It’s been a few years, but we’re back with another one of our highly scientific “capital of the world” questions. First, we wanted to determine which park had the most B&M track. Then, we were tasked with a follow up to figure out the Intamin capital. This time, we’re determining the “Wooden Coaster” capital of the world.
What might seem scientific to some might just be “simple math that no one really asked for” to others, especially because there are just 181 operating wooden coasters in the world. To determine this list, we narrowed it down to a few key criteria. First, a park must have at least three wooden coaster CREDITS. You’ll see why we were specific about “credits” vs. “coasters” later. Next, we added the total track at these parks to determine a “winner.”
See? Simple.
Because there are just 15 parks worldwide that meet this criteria, you would think it was fairly easy to create this list where we could create a list with 15 parks – a nice round number – and have it make sense. However, there are multiple parks (Lake Compounce, Six Flags America) with just two wooden coasters that have more track length than two parks with three wooden coasters (Indiana Beach, Adventureland). Therefore, this list will start with the arbitrarily ranked 13, and work its way down to #1, in order to effectively build suspense.
13. Canada’s Wonderland – 8334′ of Wooden Coaster Track
- Mighty Canadian Minebuster: 3,828′
- Wilde Beast: 3,150′
- Ghoster Coaster: 1,356′
Legendary wooden roller coaster designer Curtis D. Summers was the designer of all three of Canada’s Wonderland’s wooden coasters, all opened during the park’s inaugural season in 1981. All three coasters were manufactured by Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters.
12. Knoebels – 8,400′ of Wooden Coaster Track
- Twister: 3,900′
- Phoenix: 3,200′
- Flying Turns: 1,300′
Each of Knoebels’ wooden coasters has a unique construction story. While Phoenix was rebuilt – numbered board by numbered board – after being relocated from the shuttered Playland Park in Texas, both Twister (based on blueprints from Mr. Twister at Elitch Gardens) and Flying Turns were built in-house by the park’s in-house team.
11. Worlds of Fun – 9,732′ of Wooden Coaster Track
- Timber Wolf: 4,230′
- Prowler: 3,074′
- Zambezi Zinger: 2,428′
Timber Wolf, Worlds of Fun’s oldest currently operating coaster, had a finale upward spiraling helix replaced with a 70-degree banked curve. On the subject of upward spiraling curves, the park’s “newest” coaster was the first ever wooden coaster built from the ground up to feature GCI’s “Titan” hybrid track in its spiral lift hill.
10. Michigan’s Adventure – 9,783′ of Wooden Coaster Track
- Shivering Timbers: 5,383′
- Wolverine Wildcat: 3,000′
- Zach’s Zoomer: 1,400′
It’s a rarity to find Michigan’s Adventure inside of a “Top 10” of pretty much anything when it comes to roller coasters, with the exception of Shivering Timbers, which by all accounts is an underrated wooden coaster (at least to me, who has never visited the park.) Shivering Timbers is joined by Wolverine Wildcat and Zach’s Zoomer to vault Michigan’s Adventure into the top 10.
9. Kennywood – 9,882′ of Wooden Coaster Track
- Racer: 4,500′
- Thunderbolt: 3,250′
- Jack Rabbit: 2,132′
There are people out there who think that Kennywood’s Racer is actually two separate coasters, but the track is actually one long möbius loop. Of the parks on this list, Kennywood’s trio of wooden coasters holds the highest average age on this list at 101.33 years old. (Don’t come for us on a technicality that Thunderbolt isn’t technically 100+ years old.)
8. Hersheypark – 10,146′ of Wooden Coaster Track
- Lightning Racer: 6,786′ (combined)
- Comet: 3,360′
Remember when we specified at the beginning of this article that we were counting coaster credits rather than coasters? Hersheypark is the reason why – because Lightning Racer, though it has one name, is actually two unique roller coasters – both 3,393′ long. When you add Comet to the list, it’s the first park on this list to crack the 10,000′ threshold.
