Carwardine Colony/History

Design and construction
During the 1973 oil crisis, real estate agent Christopher R. Carwardine had read an article about a family who were angered that they had to take a 2-hour drive to Lakeside Amusement Park in and continually refuel along the way, which inspired Christopher to feel he could develop his own theme park. In 1975, Christopher registered "Carwardine Colony" as a trademark, and used it for the name of his real estate company (Carwardine Colony Real Estate Inc.) for a few years to keep the trademark while he planned his amusement park.

After a few years of being unable to find a good site in the area, Christopher purchased a disused landfill in  known locally as the "Trash Heap from Hell". Over a 2-year period, the land was cleared & re-developed to create the Carwardine Colony amusement park. The park was mostly financed from Christopher's real estate earnings; as well as insurance money Christopher's police officer brother Jason A. Carwardine received from the when his police cruiser was involved in a head-on collision with a suspect's truck during a police chase.

Christopher, his wife Hiroko, and Christopher's college buddy Marv Simpleton helped with constructing the park. Christopher worked with Charles Dinn to reassemble The Flying Turns, a vintage bobsled coaster that formerly operated in Georgia and Ohio, in it's new location at the park, and Marv spent several days and nights assembling the Carwardine Mines mine train coaster, which was built by Arrow Development, while also working on the theming for the attraction.

In early 1979, several plans changed, a railroad idea was added with the addition of two 3-foot (914 mm) narrow-gauge locomotives purchased from another amusement park in Wisconsin, inspired by the. The railroad would follow the same layout of the Skyway, but located under it towards the outer circle.

In mid-1979, the Carwardines and Simpleton were joined by Dean Joe Fawkes, a successful showman active on the East Coast's state and county fair circuit. As new roller coasters and rides began to be added, the three parties began to hire more and more workers to get the park finished. The, the , and  also invested in Carwardine Colony Real Estate Inc. as they had interest in the under-construction theme park as well. An US$15 million advertising campaign produced by the Atlantis Advertising Corporation of was plotted.

Opening
Carwardine Colony, with it's final construction cost estimated at US$121 million, was officially opened on May 25, 1980 by the of the time,  (a rarity for many U.S. theme parks) along with Christopher R. Carwardine and Dean Joe Fawkes. Musical guests at the opening ceremony included, , and the. At the time, the park employed 230 employees and operated from Monday to Saturday, with the park being closed on Sundays for maintenance work. Carwardine Colony was described as "Newport News' answer to Disneyland" by the media due to it's ambitions. Reportedly, fellow Virginia theme parks and  were so interested in what their competition was building that staffers from the aforementioned parks would visit the park in disguise to scope it out. It was notable at the time for being one of the very few theme parks in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States where a single admission fee covered unlimited turns on all of the rides and attractions. This admission fee was $10.95 for an adult and $5.00 for a child. The park welcomed 730 guests on it's first day of operation. Within the first four months of operation, Carwardine Colony attracted 340,000 guests and was predicted to be the biggest tourist attraction in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States by the mid-1980s.

and teamed up with Carwardine Colony and Andy Griffith to produce the Carwardine Colony Album in 1981.

1980s
In 1981, nothing new was added, and the only changes were fixes of problems that were on opening day.

The first major post-opening addition came in 1982 with the Cyclone, a wooden coaster made to resemble the Coney Island Cyclone. It originally came with two buzz bar trains. The ride was re-designed from the original blueprints and built by Charlie Dinn, who previously rebuilt The Flying Turns at this very park and built The Beast at Kings Island.

In 1983, The Space Capsule was removed from the park due to high maintenance. This was the first ride to be removed from the park. The same year, the Carwardine Railroad gained its third locomotive, the #30 "Tiny Tim", a 4-6-0PT Baldwin Class 10-12-D originally built for the British War Department Light Railways. "Tiny Tim" had been purchased from an Australian collector, and was heavily altered by Carwardine to resemble an American locomotive of the 1880s and regauged to run on the railroad's 3 ft. gauge when they restored it to operating condition for use on the Railroad. In addition, the park began a season pass program, with season passes available at the ticket office and at participating Food Lion stores in the Hampton Roads and Richmond areas. The grocery store partnerships were later replicated at several other parks (e.g. Whalom Park with Market Basket, Carwardine's Magic Planet with Jewel-Osco, and Boblo Island with Meijer and No Frills).

