Six Flags Great Adventure

Images of America: New Jersey

by Harry Applegate and Thomas Benton

Built in 1974, Great Adventure was the larger-than-life dream of a larger-than-life personality, Warner LeRoy. The consummate showman, LeRoy had visions of a fantasy world of rides, shows, and animals in a beautiful and unspoiled woodland setting. In 1977, Great Adventure became a member of the Six Flags family of theme parks and has continued to grow ever since, with bigger and better attractions added each season. Six Flags Great Adventure revisits some of the parkas past attractions, like the Garden of Marvels, Big Balloon, and Super Teepee, and illustrates the parkas evolution into a state-of-the-art theme park enjoyed by a new generation of guests.

Genres: Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published August 31, 2009

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my local amusement park and it happens to be one of the largest in the world. I bought this to look at some of the early rides which I missed and for my kids to read some history. This book contains a lot of interesting pictures and facts. I enjoyed learning about the park's history. This series of books on the history of America at a local level is really great.

[Michele Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

*2.5 stars
This book took a majority of its information from a Six Flags Great Adventure fan website. Personally, I felt like it made the book seem not as accurate as it could be because this is the only reference in the book. I wish that someone who didn't know the history of Six Flags Great Adventure proof read this book because one section had no flow and spoke in reference to a ride that was never mentioned in the book prior. All in all, most of this information could probably be found online easily but seems like if you needed a reliable resource for a research paper, this could be useful.

[Jeffrey Falk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating photographic record of an important cultural institution's sadly finished heyday. The authors are former employees who run the in-depth (if still inchoate) greatadventurehistory.com. There are a few textual inconsistencies and confusions (e.g., exactly when TimeWarner bought Six Flags).

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a fun walk down memory lane and I enjoyed the photos. Since it was written by the company, it was awfully sanitized. I remember a few disasters that’s would have been interesting to look back on too.

[Joseph Ruscavage · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice look at history of park

Well done look at the park we visit the most. Nice pictures. Good memories.Good information on how park came to be