Silver Dollar City announced Thursday that it will open a new family roller coaster, Miner's Mountain Express, in spring 2027, replacing Thunderation after 33 years.
Thunderation, the park's Arrow Dynamics mine train coaster, opened in 1993. Its final day of operation is scheduled for Jan. 2, 2027.
The new coaster is themed around the Marble Cave Mining Company, which operated on the site in the 1880s. According to the park, prospectors found no marble there, and the cave was later renamed Marvel Cave — the natural landmark that eventually gave rise to the theme park.
Riders board mine cars that travel through a new section of the park called Daredevil Pass, passing rockwork, mining structures and a flooded mine shaft in a fictional search for a lost cave entrance. A 15-story headframe salvaged from a working Missouri mine stands above the ride.
By the numbers
According to a ride fact sheet released by the park, Miner's Mountain Express is a steel family mine-train coaster with 3,553 feet of track — the longest stretch of track at Silver Dollar City, and, the park says, the longest family coaster in the Midwest.
The ride runs three minutes and 18 seconds and includes two lift hills, which the park has named Prospector's Peak and Ironback Ridge. It lists 15 moments of weightlessness, which it describes as the most of any ride at the park, and no inversions.
Three trains will carry 24 riders each, seated side by side in mine-car-style rows. The park describes a lead car built to look like metal, with a mounted pickaxe, followed by cars built to look like wood.
The minimum height is 39 inches, and riders at that height must be accompanied by a supervising companion older than 14.
Silver Dollar City has not released the coaster's top speed or maximum height.
Part of a larger expansion
The coaster is part of a $150 million investment that also includes the Silver Dollar City Resort, likewise scheduled to open in 2027.
"For over 65 years, Silver Dollar City has entertained our guests through fun story-based adventures," said Brad Thomas, president of the Silver Dollar City Company, in a statement. He said the ride was designed so multiple generations of a family could ride together, and tied both projects to a growth strategy aimed at drawing more overnight and weekend visitors to the Ozarks.
Speaking about the closure of Thunderation, Thomas said the park is not only looking toward its past.
Erica Rutledge, senior creative director at Herschend Creative Studios, said in a statement that the design team set out to let families step into the park's origin story, and that the buildings, tools and details were meant to honor the people who worked the site.
The ride's story centers on a fictional mining foreman, Jedidiah "Jed" Campbell, whose motto — "Where there's a will, there's a way" — frames the search for the lost cave entrance.
Miner's Mountain Express was designed in collaboration with MACK Rides of Waldkirch, Germany, the manufacturer behind the park's Time Traveler coaster. The park says much of the construction and theming is being handled in-house by its own maintenance, construction and design staff alongside Herschend Creative Studios.
Daredevil Pass will connect the coaster to three existing rides: WildFire, PowderKeg and the American Plunge.
More information is available at silverdollarcity.com.