1984 was a big year for Carwardine Colony, as the Carwardine Hotel, the official hotel of Carwardine Colony, and the Newport News Amphitheater, a large outdoor amphitheater frequented by major acts, both opened; in addition, similar to what McDonald's was giving out at the time, Olympic raffles were handed out, in which if America won a gold medal to all raffle holders, a free day at Carwardine Colony was given, this saw the park's attendance soar. Also in 1984, a projection tunnel was added to the end of Flying Turns with CGI effects produced by MAGI, the same footage would be used on the ride until the park's Silver Jubilee event in 2005, in which newer CGI developed by Blur Studio was added to the ride. The older CGI returned for the 40th anniversary in 2020, digitally remastered from the original Betacam master.

In 1985, the Care Bears began appearing at the park, and Lasso was built at the park as the park's first suspended coaster and Virginia's second suspended coaster after The Big Bad Wolf - though unlike The Big Bad Wolf, which is low to the ground, Lasso is more along the lines of Vortex at Canada's Wonderland or Flight Deck at Kings Island due to the fact it stays higher off the ground and focuses more on diving turns instead of flat turns, mainly to differentiate it from The Big Bad Wolf. This was one of two major additions marketed in the 1985 "Fear Duo", with the other being Fear Fall, an Intamin 1st Generation Freefall, the first of it's kind in the state. Both rides opened on May 1st, 1985 during the inaugural edition of the 9-day-long Carwardine Colony Days event, an event that was broadcasted on several TV stations across Virginia, several cable channels to broadcast it throughout the United States, and a day later (May 2nd), a free VHS of the event was given to passholders.

1986 was a rather smaller year, only adding a Broadway theater, due to the fact Carwardine was focusing more on their other parks than Carwardine Colony (besides the Kids Show). Also, in 1986, the park was now open on Sundays, to keep it in line with it's sister parks. Also in 1986, The Carwardine Colony Kids Show, hosted by Christopher R. Carwardine and with an audience of kids from all over the Mid-Atlantic United States, debuted on, and was produced at the studios in. The series then moved to in 1989 (along with a move from the CBN studios to the Hamptons Mediaplex in, and then later to a purpose-built studio (Carwardine Studios Poquoson Annex) in ) and again to  in 2011.

In 1987, Skylab, a Huss Skylab (similar to an Enterprise), was added, with a rather notable marketing campaign for what's essentially a portable ride, with the tagline "It's Gonna Make You Sick!" being popular among Virginia, with several bootleg shirts being produced with the tagline next to an image of the Skylab at Storytown USA. Great White Shark was also added that same year.

In 1988, the "Colony Quadruple Threat" came into action with four new rides opening. The first two, Pool Sharks and Shot Tower, opened up in March, with the Shot Tower gaining 3 hour lines due to it's ride experience, the third was Carwardine River Rapids, which opened up in April as the first river rapids ride to have a heated water system, making it able to operate year round, and finally, in May, Vortex opened up as "The South's First Pipeline Coaster" and gained 5 hour lines due to it's uniqueness. Manufactured by TOGO of Japan, this coaster was considered a "Hybrid Coaster" on brochures and later, the website instead of a "Sit-Down Coaster", "Standup Coaster", "Suspended Coaster" or "Inverted Coaster".

In 1989, Cosmic Avenger opened, but more major was the opening of the Colony Coast waterpark.

1990s
For the 1990 season, Carwardine gained the rights to the Simpsons characters for 10 years. It has been extended for several years afterwards, and Carwardine currently shares the license with Universal. It also announced its rights to the Mario characters with a new dark ride. They also celebrated its 10th anniversary with several major events. In that year, City Jet was relocated from Kid's World and added into the Kids Kountry section. In addition, Phoenix Twister was added and lots of other stuff. Also, Dippin’ Dots made their Carwardine Parks debut here in 1990 starting off with just carts before eventually expanding to full-fledged stands in the following years. The Rock-afire Explosion was also added, and Great White Shark was renamed to The Great White.

In 1991, TMS (Tokyo Movie Shinsha) America opened their offices in Carwardine Studios, so Carwardine wouldn't have to pay to export several stages of animation for their video queue shows, although inking and painting was still done in Japan. Also, in 1991, the futuristic buildings of the 1980-built section of Time Machine were repainted with pastel colors.

