Resurrecting America's Theme Parks

Resurrecting America's Theme Parks is a 2016 biography authorized and written by Chris Carwardine. The pictures in the book of the coasters were taken by DarienLakeFanboy99, TexasCoasterEnthusiast, SoutheastCoasterLover, CaliforniaCoasters, and Chicagosters.

Starting Off With The Colony
"It all started with the oil crisis, I wanted to build a theme park that wasn't far away from the beaches of Virginia, and would provide quality shows & fun for all ages. It took me 2 years to design, construct and open the park". - Chris Carwardine

Carwardine Colony officially opened in June of 1980, the plethora of rides included Carwardine Mines, a coaster that simulated going into a mine on a mine train, which the lines were so long that temporary portable fences had to be installed onto the paths. Fast Forward was a Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop coaster, it was hard to get coasters from Germany, especially after the oil crisis, but... then it finally came, February of 1980, we only had 4 months of assembly, we even had to do night shifts, but alas, it made it to opening day. The ladybug tivoli was our kiddie coaster, it arrived March 1980 due to again, the oil crisis, but 3 months was enough to get the coaster up and running. Other rides include the Carousel, the Himalaya, the Monster, the Pirate, the Sky Tower (which took rather long to construct), Twister and quite a few kiddie rides. One opening day ride that isn't at the park today is Calypso, which was essentially tea cups on STEROIDS!

Chippewa We Go!
In 1982, I purchased a SBNO theme park in Ohio named Chippewa Lake Park, and reopened it as one of my properties. I heavily revamped and remodeled the park.

A Fairly Good Concept
In 1989, after visiting the county fair, i wanted to build a huge traveling fair for my own, a year later, it was real, this was going to originally feature a huge oil derrick that launches out prizes, but due to budget issues, we instead made a designated shop tent, this fair went really good, except for two things, first was people swarming the pin staff for pins, and second, were the lack of porta-potties, i saw people with very soggy pants, people doing the potty dance and even saw some people using the grass as a porta-potty, glad our team fixed that.

A Stoogeish Idea
"The first Carwardine park I visited before deciding to buy the chain from Mills was Stoogeland Theem Park. It set my expectations for Carwardine's stance as a home for quality entertainment for all ages." - Wágner Malyan

Stoogeland Theem Park opened in 1992 in Nashua, New Hampshire, as the first theme park totally based off The Three Stooges.

Griffith Comes To Life
In 1988, I asked if I could build a theme park based off Mayberry from The Andy Griffith Show. He gave his blessing, and as soon as I had the license to it and other Andy Griffith properties, I opened Andy Griffith's Mayberry U.S.A. in 1993 in Soul City, North Carolina.

A Theme Park In Alaska?!?
"It was an impossible task, but we do the impossible" - Christopher R. Carwardine

Creating Alaska Frontier Park wasn't an easy task.

What's With The Stock Music?
"I was visiting Boblo Island near Detroit with a nephew when I suddenly heard "Kometenmelodie 2" begin to play in a kids' area. And I was like "Oh my...", since I never expected to hear my work in an amusement park." - Ralf Hütter of Kraftwerk

Most Carwardine Parks use stock music because of the wide variety of genres and because of the quirky nature of them. We aren't professionals, we hire professionals.

Meeting Mickey in Minneapolis
In 1991, Disney-Carwardine Studios Minneapolis opened in Minnesota. This venture of Disney and my company Carwardine Parks became the biggest amusement park in the state at the time.

I Am That Is
In 2000, we licensed the Redwall franchise for the Carwardine Parks group. As soon as the Redwall Abbey area opened at Boblo Island in August of that year, attendance for the park skyrocketed like never before. The lines for the new Redwall: Fight for Victory coaster were longer than the ones for Canadian Coaster at the time, and I couldn't believe it.