Trip Report: Big Chief Karts & Coasters
(and other Wisconsin Dells attractions)
Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin - 08/07/2002
"How is this possible?"
The concept of an amusement park as we know it has apparently not reached the
Wisconsin Dells. The place is well stocked with waterparks, but even those are
not quite what most of us have in mind. All of the things you expect to find
in an amusement park can be found in the Wisconsin Dells, but generally not
all in one place. One location has waterslides. Another has a couple of carnival
rides. Another has a log flume. Another has a Shoot-The-Chute. Several have
Go-Karts. And Big Chief has wooden roller coasters. Pity none of these
operators have any apparent interest in getting together to build a "real"
amusement park out of their separate attractions. From a practical strandpoint,
nothing in the Dells is gated, but several attractions offer P-O-P plans, so
it's not uncommon to see kids with three or four wristbands on each arm representing
various attraction deals.
Of the
various operations, Big Chief's is one of the largest, and for a roller coaster
nut, certainly the most interesting. I pulled into the parking area and parked
just about fifteen feet from the gate...my "normal" parking space
was actually closer to the gate than the nearest "handicapped" space
on the other side of the driveway. I walked into the park, past a few kiddie
rides on one side and a wood coaster on the other. At the ticket kiosk, I pondered
my options. Coaster rides at Big Chief's are expensive at $6 each, or $5 each
for four, because each ride ticket is good for either a coaster or a Go-Kart.
I opted for the all-day wristband good for all of the coasters and all of the
karts. At these prices I'd get my money's worth easily on the coasters. A sign
at the ticket booth proclaims, "NO INSURANCE - RIDE AT YOUR OWN RISK."
I'm not familiar with Wisconsin's amusement ride code, but my guess is that
the sign is a lie intended to scare the attorneys away.
I had arranged to meet Steve Elliott, local enthusiast and occasional r.r-c
participant, at Cyclops. So I proceeded to Cyclops but couldn't
resist taking a ride. The ride has a five-car train (though a 6-car station)
and a sign warns that riders in the last car must be 18 years or older. It's
been more than a decade since I was 18, so I hopped into the last seat of the
train, fastened the seat belt, and pulled down the double-bar. Off we went up
the hill. I had been watching the ride, so I was ready for it to curve to the
right and head down the hill and around the front of the station.
Only trouble
is, Cyclops first drop is on a curve to the left. The drop I was
looking at was its SECOND drop. The first drop sent me airborne in a hurry.
The seat belt went snug, and I grabbed for the lap bar. The train took off like
nothing in Minnesota, twisting round the first bit, turning around, and then
zipping down that drop I'd expected first, again launching me clear of the seat.
The train swooped round the curve beneath the station, came back around the
back side, and...stopped. The train had returned to the station. The operator
dispatched it again, as for your $6 you get a double ride. Cyclops is
a fantastic first half of a coaster. I'd like to see what CCI would have come
up with had they made it a complete ride out of it.
I hadn't yet seen Steve, so I went ahead and took a ride on Pegasus. Pegasus
is a smaller coaster, and it's running a smaller PTC train. I noticed that the
station queue chutes don't line up with the seats on the train; apparently this
is the ride that got the awful CCI train built for the Screechin' Eagle...or
at least it got an awful CCI train (I also heard that it got one of the El
Serpiente del Fuego/La Montana Rusa trains). Apparently that original train
was just as successful on Pegasus as it was on Screechin' Eagle
(which is to say, not at all). Anyway, Pegasus has the newest PTC train
I've seen that doesn't have a pivot shaft for the back axles. I thought all
PTC cars were articulated these days.
The ride itself is far inferior to Cyclops. Much of the ride is based
on a large squarish helix-like structure. But it is squarish; instead of a big
round curve as we normally expect from a coaster, it's more like a big square
with small radius 90-degree curves. A bit strange, actually. Not a bad ride,
but Cyclops was a lot better.
Finally
I met up with Steve. He's a professional coaster expert, and it was intreresting
to get his observations on the park and its rides. We boarded the train. It's
a long walk to the top of the hill to ride Zeus, and the ride's path
is heavily wooded. Steve pointed out how the high portions of the otherwise
wooden structure are supported with steel; I guessed that the steel makes for
a more compact supporting structure. At the top we turned around and headed
downhill. Unlike Cyclops, Zeus is a fairly long ride. Like Cyclops,
it features a CCI-signature "faster...faster...faster" layout and
a profile loaded with airtime. Not quite as extreme as on Cyclops to
be sure, but plenty of exctement to go around. Again, each ride is two circuits
of the track. The ride is a bit Raven-esque, but without the broken ribs.
Well, I know I liked it!
More rides
on all three wood coasters ultimately led to a ride on the Little Titan,
a Miler junior coaster. While most of the Miler coasters are similar, they are
by no means identical. This one has an unusual clockwise layout (like Taxi
Jam at Kings Island), the extra helix in the middle (like Zoooooom
at Oaks Park), and a unique set of camel humps on the final curve into the station.
