FRONTIER CITY
and White Water Bay
Oklahoma City
Owned by EPR Properties
Managed by Six Flags Theme Parks
Park News - (4/9/23) Some interesting things are said to be happening at Frontier City this season regarding the Nightmare Mine building. Now for those that don’t know the Nightmare Mine building was created in 1989 to enclose a Galaxi model coaster that was at the park that was originally located outside and called the Screamer. At one point, thought to be around 1999 the park actually replaced the roller coaster with an identical model ride that was removed from another park. Unfortunately this didn’t last long and the Nightmare Mine coaster is listed on RCDB as being closed down around 2000.
Rumor has it that the coaster sat idle inside for a number of years following that until they got around to removing it, and then began to use the building to set up haunted houses in the fall for Fright Fest starting in 2016. According to new reports there has been a long of interesting activity taking place around the Nightmare Mine building, following the removal of the Geronimo sky coaster last year.
I’m told that this year the building appears to have been sealed up, with the walkway that runs under the log flume’s lift hill now being closed, a smoking section area next to the building behind Gunslinger has been removed, and all the wild vegetation, growth and some trees that grew up alongside the building are being cleared out. The smaller “power station” building next to the main building now appears to be in almost brand new condition. Furthermore, the decaying building facade that sits over the former queue area is also now in the process of being repaired. Meanwhile a bridge and pathway along the ride that was damaged during a storm is also being replaced and will reopen in the near future.
In short, the area has been the focus of a lot of refurbishment work as of late, which of course has started up the rumor mill that perhaps the park may be planning to repurpose the building to house another new ride or attraction in the near future. Indoor / Semi-Indoor dark coasters are popular at the moment, we’ve seen a few of the SeaWorld chain of parks repurposing some of their older attraction structures to house new launched coaster projects such as DarkCoaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg (all enclosed), Arctic Rescue at SeaWorld San Diego (enclosed station/launch) and a rumored similar concept in development for the Orlando park to replace their former Antarctica dark ride.
When it comes to building an indoor roller coaster, what most smaller parks find to be prohibitive is the extra costs involved in creating a structure big enough to house the ride. But if a park, like Frontier City, already has a structure just sitting there empty… I say, why not put it to good use?
(3/27/23) According to a report sent my way, things are looking quite good at Frontier City as of late. Apparently Six Flags has been hard at work over the off-season to upgrade a number of things throughout the park. This includes atmospheric updates like the replacement of the in-park music to remove modern pop music tracks and feature a more thematically appropriate old western theme. Various shade structures have been built in the queues for many attractions and in different areas of the park, along with an increase in the amount of available seating throughout the park. On the attraction side of things, I’m told that the former Dodge “Em bumper cars has been renamed Rodeo Roundup, Brain Drain has been rethemed as Rollin’ Thunder and a total thematic upgrade package has been installed on the park’s Mystery Log Flume. This update has seen a new sawmill theme added to the ride, new tunnel scenes added to the flume along with some fun interactive features added to the queue.
(2/19/2023) Add the Bucky’s Whistlestop Depot kiddie train ride to the list of rides that Six Flags is said to closing at their parks before the 2023 season starts.
(1/22/2023) According into information released at the ACE Winterfest event, Frontier City will be renaming a few of their rides for the 2023 season. Brain Drain (Larson Super Loop) will become Rolling Thunder and the Dogde ‘Ems (Bumper Cars) will become Rodeo Roundup.
2023 - Nothing is known at this time...
 2024/2025 - New Attractions - Rumor - (7/4/2023) According to a video post from Frontier City Thrills, at last night’s celebration event for the July 4th holiday, the park played a video featuring footage of the park’s rides, concerts and such. While they did not capture this actual video (which is expected to play again tonight at the park) they claim that two rides not at the park were also included in the video package. According to the post, footage of The Joker (S&S 4D Free Spin) coaster at Six Flags over Texas and footage of Pandemonium (Zamperla Giant Discovery) at Six Flags over Georgia were included, which they are taking as a teaser for future park additions over the next two seasons.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see if anything gets announced at the end of the summer.
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