The Story of Worlds of Fun: How a Kansas City Amusement Park Came to Be
The history of Kansas City is intertwined with the story of the Kansas City Chiefs NFL team and the creation of the Worlds of Fun amusement park. Lamar Hunt, a native of Texas and Arkansas, brought his NFL team, the Dallas Texans, to Kansas City in 1963 and renamed the franchise the Kansas City Chiefs. Hunt also founded Mid-America Enterprises, a company that focused on real estate, mining, and entertainment. He worked with his business partner, Jack Steadman, to conceptualize and develop Worlds of Fun, which opened on May 26, 1973, at the northern edge of a vast industrial complex in Clay County, Missouri.
Mid-America Enterprises began construction on the amusement park in 1964, as numerous projects across Kansas City were being built, including the Kansas City International Airport, Kemper Arena (now called Hy-Vee Arena), and the Truman Sports Complex. The park was originally planned to complement a 500-acre hotel and entertainment complex, but a lagging economy during the park's early years derailed the idea.
The park saw its first expansion in 1974 with the addition of the 4000-seat Forum Amphitheater in the Europa section. In 1976, a new section called Bicentennial Square opened in honor of the United States Bicentennial, featuring the debut of Screamroller from Arrow Dynamics. This ride was a replica of the first modern-looping roller coaster, Corkscrew, that opened a year earlier at Knott's Berry Farm.
In 1982, Oceans of Fun, the largest water park in the world, opened next door to Worlds of Fun. The same year, a sub-world called "River City" was opened in the Americana section, and Screamroller was transformed into Extremeroller, which featured stand-up trains instead of the original sit-down models, making it the first looping, stand-up roller coaster in North America.
In 1989, Worlds of Fun added Timber Wolf, a wooden roller coaster that initially ranked high in several national polls. Cedar Fair LP purchased the amusement park in 1995 for $40 million and invested $10 million to add Mamba, a D.H. Morgan Manufacturing steel hypercoaster, to the park's attraction lineup in 1998. Today, Worlds of Fun remains a popular destination for tourists and locals alike, and its history is an important part of the story of Kansas City.
Notable Rides
1973-1984: Schussboomer
1973-1997: Zambezi Zinger
1973-2017: Finnish Fling
1980-2003: Orient Express
1973: Viking Voyager
1989: Timber Wolf
1998: Mamba
2000: Boomerang
2006: The Patriot
2009: The Prowler
2003: Zambezi Zinger
What are your favorite memories from Worlds of Fun?