Big Chief is a strange place. Much of it is heavily wooded, with asphalt and
concrete paths laid out like nature trails around Cyclops and Zeus.
Down in front of Cyclops, it looks more like reclaimed parking lot. Particularly
conspicuous in this place is the lack of fencing around and between the rides.
I noticed an unusual number of things that indicated a...shall I say...an unconventionally
liberal interpretation of accepted standards and practices. Everything seems
solidly built, well maintained, and well-running. But it's one of very few parks
where I've seen coaster trains dispatched with open lap bars on empty seats,
and I think it's the only park I've visited where I can walk right up to the
chain return guide on a motor house without going over a fence or through a
gate first. After three days of Six Flags and Cedar Fair operations, it was
almost refreshing to go someplace where I wasn't presumed to be an idiot. On
the other hand, adherence to standards is what is supposed to save the industry
from the 500-pound gorilla of Government Regulation...but the shield of Industry
Standards and Practices only works when those standards are actually followed.
I didn't see any near-misses, and I didn't get the impression that the place
was at all unsafe, but it sure looked like there were more opportunities for
accidents than in most parks. It was interesting, anyway, and it was fodder
for a bit of conversation through the afternoon.
After getting more than our money's worth out of our ride passes, Steve went
home, and I took even more rides. I daresay Cyclops is the best first
half of a wooden coaster I've ridden. And the three woodies ride great, each
easily outperforms all the previous wood coasters on this trip (The Boss,
Screamin' Eagle, Timber Wolf, Outlaw, Tornado, High Roller). Finally, I
decided I ought to ride on at least one of the Go-Kart tracks. I opted for the
Castle Track.
I noticed that Big Chief has standardized on a particular
type of Go-Kart. It's a shame because the karts they picked are ugly for starters.
When I sat down I realized that they are an ergonomic mess, as the driver is
offset to the right-hand side but the steering wheel is in the center of the
car. Steering is extremely stiff, and awkward because the car doesn't have a
complete steering wheel; it's an oblong yoke with no upper or lower handholds.
Most of the tracks at Big Chief are multi-layered wooden tracks, and clearly
these cars are not optimized for operation on multilevel wood track. The cars
are a little underpowered for going up the spirals, but more important they
seem to lack any kind of differential on the drive axle. Which is fine on a
concrete or asphalt track where the wheels can slip, but on a wood track it
makes for really difficult steering and generally poor handling. The tracks
themselves are some really neat designs, but the cars they're running are truly
awful. I mean, their only real redeeming feature is their lack of seat belts
[Footnote 1]. Big Chief has a lot going for it,
but the real gems here are the coasters, not the karts, in my opinion.
Noah's Ark Waterpark
I was disgusted with the kart I drove, and instead of riding more crummy karts,
I rode the great coasters again. Then I decided to see what else Wisconsin Dells
had to offer. I drove down to Noah's Ark, which bills itself as the country's
biggest waterpark. As with everything else in Wisconsin Dells, Noah's Ark isn't
a traditionally gated park. This was good for someone like me who wanted to
have a look at the place but didn't want to participate or pay the P-O-P fee.
It is a nice looking park, heavily wooded, and divided into several sections.
The concession areas and gift shops are outside the fenced attraction areas,
following what seems to be a typical pattern for Wisconsin Dells. The park has
lots of slides of lots of different types, but from what I could see it had
the same problem as most waterparks: Miles and miles of stairways to get to
the tops of the slides, and it looks like their wave pool is pretty shallow.
Had I been interested in spending the day in a waterpark I would have been happy
to stay, but I opted instead to take a look around, then head on down the road.
Riverside Park and Waterworld
I almost didn't stop here; it looked like yet another Go-Kart track with a
couple of waterslides and a gift shop. It's pretty much a standard configuration
for Wisconsin Dells. But I was glad I stopped for this one. Because tucked away
behind the Go-Kart tracks was a small iron ride park with a couple of amusement
rides, a Ferris wheel right up by the road, and most important, a beautiful
SDC Galaxi coaster clear back in the back. These park operators in the
Dells don't seem to understand that they need to put their big rides up by the
road where people can see them. After all, everybody on the strip has a waterslide
and a Go-Kart track, but only Riverside and Big Chief have coasters. And I almost
missed this one because I couldn't see it from the road and had no idea that
it existed.
After a brief wait, I was taking my seat in the 2-car train. Like the one at
Indiana Beach, the car is equipped with lap bars. Living as I do in Ohio, I
seem to have a ridiculous number of these things close to home (Indiana Beach,
LeSourdsville Lake, and Coney Island, to name three). This one compares favorably
to all of them and appears to be in good condition and well-run. I only took
one ride, but it was another credit, one I didn't know I was going to get on
this trip.
Speaking of coaster credits, Riverside's Galaxi was #220 for me. I got
back into the car and headed for IR-90 for the trip to Six Flags.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Footnote 1: Concession Go-Karts operate at speeds
and with forces such that in most crashes the driver is safer if he's not tied
to the kart. Particularly in the absence of any rollover protection. [Return
to text]
--DCAjr
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