In 1992, The Defects was filmed there, and Super Cyclone was added to the park, resulting in Cyclone being renamed to Classic Cyclone. 1992 also saw the launch of the Carwardine Colony newsgroup, which was sold to a fan in 2000 to focus on Carwardine Forums.

In 1993, a kiddie expansion and a refurbishment to the Super Mario World dark ride were done, but the most notable has to be Nitro Rush, "The South's First Hyper Coaster", which was also the first hyper to use Arrow's prototype supports previously used on Drachen Fire and later used on Tennessee Tornado.

In 1994, the trim brakes from City Jet were removed to increase the intensity of the ride.

In 1995, American Arrow, a coaster bought from Germany, was added. Also in 1995, Time Machine was undergoing a refurbishment to compete with Walt Disney World's New Tomorrowland.

In 1996, Hurricane Fran hit Carwardine Colony and damaged several wooden structures, most notable rather huge chunks of Classic Cyclone and Super Cyclone, causing them to be closed for the rest of the season while Custom Coasters International retracked the broken parts of the coasters, estimated to be around 35% of Classic Cyclone and 20% of Super Cyclone.

In 1997, Beach Beast was added to the park, along with The MarioKart Experience. The Carwardine Railroad also gained a new locomotive, the #10 "Rachel", which was relocated from Opryland USA.

In 1998, Chaos and Triple Star were added to the park. Also, that year was the final season for the original incarnation of the railroad. This year was the first year the Crazy Colander Head Night promotion (a Rock-afire-related promotion previously held at Showbiz Pizza Place) was held at the Colony.

In 1999, Monstar, Count Coasterula and King Cobra were added to the park. Monstar had been in the works since around 1996 in order to become the tallest coaster in the world, although it would be beaten by Superman: The Escape at Six Flags Magic Mountain and Tower of Terror at Dreamworld, both of which opened in 1997. However, it still opened as the world's tallest complete-circuit coaster, and had several marketing campaigns.

In Summer of 1999, the park announced two new attractions for the 2000 season - "Carwardine Mach Fun", a conversion of Carwardine Mover similar to Rocket Rods at Disneyland, and a Busytown themed dark ride that would replace City Jet in Kids Kountry, which would be planned to be relocated to Carwardine Corners as a result. However, both attractions would later be cancelled. Also in the Summer of 1999, the Carwardine Super Railroad had its first season, keeping four locomotives from the original railroad (#30 Tiny Tim, #5 Carwardine Cannonball, #10 "Rachel" and #49 Santa Fe) plus the original railroad's GE 25-ton switcher, and adding a new locomotive, the #20 "Newport News Special", a 2-6-0 engine built by Baldwin and a veteran of the Mexican sugarcane industry.

2000s
In 2000, aside from the park gaining a new ride (Pokémon Battle), the Carousel also began using Ian Monteil’s original/cover music (covers ranged from classical pieces to pop songs, both old and new, alongside various other kinds of music); Carwardine quickly began releasing various CDs of the Carousel’s soundtrack in a series called The Carwardine Colony Carousel as a result.

In 2001, Blaster was added to the park.

In 2002, the Super Mario World ride was updated once again.

In 2003, Carwardine Colony did their "3 for 2003" event, which featured Rainbow Brite's Star Chase, Redwall: Escape from Malkariss, and Sagwa's Rickshaw Run all opening at the park that year. PBS Kids Neighborhood also replaced Kids Kountry that year, and the Redwall Abbey area debuted. In the same year, Carwardine Colony held the Great Carwardine Colony Treasure Hunt, which included a sweepstakes with prizes including a $5 million cash prize, a L-T Passport, a new 2003 Subaru Forester and a trip to Aruba. Vortex also closed following the 2003 season, and would be relocated to Carwardine Colony's sister park Brilliance Port in the 2004 season.

In 2004, Twin Spiral and Double Dash Dueler were installed, with Twin Spiral replacing the now relocated Vortex.

