Mark Davidson still remembers the day more than half a century ago when he learned that an amusement park was being built in Jackson. It was 1971 when the Brick native and his family read the news in the local paper.
“My entire family laughed,” says Davidson, now 64, who ended up working at the park for many years. “We thought it was the most ridiculous, funny thing we’d ever heard. I mean, who would build anything in Jackson? There wasn’t even an Exit 7A [on the New Jersey Turnpike] yet, there wasn’t [Interstate] 195 yet. How would people even get there?”
But families and thrill seekers found their way to the park, now known as Six Flags Great Adventure, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
“Great Adventure was one of the few parks created in the wave of the big parks of the 1970s that really wasn’t in a close distance of a big population area,” says Davidson, a former longtime park employee and one of New Jersey’s assistant regional representatives for the American Coaster Enthusiasts. “It’s between New York and Philadelphia, but either city is at least an hour away, probably more.”
Since the park’s opening, the populations of the surrounding Monmouth, Ocean, Burlington and Mercer counties have increased, “so there are more people who are only 15, 20 minutes from the park than there used to be, so it’s easy to pop in for a few hours with a season pass,” says Davidson. “Whereas 50 years ago, it was a major commitment: you planned your visit weeks ahead, you got in the car at 7 am, you got there when they opened, you stayed until they closed, you were there to ride rides.”
Six Flags Great Adventure opened in the 1970s as Enchanted Forest, then was renamed Great Adventure in 1976. Photo: Courtesy of Six Flags Great Adventure Resort
Today, New Jersey is rich in amusement destinations, with Nickelodeon Universe and DreamWorks water park at American Dream in East Rutherford, the newly built Island Waterpark at the Showboat in Atlantic City, Diggerland USA in West Berlin, and Storybook Land in Egg Harbor Township—not to mention ride-filled oceanfront piers in Seaside Heights, Point Pleasant Beach, Wildwood, Ocean City and Atlantic City.
But Great Adventure, with its Wild Safari Adventure and Hurricane Harbor water park, stands apart, thanks to its globally renowned roller coaster portfolio, which includes Kingda Ka, the tallest coaster in the world and the fastest in North America, and El Toro, one of the world’s tallest and fastest wooden rides.
“That’s the thing about Great Adventure—you know they’re going to strive to bring the biggest, the newest, the fastest, the craziest,” says Davidson, who worked as a ride operator for a decade-plus.
This summer sees the opening of the park’s 15th concurrently operating coaster, the Flash: Vertical Velocity. The ride is touted as North America’s first triple-launch super boomerang coaster and is expected to hurtle riders forward and backward at nearly 60 miles per hour through a 180-degree twisted drop and zero-G roll.
“We always try to be an innovative company in coasters,” says Laurie Riccardi, who has spent 42 of her 49 seasons at the park in the marketing department. “That’s why people come to theme parks, and Six Flags Great Adventure definitely has stayed in the forefront of having a lot of thrills for our guests.”
The park was founded by Warner LeRoy, an entrepreneur who was described by the New York Times in his 2001 obituary as someone “who combined show business glamour with circus ballyhoo” as the creator of New York City nightlife venues and restaurants, like the iconic Tavern on the Green. As the son of Wizard of Oz producer Mervyn LeRoy and the grandson of Harry Warner of Warner Brothers Studios, creating crowd-pleasing entertainment was LeRoy’s family business. (According to the New York Times, he sold his interest in Great Adventure to Time Warner in 1993.)
At its opening in 1974, the park was called the Enchanted Forest. In 1976, it was renamed Great Adventure, and it was sold to the Six Flags corporation in 1977. There are currently 27 Six Flags parks across North America.
While the name has changed, the footprint has grown over the years, especially with the addition of the Hurricane Harbor water park in 2000. Rides have come and gone; don’t get 1980s and ’90s kids started on the days of Rolling Thunder and the Great American Scream Machine roller coasters, both long gone now. But one element that has remained consistent is the park’s multigenerational appeal.
During recent visits this season, teenagers could be seen running toward the high-flying thrill rides, while grandparents and grandchildren rode the carousel together, and guests of all ages tried their luck in the arcades.
“In one sense you just go, ‘Why Jackson? How does Jackson lay claim to all that stuff?’” says comedian and author Chris Gethard, a West Orange native.
Gethard appeared in the HBO Max documentary Class Action Park, about Vernon Township’s infamous Action Park (which closed in 1996 because of ongoing safety issues) and shared his thoughts on both Action Park and Great Adventure on his 2019 album, Taylor Ham, Egg, and Cheese. He tied Great Adventure’s hold on the New Jersey youth zeitgeist to an overall culture of fear in the mid- to late-20th century—think slasher movies and stranger danger.
“You think about when Great Adventure came about, you think about what it was like to be a suburban kid back then, where you’re constantly being told that people in vans are going to kidnap you, and that all clowns have sinister intentions, and that in any woods there’s probably animal sacrifices happening, and you go, ‘Oh, maybe a sleepy Central Jersey suburb is exactly where your customer base is when you need to find people who are setting out to conquer some fears.’”
In the park’s early days, patrons drove through the Safari grounds themselves. Photo: Courtesy of Six Flags Great Adventure Resort
For its 50th anniversary season. the Flash is but one of the changes guests can expect. The Wild Safari, with approximately 1,200 animals housed on 350 acres, is introducing Savannah Sunset Resort and Spa, an overnight glamping experience on the Safari grounds, and now offers guided tours in vehicles instead of patrons driving through it themselves.
“It’ll be interesting to see how [Savannah Sunset] goes; it’s definitely different for the East Coast,” says Jeannie Golden, who has worked at the park since 1974 and at the Safari office for about 35 years.
Elsewhere, Hurricane Harbor adds Splash Island, a family-focused spot with a treehouse-style structure and seven water slides for younger guests.
The park nods to history with nostalgic enhancements, including refurbishments to such rides as the Saw Mill Log Flume and the Giant Wheel and with the Congo Rapids water ride being rebranded with its original moniker, Roaring Rapids.
“I think people will enjoy them—especially people who came when the park first opened, and now they have their own children and grandchildren and can say, ‘I remember riding that,’ and the same thing with the giant Ferris wheel,” says Riccardi. “To share that with your family, all different generations—I think that’s exciting.”
In addition to the 50th anniversary celebration, running through Labor Day, there are fireworks for the Fourth of July, specialty food and beer during Oktoberfest, the Halloween festivities of Fright Fest and Boo Fest, and the season-closing Holiday in the Park.
Asked for her best-kept secret for maximizing enjoyment, Golden shared some advice for Safari-goers: “Just take your time.” As Davidson puts it, the park’s modern attractions ensure there’s something for everyone. “Not everybody rides roller coasters, even though that’s really what’s driven ticket sales and season-pass sales for the last few decades,” he says. “But there’s more than just teenagers that want to come there.”
Alex Biese, senior editor of CURE magazine, has been honored by NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists and has been published in USA Today, Chicago Sun-Times, Press of Atlantic City and more.
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