Canada's Wonderland

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Interactive map of Canada's Wonderland
Location	Vaughan, Ontario
Opened	May 23, 1981
Owner	Cedar Fair Entertainment Co.
Slogan	Where Else?
Operating season	May through October
Area	330 acres (1.3 km²)
Attractions
Total	47 Thrill Rides & 200 Attractions
Roller coasters	14
Water rides	20 Acre (81,000 m²) Waterpark – Waterpark, Outdoor Wavepool, 16 Water Slides
Website	canadas-wonderland.com

Canada's Wonderland (often referred to locally as Wonderland) is a 330 acre theme park located in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, 30 kilometres north of Toronto, Ontario. It is considered one of North America's premier amusement parks, with more than 200 attractions. The park is open seasonally from May to October. The park has also been the most attended seasonal theme park in North America for two years running (2005 and 2006).^[1] Park attendance in 2005 was 3.7 million people. ^[2] In 2006, attendance was just over 3.2 million.^[3]

In 1972, the Taft Broadcasting Company first proposed building a 1.50 km² (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')^{[citation needed]}. 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 balloons, 13 parachutists, 350 white doves, 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.

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.

On 22 May 2006, it was announced that Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. was interested in acquiring the five Paramount theme parks, including Canada's Wonderland. The acquisition was completed on 30 June 2006.^[4] As a result, in early January 2007, Cedar Fair began to drop the "Paramount" name from all of their former Paramount parks, and the park is currently referred to once again by its original name, "Canada's Wonderland".

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.

In August 2007, Cedar Fair announced that Fearfest would now be called Halloween Haunt and Spooktacular would be discontinued starting this Fall. The park also announced its addition for 2008, a new hypercoaster called Behemoth, which will be the largest roller coaster in Canada, and will open in May 2008.^[5]

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 km²) of land which includes a 20 acre (81,000 m²) 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 m²), 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, the waterpark, is featured in the southwest quadrant; an artificial mountain forms the park's central feature.

The park's themed areas are as follows:

• International Street
• Medieval Faire
• International Festival
• Nickelodeon Central
• Hanna-Barbera Land
• Kidzville
• White Water Canyon
• Splash Works
• Grande World Exposition of 1890, a section with exciting and new rides.
• Action Zone

• Endless Summer (opened 2007), The Paramount Theatre stage will return to its roots and be transformed into a skating rink with a new ice show for the 2007 season.
• Twisting to the 60s (opened 2007), International Showplace will once again feature a live music show, with songs from the 1960s
• Dora's Sing-A-Long Adventure returns for the 2007 season in the Playhouse Theatre.

• Black Hole
• The Plunge
• Super Soaker
• Body Blast
• Riptide Racer
• Barracuda Blaster
• Whirlwinds
• Splash Island Waterways

• The Bat - Steel shuttle coaster with a loop and cobra roll, built by Vekoma
• Behemoth - Steel sit down coaster with a 70m drop and travels at 125km/h; scheduled to open in 2008.
• Dragon Fire - Steel double-loop, double-corkscrew with a downward helix, built by Arrow
• The Fly - Wild Mouse roller coaster built by Mack Gmbh
• Italian Job: Stunt Track - steel, powered launch, built by Premier Rides
• Mighty Canadian Minebuster - Wooden coaster with modified out-and-back layout, built by Philadelphia Toboggan Company
• SkyRider - steel stand-up, with one loop and a downward helix, built by Togo
• Thunder Run - Steel mine train coaster with no lift, built by Mack Gmbh
• Tomb Raider: The Ride - Steel flying roller coaster, built by Zamperla
• Top Gun - Steel inverted looping coaster, 5 inversions of various types, built by Vekoma
• Vortex - Steel suspended coaster, built by Arrow Dynamics
• Wild Beast - Wooden, modified Bearcat/Wildcat, built by Philadelphia Toboggan Company

• Scooby's Gasping Ghoster Coaster - Wooden, children's coaster, double out and back layout, built by Philadelphia Toboggan Company
• Silver Streak - Inverted steel family coaster, built by Vekoma
• Taxi Jam - Steel children's coaster, built by Miller

Besides the large number of roller coasters it has, it also has a huge variety of flat rides, such as bumper cars, carousels, many of these relying on centrifugal forces, and other funfair ride, such as:

• Psyclone - A large pendulum swinging and spinning reaching heights of over 110 feet (33.5 m)
• Shockwave - A ride that twist and turns on every possible axis.
• Cliffhanger - A ride with twin gondolas that flip and go around in the air, but you might get wet.
• Klockwerks - An old classic that rotates and with the centrifugal force pushes you outward.
• Sledgehammer - Spins riders on 2 axes and blasts you up and down distances of 85 feet (25.9 m).
• Action FX Theatre - Motion based seating ride in two large theatres featuring Sponge Bob Square Pants in 3D (2006 Feature "The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera" has been removed).
• Drop Zone - A vertical tower-like ride that beings by slowing taking its passengers up the towards the peak of the tower and then immediately drops the passenger down until he/she reaches the ground.

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 (rock climbing (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)
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, The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbara (feature at the Action FX Theatre (R))
2007 - Coasters 50s Diner, International Marketplace Buffet, "Twistin to the 60s" show, "Endless Summer on Ice" show, and Picnic Pavillion
2008 - Behemoth, which will become Canada's biggest, fastest and tallest roller coaster^[6]

Current name in (brackets); R= Removed/Closed

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.

Transportation to the park is available from the following of the regional transit organizations:

• Toronto Transit Commission on behalf of York Region Transit: Toronto - Route 165 Weston Road North to York Mills Station via Wilson Station.
• Mississauga Transit- Route 288, express, non-stop trip to/from Canada's Wonderland, starting/ending at Mississauga's Square One.
• York Region Transit: Markham & Richmond Hill: route 4 Major Mackenzie , Vaughan & King: Route 20 Jane-Concord.
• GO Transit: Wonderland GO Bus Service from York Mills Bus Terminal and Yorkdale Bus Terminal.
• Brampton Transit: Route 66 from Bramalea City Centre.

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.

• A 1982 episode of The Littlest Hobo, entitled "Forget Me Not", was set at the park.^[7]
• The park played host on several occasions to the now defunct City TV program Electric Circus.
• A person drowned at the base of Victoria Falls when attempting to retrieve a Frisbee was pulled under water by the huge water return valves for the waterfall. The incident resulted in a walkway that goes behind the falls to be closed permanently. Security guards can often be seen patrolling near the base of the falls as to prevent people from attempting to dive into the water.
• When the park first opened, guests had the ability to walk to the top of Wonder Mountain. The rooftop terrace was closed in the mid-80's as mechanical equipment was relocated to the roof to make room inside the mountain for a roller coaster. The roof patio can still be seen by riders on Vortex.
• Supermodel Jessica Stam was discovered after leaving the park.
• Another common myth surrounding the Park is that the metal detectors were a result of the above mentioned shooting. However, the metal detectors were planned prior to the shooting, following the lead of several American parks.

• Canada's Wonderland official site
• Roller Coaster Database
• Wonderland Fans - unofficial fansite guide to Canada's Wonderland Under renovations until the stated date of "May 2007," although the renovations are still incomplete after that date
• CWMania - Dedicated to Canada's Wonderland
• The Canada's Wonderland Source - Guide to Canada's Wonderland
• Google Satellite Image
• Cedar Fair

43°50′33.16″N 79°32′31.00″W / 43.8425444°N 79.5419444°W / 43.8425444; -79.5419444