In 2005, two new soundstages were added to Carwardine Studios. The Carwardine Super Railroad also added its sixth and seventh locomotives; #76 "Spirit of America" was the sixth locomotive, a 4-4-0 built by Jay Granite Associates Inc. to a design by longtime Carwardine artist Terry Verheyen; #1 "Thomas" was the seventh locomotive, a 0-6-0T based off of the titular character of Thomas & Friends, also built by Jay Granite Associates, this time in association with the Strasburg Rail Road, who converted their acquired H.K. Porter 0-6-0ST into their own "Thomas", and also provided travelling dummy replicas for other railroads' Day Out with Thomas events. Due to the seventh locomotive being different from the others (particularly due to being based off of a licensed character), it is less likely to operate on the Carwardine Super Railroad than other locomotives.

In 2006, Chaos and Skylab closed forever, Chaos due to maintenance and Skylab due to age.

In 2007, PBS Kids Neighborhood got renamed back to Kids Kountry and Zero G-Force opened to the public. Along with that, Colony Coast got a $15 million dollar upgrade, including the addition of a lazy river, in which previously the park was often criticized for lacking a lazy river, along with some new slides.

In 2008, Carwardine Colony was featured alongside Carwardine's Great America, Six Flags Kings Dominion, Virginia Thrills and in Virginia Tourism Corporation ads featuring the slogan "".

In 2009, minor park improvements were made.

2010s
On Labor Day 2010, Launchpads and Calypso closed for relocation.

In 2011, the park got a new logo, the logo was first shown in February 2011, and during March of 2011, it was starting to be put on trash cans, refillable cups and souvenirs, the changes were complete by August 2011. Also that year, as Carwardine Parks made efforts to expand their Official Carwardine Partner Hotels program to more parks (particularly earlier parks built by Carwardine), new locations of Holiday Inn and Staybridge Suites opened near the park as partner hotels.

In 2012, Zyclone opened. This coaster was named that to avoid confusion and likely as a tribute to the Pinfari Zyklon model, although Pinfari never had a presence at this particular park. Super Cyclone also closed for good at the end of the season and was scrapped for parts.

In 2013, King Cobra was added to the Colony Coast waterpark.

In 2014, park improvements happened. The Great White was also renamed Bob’s Burgers: Shark Rampage, as it became themed to the mechanical shark featured in the 2012 Bob’s Burgers episode “The Deepening”.

In 2015, an expansion to the kiddie area opened.

In 2016, Nightmare: The Scream Machine and Slideboard Central both opened.

2020s
Between March 2020-June 2020, the park was closed for three months during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, Dropsanity was added, and Time Machine got a new section dedicated to the 2000s. Carwardine Colony also began focusing on including elements from Bluey in the park.

In October 2021, Carwardine Colony announced that a new area, 4 new rides - two of which being brand new coasters - would open sometime in 2022, giving it the record of 24 coasters in one park. It was confirmed that a new ride would be added to Redwall Abbey, Jess' Wall Crawl. In November, it was announced that one of the four new rides would be a drop tower integrated onto the existing Zero G-Force tower structure, the drop tower ride would be named "Silverwing - Dive of Fear". The other two new rides were "Springfield Swings", the world's tallest swinging tower ride, and "Randomizer", a Vekoma launched coaster with several layouts that the riders could get to vote on which to take. An increased presence of Nickelodeon and ViacomCBS properties, especially SpongeBob SquarePants, Garfield and Star Trek, as well as that of Bluey, was also announced. While Zero G-Force's name remains unchanged, it received a Silverwing retheme to tie in with the new drop tower addition, with Shade Silverwing depicted on its new logo and a meet-and-greet with Shade Silverwing and Marina Brightwing added outside the station, and received a partial repaint to better fit its new theme, along with a new tagline - "Glide Through the Sky".

After the ICON Park incident, Springfield Swings, which was built by the same manufacturer as the drop tower that caused the incident, was put on indefinite hold until a verdict came out in June saying that Funtime's Starflyers are safe "if all safety precautions are followed".

The 2022 rides opened as followed - Nick Central on April 9th, Silverwing: Dive of Fear on May 5th, Jess' Wall Crawl on May 12th, Randomizer on June 4th and Springfield Swings on June 24th (the latter was originally supposed to open on March 5th).

In 2023, the "Carwardine Colony: Repaint The Colony" project will begin, giving 25 different rides fresh coats of paint, along with repainting some rides. Time Machine also get a second new section dedicated to the 2010s.

In November 2023, Carwardine announced a plans for new expansion of Time Machine, adding new lands themed to the 1930s and 40s, with a potential opening date of Q2 2024.