Davis and Taft Broadcasting President Dudley Taft . The spectacular opening ceremony included 10,000 Helium Balloon s, 13 Parachutists , 350 white Dove s, and a Pipe Band . Four children representing the Arctic , Pacific , Atlantic , and Great Lakes regions of Canada each poured a vial of water from their home regions into the park's spectacular fountain. Hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky also appeared as a special guest, helping to raise the Canadian Flag . 12,000 guests were welcomed into the park for the first time. Recent history The park's former connection to Hanna-Barbera productions was reduced after Paramount Pictures purchased the park. At that point the park was renamed Paramount Canada's Wonderland. After Viacom bought Paramount in 1994, a successful attempt was made to bring families back to the park by providing children with Nickelodeon cartoon characters that were familiar to a new generation. While the Nickelodeon channel (part of Viacom's MTV Networks ) is not available in Canada, many of the network's shows air on YTV , making this decision logical. YTV had previously been involved in numerous projects at the park, including the 1992 direct-to-video ''Festival of Friends'' concert, raising money for Kids Help Phone . In 2005 the park introduced Fearfest. Fearfest is a Halloween event featuring various haunted house attractions in different themed areas of the park. The park continues running many of their thrill rides during the event, but the section of the park for smaller children is closed off. Thunder Run , where patrons ride a mine car like train through a mountain, is also changed for the event. During Fearfest it is called Haunted Thunder Run, and patrons ride through a darker tunnel with more strobe lights, fog machines, and black light lit scenes featuring the skeletons of miners that might have died in the mine. There is reportedly a headless skeleton in the mine that is a reference to the headless employee legend, but this is not confirmed. More details of the headless employee legend can be found in the Thunder Run Article . In 2006, the park introduced Spooktacular, a Halloween event geared towards children. The event included children's rides, costume contests and a treasure hunt. Spooktacular was open on weekends during the daytime, while Fearfest remained open at night. In June 2007, an accident involving a thirteen-year-old girl at a theme park in Kentucky on a ride similar to the Drop Zone at Canada's Wonderland caused Cedar Fair to close all five similar rides in its theme parks until further notice. However, it is opened in Canada's Wonderland, as of July 2007. ATTRACTIONS Today, Canada's Wonderland has over 200 attractions, including over 60 thrill rides. The park has North America's 3rd greatest number of Roller Coasters with 14 in total, and North America's greatest variety. The park features eight themed areas on 330 acres (1.3 km&2) of land which includes a 20 acre (81,000 m&2) waterpark called Splash Works. Splash Works has over 2 million gallons (7,570 m³) of heated water, Canada's largest outdoor Wave Pool measuring 36,000 square feet (3,300 m&2), a lazy river, and 16 water slides. In 1983, Canada's Wonderland added the Kingswood Music Theatre, a 15,000 seat amphitheatre that hosted many "big-name" concerts. After the Molson Amphitheatre opened on the grounds of Ontario Place in 1995, cultural festivals at the theatre became more prominent. Splash Works is featured in the southwest quadrant; an artificial mountain forms the park's central feature. The park's themed areas are as follows:
Shows
Water slides
Roller coasters See Also: Rides at Canada's Wonderland
Children-geared roller coasters
Flat rides See Also: Flat rides at Canada's Wonderland Besides the large number of roller coasters it has, it also has a huge variety of Flat Ride s, such as Bumper Car s, Carousel s, many of these relying on Centrifugal forces, and other Funfair Ride , such as:
Major attractions by year 1981 - Park Opens with: Antique Carousel (originally built in 1928), Balloon Race (Frequent Flyers), Bayern's Curve (R), Bedrock Dock (R), Blauer Enzian (Thunder Run), Dragon Fyre (Dragon Fire), Ghoster Coaster, Great Whale of China (R), Happy Landing (Swan Lake), Hot Rock Raceway (R), Klockwurker (Klockwerks), Krachenwagen, Mighty Canadian Minebuster, Wilde Beast (Wild Beast), Quixote's Kettles (Spinovator), Scooby Choo (Kidzville Station), Shiva's Fury (The Fury (R)), Sol Loco (Orbiter), Swing of Siam (Swings of the Century), Pharaoh's Eye (R), Wilde Knight Mares (Nightmares), Viking's Rage (The Rage), & Zumba Flume (R) 1982 - Kings Courtyard (The Courtyard) 1983 - Kingswood Music Theatre 1984 - White Water Canyon 1985 - Sky Rider 1986 - Thunder Run (formerly "Blauer Enzian", was relocated inside the mountain) 1987 - The Bat 1988 - Racing Rivers (R) 1989 - Timberwolf Falls 1990 - Jet Scream 1991 - Vortex 1992 - Splash Works 1993 - Kid's Kingdom play area(later renovated and renamed Candy Factory) 1994 - Days Of Thunder (Action FX Theatre) 1995 - Top Gun 1996 - Xtreme Skyflyer; ''SplashWorks Expansion:'' Wave Pool, The Pump House, Black Hole Water Slide 1997 - Drop Zone, Speed City Raceway 1998 - Kidzville, James Bond - License To Thrill (feature at Action FX theatre (R)), The Edge Climbing Wall (R) 1999 - The Fly; ''Splashworks Expansion:'' Super Soaker and The Plunge; Escape from Dino Island (feature at Action FX theatre (R)) 2000 - CliffHanger, Scooby-Doo's Haunted Mansion 2001 - Shockwave; ''Zoom Zone (new kids area) including:'' Silver Streak, Blast Off and Jumping Jet; 7th Portal (feature at Action FX Theatre(R)) 2002 - Psyclone; ''Splashworks Expansion:'' Riptide Racer, Barracuda Blaster and Kids Sprayground 2003 - Sledge Hammer, Nickelodeon Central (replacing Bedrock) 2004 - Tomb Raider: The Ride 2005 - Italian Job Stunt Track 2006 - Paramount's Hollywood Stunt Spectacular (R), The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbara (feature at the Action FX Theatre (R)), Nickelodeon Celebration Parade (R) 2007 - Coasters 50s Diner, International Marketplace Buffet, "Twistin to the 60s" show, "Endless Summer on Ice" show, and Picnic Pavillion ''Current name in (brackets); R= Removed/Closed'' LOCATION Canada's Wonderland is on the east side of Highway 400 between Rutherford Road (Exit 33) and Major Mackenzie Drive (Exit 35), 13 km (8 miles) north of Highway 401 , 6 km (3 miles) north of Highway 407 and 64 km (41 miles) south of Barrie . It is bounded by Highway 400 to the west, Jane Street to the east, Major Mackenzie Dr. to the north and Rutherford Rd. to the south. Formerly quite isolated, it is now surrounded by housing on all sides. It has three public entrances and one entrance designated for staff, deliveries and buses. Regular transit access is provided by York Region Transit (YRT), while GO Transit , Brampton Transit , and Mississauga Transit all run special services, as does YRT from Newmarket and Markham . Public transportation Transportation to the park is available from the following of the regional transit organizations:
Each of the above services provide at least one specific, seasonal routes to the park. As well, the YRT operates six year-round routes that are either diverted into or stop near the park during its operating season. FACTS AND FIGURES
REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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