Soaring Eagle’s multi-experience ride attraction
AT: Tim Baldwin
PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. — There is no shortage of things to experience in Pigeon Forge. The tourist haven is home to a town strip filled with rides, dinner shows, mountain coasters and an unending string of stores to buy vacation souvenirs.
As this issue was headed to press, the town’s latest eye-catcher was scheduled to wow the public with an August 23 debut. Mountain Monster is the latest facility from Tennessee-based FACE Amusement, a growing business of boutique arcades and attractions.
Zach Brown, content coordinator for FACE, told AT, “Mountain Monster is the only [attraction] in the United States built this way. It’s three experiences: the swing in the front is called Mountain Monster (sharing the name of the attraction complex), the Mountain Launch (a Saddle Sling), and an eight-person Monster Fall (freefall).
The ride complex is designed by Soaring Eagle. The company is led by legendary thrill inventor, Stan Checketts. “The tower complex as a whole is really unusual and exciting with multiple rides coming off of it. The complex around it has come together beautifully,” he said.
The attraction is aimed at thrill seekers and their families. The outdoor attraction is a centerpiece to the new retail/dining/entertainment plaza called Tower Shops at Mountain Mile, which spans more than 174 acres along more than one mile of road.
Brown feels the most daring experience will be the Mountain Monster swing ride. “The way it is positioned, you will be looking out all over Pigeon Forge. It’s already 200 feet high, but it’s on a little hill which makes it seem even higher,” he said. Checketts calls it the Dive Ride.
“The response from the Terrordactyl (our first Dive Ride) in Colorado at Cave of the Winds came from all around the world. It got hundreds of millions of social media views and just went viral,” smiled Checketts. “When we saw the response, we wanted to take that Dive Ride to more places. The experience is going to be about the same in Pigeon Forge because riders are still a couple hundred feet up and the seat slowly tips forward. The anticipation that riders get before basically freefalling almost 50 – 60 feet is sensational. We’ve developed an accumulator that brings you from the free fall into the swing smoothly with no jerk. It’s just beautiful!”
On the sides of the tower are other attractions. The Monster Fall delivers an adrenaline rush as riders plummet in freefall from 200 feet. The Saddle Sling, here called Monster Launch, places riders back-to-back and flings them upward at high speeds.
“If you choose, the ride can be set to where you do a flip at the top,” said Brown.
“I’m really proud of our team and the fabulous job they did to get it put together,” said Checketts. “It is going to be a landmark in Pigeon Forge for years and years to come.”
Customers can buy tickets for each attraction individually, but a discount applies to buying all three. Riders can purchase videos that capture their expressions, as well as other souvenirs.
The iconic LED lighting makes the attraction easy to spot in the night sky.
This article appears in the SEPTEMBER 2019 issue of Amusement Today.
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