Carowinds to build an $11 million ride -- in South Cackalacky

Technically it will be on the South Carolina side of the theme park, but Carowinds has announced that it will build an $11 million ride.

... Fort Mill attorney B. Bayles Mack, who represented Carowinds at Monday's York County Council meeting, confirmed his client plans to build a new ride but wouldn't give more details[ according to the Charlotte Observer].

“There will be some other facilities as well, I'm sure,” Mack said.

The original 2004 “fee-in-lieu-of-taxes” agreement between the county and then-Carowinds owner Paramount called for the park to invest $17 million on the York County end of the 112-acre park, which straddles the S.C.-N.C. state line. That pact was set to expire Dec. 31.

To date, Carowinds has spent about $14 million on the S.C. side of the park under the agreement.

...

This past year, Carowinds added its first new coaster in five years, the Carolina Cobra. The attraction is the second tallest at the park.

The coaster follows the $4 million Nighthawk, which was added in 2004.

Ghost Town re-opens this Friday

As mentioned before, some of my favorite childhood memories involve the chronically quirky mountain theme parks Tweetsie Railroad and, to a lesser extent, Ghost Town in the Sky. It appears that both parks -- recently on the cusp of extinction -- have received reprieves. Tweetsie now has a life of at least a few more years. And good things appear to be in store for Ghost Town.

"Hard times closed [Ghost Town] in 2001, and it instantly went from an average seasonal attendance of 163,500 tourists, to one lonely security guard," writes the Charlotte Observer.

Several buyers presented themselves in that five years, but park creator R.B. Coburn refused one after the other. "I preferred to sell it to someone who would keep it a park, not tear it down for houses," says Coburn, 87.

On Friday, his stubbornness pays off. Ghost Town in the Sky will be back in business, with new owners and $7 million in renovations. Tourists longing for the romance of the Wild West will once again ride chairlifts to the peak of Buck Mountain and see saloon doors swing open, outlaws gunned down in the dust, and cancan girls flipping their skirts and kicking their legs.

Even better for the valley: These played-out fantasies are expected to draw 200,000 in the first season. That's an economic bull's-eye.

"A lot of people didn't realize how important the park was till it closed," says Louise Price, a 30-year park employee who was recently re-hired. "Since it has been gone, motels closed and were torn down, restaurants went under. It was bad."

Read the rest of the article here.