Mystic Timbers

Mystic Timbers is an upcoming wooden roller coaster under construction at Kings Island in Mason, Ohio. The new roller coaster, designed by Great Coasters International of Sunbury, Pennsylvania, will be located in the park's Rivertown area, adjacent to its Diamondback roller coaster and White Water Canyon river rapids ride. Mystic Timbers also includes a finale element in an enclosed shed, which park officials will keep as a secret until the ride's official debut in April 2017.

History

Construction walls in Rivertown, teasing the new attraction (May 2016)

Kings Island officials began dropping hints about a new future attraction soon after the start of the 2016 season.^[1] In the park, a construction wall in Rivertown was posted with signs stating "Caution - Watch For Falling Trees". In June 2016, a set of plans labeled "Kings Island Project 2017" was submitted to the local planning board that illustrated what appeared to be a roller coaster.^[1] Later that month, media outlets in the area received a toy ax with a note attached stating that something was occurring in the Rivertown area of the park.^[1] In mid-July, another clue was delivered, this time a blue toy pickup truck with a bundle of logs in the back and another note, this one stating that the ride would be announced in the park on the evening of July 28, 2016.^[1]

On the night of the announcement, over 1,000 park guests began lining up two hours in advance to attend the 10pm event inside the park.^[2] Kings Island officials revealed that their new attraction would be a roller coaster named Mystic Timbers.^[3] Mystic Timbers will become the park's 16th roller coaster, as well as its fourth wooden roller coaster; if Racer's two sides are considered two separate roller coasters, Mystic Timbers would actually be the park's fifth wooden coaster, giving Kings Island the most wooden roller coasters in the world.^[3] When combined with the other wooden coasters in the park, Kings Island has 18,804 feet of wood coaster track, more than any other amusement park in the world.^[3][4] Park officials introduced the ride's logo, as well as a simulated POV video of the ride.^[3] However, the simulation did not show what happened when the train enters an enclosed shed near the end of the ride.^[2] Park officials indicated that details on the shed would not be revealed until the ride's debut in April 2017.

Ride experience

Mystic Timbers is themed around a fictional logging company, Miami River Lumber.^[5] The company purchased the land for timber, and used the adjacent Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad (in reality, the park's railroad attraction) to ship the timber. However, an unexplained series of events led to the shutdown of the company, as the land was taken over by rampant natural growth.^[5]

The roller coaster is designed by Great Coasters International, a Pennsylvania-based company specializing in wooden roller coasters.^[3] Mystic Timbers will be 3,265 feet (995 m) in length and reach a maximum speed of 53 miles per hour (85 km/h).^[3] Its three trains, with front cars resembling a blue pickup truck, will each carry 24 passengers, giving the ride a capacity around 1200 riders per hour.^[3] Mystic Timbers will interact with both the Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad and White Water Canyon attractions during its roughly two-minute ride cycle. As stated earlier we don't know what is in the shed and there is a possibility that there could be a barrel roll inversion in the shed so the inversion count is 0 or unknown for now. .^[3]

References

External links

• Official site