Americawood Park

Americawood Park is an amusement park located in Henrietta, Texas. It first opened in 1972 under the name Texas Summerland; however, it would close only 13 months after its grand opening due to a lack of attendance. It would later be sold to Baker Amusements and re-opened in 1974 under the new name Americana Wonderland. The park would then be renamed again in 1984 to Crazy Americana, and then when the park was sold to a new company called M.T.A.C. Company in 1989, the park's name was changed once again to Americawood Park, its current name. Operations have been sub-contracted to Carwardine Parks since the M.T.A.C. buyout, and the park is officially considered part of the Carwardine chain and uses most of the chain's licenses, theming, and branding, along with the chain's pass holder system.

1972 - 1973 (Texas Summerland era)
The park opened as Texas Summerland in 1972 as a family-owned amusement park in an effort to compete with Six Flags Over Texas. It featured two coasters at the time of its opening: Texas Streak, and Wild Mouse (later renamed to Rat Maze). It also had Americana Funhouse that was built in-house, and even a large outdoor live concert stage also built in-house.

In 1973, The park closed down 13 months after their park opening not only due to a lack of attendance but also because they won't enough money to continue operating the park.

1974 - 1983 (Americana Wonderland era)
And then in late that year, Baker Amusements bought the closed-down park and later reopened it under the new name Americana Wonderland in 1974 with new rides and attractions that the family who originally owned the park was hoping for.

In 1977, park officials were looking for a new coaster that would change the park's history. After the owner rode Rebel Yell at Kings Dominion during his trip, he had an idea for the next coaster something that Texans would love, a wooden racing coaster. They loved the idea. So for this Texas wooden racing coaster project, the park contacted John Allen, the man who designed Rebel Yell, to build the new coaster that the park wanted but he can't because he's retired from making coasters after Screamin' Eagle at Six Flags St. Louis. So he suggested the park hire William Cobb instead. So they contacted William Cobb to build the new coaster. Cobb agreed to the project and built the new racing wooden coaster at the park. In 1978, they got Cyclone trains that Kursaal Amusement Park demolished the ride in 1974; to run the new racing coaster, they later added lap bars on those trains by the park owner.

In 1978, the park opened The Lone Star Racer, a clone of both Rebel Yell at Kings Dominion and Thunder Road at Carowinds. It became a huge hit for the park. They made an advertising campaign for that ride with said in the advertisement "Who wins the Lone Star race?". When everyone who won the race on The Lone Star Racer, they give everyone a bumper sticker that said "I won the Lone Star race". They made t-shirts, postcards, and even a pin-back button that also said, "I won the Lone Star race".

In late 1983, Baker Amusements announced that Americana Wonderland would be closed temporarily to renovate the amusement park. By adding more rides, changing their ride names, changing the park name, renovating the buildings, and many more, to make it crazy.

Crazy Americana era (1984 - 1989)
In 1984, the park reopened under the new name Crazy Americana. On the same day when the park reopened for the second time, they opened FreeFall an Intamin freefall ride, The Texas Hurricane, a William Cobb wooden coaster, Americana Express, an Intamin Children's Roller Coaster model, Dragon, a Zamperla Powered Coaster Single Helix model. and Crazy Starship an Intamin Looping Starship ride.

In 1985, Texas Steeplechase was added.

In 1987, The ride was rethemed and renamed Texas Mountain Carts.

Americawood era (1989 - present)
In 1989, the park was sold to a new company called M.T.A.C. Company, who chose to subcontract operations to Carwardine Parks, and its name would be changed yet again to Americawood Park. Texas Nightmare, a Vekoma Illusion coaster, also opened that same year.

In 1995, Heatwave was added.

In 2000, Boomerang was added.

In 2013, Twisted Minds was added.

In 2017, Iron Hurricane was added

In 2019, American 10 was added.

In 2023, Barfight was added.

Kiddie rides
TBA

Trivia

 * When the Lone Star Racer first opened in 1978, the original trains were from Cyclone at Kursaal Amusement Park. Americana Wonderland brought the trains in when Cyclone was torn down in 1974. It was left in storage for 3 years until they used those trains for the Lone Star Racer. Their park utilized the two Cyclone trains from 1978 to 1982, when they purchased new 6-seater wooden coaster trains from PTC. The Cyclone trains were later scrapped.
 * When Crazy Americana reopened in 1984, one side was reversed to run backwards, because this was inspired by Backwards Racer at Kings Island from 1982 to 2007 (around when Six Flags bought Kings Island). This one lasted until 2009, when the park announced that since the park realized that PTC told the park that the trains were never designed to run backwards. They run backwards again in the 2019 season to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Backwards Lone Star Racer to run backwards for the first time.
 * In 1987, a despite over popularity of Texas Stand-Up Lightnin', Arrow Dynamics, which recently woke from bankruptcy, was not happy when they found out that the park was still running the Stand-Up trains on that ride, because the trains and track were never designed for a stand-up train. So Arrow started to threaten Crazy Americana to stop using Stand-Up trains because those trains were already a failure. However, the park did not care and they continued operating despite Arrow's request, until 1989.
 * The never-opened Preston & Barbieri Double Coaster intended for Hot Go Dreamworld is sitting in storage at the park.

Map
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