Six Flags South Dakota/Oddities, Cancelled Plans and Other Things

Welcome. This page is meant to be a collection of assorted oddities, cancelled plans and other random things from Six Flags South Dakota.

Odd One Out - One weird lyric from SSIWS
So, as you may know from reading the article, there was a major dark ride named Sideways Stories in Wayside School themed to - what else - the Wayside School books by Louis Sachar. The opening song to the ride, heavily inspired by the opening song to Tales of the Okefenokee at Six Flags Over Georgia (and its clone at Six Flags Over Savannah), is titled "Welcome Student Welcome" and goes thusly:

Welcome, student, welcome, to the Wayside

Welcome, student, welcome, it's an old joy and pride

Just come and walk in through that door-

but please avoid the 19th floor

Sure glad you're here, now let's have some fun today!

The oddity lies in the first lyric: "Welcome, student, welcome, to the Wayside". Not only does the singer stretch it out almost until the beginning of the following verse, but on all the other versions of the ride (Six Flags Virginia Escape, Six Flags Over Iowa, Six Flags Over Savannah, Six Flags Darwin), it's not there. Instead, the following lyric starts the song:

Welcome, student, welcome, to the wacky school named Wayside

That wasn't an accident. SFSD's odd lyric out was the result of a very late name change. Up until about a week and a half until opening, Sideways Stories was to be named Tales of the Wayside, until higher ups demanded a better, "non-Okefenokee ripoff" name be chosen. It was too close to opening to change the lyric, they never bothered to fix in in 1982, and by the time they finally got around to consider possibly adding the lyric it was 2005 and since the ride was to close soon it never got changed. The replacement lyric exists (or existed) on all other versions of the attraction, but as of 2022, only the clones at Savannah and Virginia Escape operate. However, on October 8, 2022, Six Flags announced More Sideways Stories in Wayside School, essentially an upgraded version of the original, and it was unequivocally stated that Welcome Student Welcome was returning (along with the rest of the songs from the original). Whether the new ride will fix the odd one out lyric remains unknown.

The Weirdest Relationship - Six Flags South Dakota and.......Alton Towers?
Yes, it appears the park has a relationship with Alton Towers. The most notable signs of this relationship are Rattler and Submission, formerly known as Boneshaker and.....Submission (SFSD never even repainted it, though that is rumored to change in 2023), both relocations from Alton Towers. But Alton has also given shout outs to SFSD on occasion - once, Alton made a print ad containing the line "Here to our friends in Faith!" to commemeorate SFSD's 30th anniversary in 2011. They have also snuck a Wayside reference into one of the park signs (on the park, the sign reads "Wayside - 4,191 Miles", the distance between Alton Towers and Six Flags South Dakota). Quite how this relationship came to be may never be known.

Psyclone's Original Name - Bedbanger
When Psyclone (a four-looping Schwarzkopf coaster relocated from the fair circuit and given spinning trains) first opened in the Apple Tree Park section of SFSD in 1996;=, it was called the "Bedbanger", named after the infamous vodka brand of the same name. The problem, of course, lies when you reread the name.

Bedbanger.

Bed. Banger.

Most people weren't sure if this was just a sex joke that somehow made it through, but nonetheless it caused a stir in the community. The Faith Falcon newspaper ran the headline, "New Roller Coaster Causes Uproar Over Its Name", barely weeks after opening. The name was ultimately changed the following year to "The Fast Star" and lost the Bedbanger sponsorship in exchange for a Goodyear one. In 2000, the name changed once again to "Psyclone". The ride closed down in 2004.

Storybook Land
When Six Flags South Dakota was in the development phases, six sections were proposed. Those were South Dakota Street, Buckaroo Trail, Waterworld, Town Square, KiddieTown and Storybook Land. We will be focusing on Storybook Land for this entry.

In 1979, as ground broke for SFSD, the plan for the right side of the park included Storybook Land, a large land where all of your favorite books come to life. The original plan called for six rides:Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: A 12 scene dark ride basically retelling the novel (and the movie). After the ride, guests would enter Willy Wonka's Factory, a toy and candy shop.

Wayside School: Literally just Sideways Stories in Wayside School but with a shorter name.

Peter Rabbit: A "Musik Express" ride, with paintings of scenes from the Peter Rabbit books on the attraction walls.

Catfish Bend: A typical "Scrambler" ride, not much special about it.

Moby Dick: One of the more impressive proposed rides, this ride would have been a pirate ship ride but instead of a ship, guests actually go onto a large whale!

Seven Little Monsters: A Chance Rides SideWheeler, one of only two on the world.

Sadly, the plans fell through when Six Flags decided to unload every single one of their book licenses apart from the Wayside license. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Moby Dick were scrapped entirely, but the rest of the rides ended up coming to fruition:

Wayside School ended up virtually unchanged, closing in 2005,

Peter Rabbit opened simply as "Musik Express", ultimately closing in 1994,

Catfish Bend opened as "Scrambler", moving into Starlight Bay in 1995 to make way for Psyclone and closing in 2004,

and Seven Little Monsters opened as "The OttoWheel", closing in 2007.

The land ultimately became known as "Cherry Tree Lane", although the name ended up changing in 1987 because Disney threatened to sue Six Flags - "Cherry Tree Lane" had been used in the film "Mary Poppins". It is now known as "Apple Tree Park".