7. Six Flags St. Louis – 11,216′ of Wooden Coaster Track
- Boss: 4,631′
- Screamin’ Eagle: 3,872′
- American Thunder: 2,713′
With the ever-present rumor/wishful thinking of the Custom Coasters International-designed Boss becoming the next coaster to go under the RMC-conversion knife, transitioning it to a “steel” coaster, it remains to be seen how much longer Six Flags St. Louis will be on this list. (Probably a while, to be honest. We have no concrete evidence of Boss getting “RMC’d” anytime in the near future. As is usually the case, someone with better sources than we have probably knows more.)
6. Kings Dominion – 11,272′ of Wooden Coaster Track
- Racer 75: 6,737′ (combined)
- Grizzly: 3,150′
- Woodstock Express: 1,350′
Just a little over 50′ of track separates Kings Dominion from Six Flags St. Louis, thanks to the benefit of two identical 3,368.5′ tracks on Racer 75. Recently, the park’s Grizzly roller coaster underwent some TLC from The Gravity Group, and received pieces of engineered pre-cut track, which has breathed new life into the formerly “notoriously rough” wooden coaster. Note: Twisted Timbers is not included in this list, because it is classified as a steel coaster, despite having wooden supports.
5. Mt. Olympus – 11,416′ of Wooden Coaster Track
Photo Credit: CoasterForce
- Hades 360: 4,746′
- Zeus: 2,900′
- Cyclops: 1,900′
- Pegasus: 1,600′
The Wisconsin Dells’ Mt. Olympus is one of only a four parks in the world that can boast four wooden coasters – including the only one on this list to tunnel under the park’s parking lot in the most “Roller Coaster Tycoon” way possible – Hades 360. The park’s other three wooden coasters opened in consecutive years; Cyclops in 1995, Pegasus in 1996, and Zeus 1997 – and were all built by Custom Coasters International.
4. Holiday World – 13,284′ of Wooden Coaster Track
- Voyage: 6,442′
- Legend: 4,042′
- Raven: 2,800′
Holiday World’s trio of wooden coasters are often thought of as some of the world’s best – with all three ranking inside the top 35 wooden coasters in the world ranking in the most recent Golden Ticket Awards. The park vaults into the top 3 with just three coasters, thanks in part to having both the 2nd longest (Voyage) and 22nd longest (Legend) wooden coasters on earth inside of the Santa Claus, Indiana theme park.
3. Blackpool Pleasure Beach – 13,296.1′ of Wooden Coaster Track
- Grand National: 6,604′
- Big Dipper: 3,300′
- Nickelodeon Streak: 2,293′
- Blue Flyer: 1,099.1′
Did you know that Blackpool Pleasure Beach is the only park outside of North America to have more than two wooden roller coasters within its boundaries? With 4 wooden coasters, Pleasure Beach has more wooden coasters than the entire continents of South America & Australia, combined. Much like Kennywood – three of the park’s classic wooden coasters are all approaching the century mark in the next decade – following Big Dipper’s 100th birthday in 2023.
2. Six Flags Great America – 16,558′ of Wooden Coaster Track
- American Eagle: 9,300′ (combined)
- Viper: 3,458′
- Goliath: 3,100′
- Little Dipper: 700′
Some might think that Six Flags Great America snuck into the runner-up position on a technicality, as Goliath’s 3,100′ of track is made of steel. However, even if you were to remove Goliath – listed as a wooden coaster on RCDB – from this list, Six Flags Great America, buoyed by the twin tracks of American Eagle, would still eclipse Blackpool Pleasure Beach, albeit by less than a football field.
1. Kings Island – 18,806′ of Wooden Coaster Track
- Beast: 7,361′
- Racer: 6,830′ (combined)
- Mystic Timbers: 3,265′
- Woodstock Express: 1,350′
When you have the world’s longest wooden coaster, a racing coaster with 3,415′ worth of track on each side, a world-class terrain coaster, and a fantastic wooden family coaster, giving you five wooden credits in your park, it’s easy to see why we’re (deservedly) giving Kings Island the crown for the “Wooden Coaster Capital of the World.” Fun fact: If the Beast were to be listed by itself, it would rank 16th on this list – ahead of both Indiana Beach and Adventureland, who have three wooden coasters each!)
We’ve given you the objective answer, but subjectively, which park do you think has the best wooden coaster lineup? Let us know in the comments below!
Holiday World – best