Six Flags Great Escape & Hurricane Harbor is an amusement park located in Queensbury, New York, USA. It opened in 1957 as Storytown USA and has since been renamed to The Great Escape after being acquired by Premier Parks (later Six Flags) in 1996. It has since been rebranded Six Flags Great Escape.
History
The Great Escape first opened in 1954 as Storytown USA, a Mother Goose themed amusement park. In 1957, realizing that the park was geared only toward small children, the park opened its Ghosttown area, the first of many themed areas opened in the park's history.
In 1983, the park officially changed its name from Storytown USA to The Great Escape. For publicity, the park placed bumper stickers on every car in the parking lot. This practice stopped a few years later due to complaints.
In 1984, the Great Escape opened Steamin' Demon, the first of its eventual seven roller coasters. The main attraction, a wooden roller coaster called the Comet, re-opened at The Great Escape in 1994. This roller coaster had moved from Crystal Beach after 41-year history as The Comet. Roller coaster enthusiasts recognize it as one of the best wooden roller coasters in North America.
In 1995, The Great Escape opened its waterpark, Splashwater Kingdom. The next year, the park was acquired by Premier Parks, though it retained its park name. In 1997, it opened another coaster, the Boomerang Coast-to-Coaster (now Flashback), and the Alpine Bobsled opened the next year. Also in 1998 saw Premier Parks acquire the Six Flags chain from Time Warner Entertainment. The rapid addition of roller coasters continued the next year with the addition of the indoor coaster Nightmare at Crack Axle Canyon. These additions slowed and did not continue until the opening of Canyon Blaster in 2003. This was the most recent roller coaster to be introduced, excluding the family coaster Road Runner Express (later renamed Frankie's Mine Train in 2010).
Six Flags Great Escape has its own indoor hotel, Six Flags Great Escape Lodge & Indoor Waterpark. The hotel is located across from the park and includes a 38,000 square foot indoor waterpark known as White Water Bay. This is New York's first indoor waterpark. The hotel opened in 2006 and has received many positive reviews and quickly sold out its opening week. In 2009, The Great Escape opened Sasquatch, an S&S Worldwide Combo Tower relocated from Six Flags New Orleans. Sasquatch is located near the entrance of the park. The same year, The Great Escape hosted its first Holiday in the Park, only for it to be cancelled the following season.[1]
In addition to typical amusement park rides, the Great Escape offers a variety of unique shows, most notable of which is a high dive show featuring a team of divers scaling an 80-foot tower and plunging into a 10-foot-deep pool.
In September 2020, Great Escape announced that it would remain closed, along with Six Flags Darien Lake until 2021 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. At that time, the state of New York had not allowed amusement parks to reopen.[2] The park was rebranded as Six Flags Great Escape in 2022.
Roller coasters
Present
| Name | Manufacturer | Type | Opened | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bobcat | The Gravity Group | Wooden | 2024 | Operating |
| Canyon Blaster | Arrow Development | Sit-Down | 2003 | Operating |
| Comet | Philadelphia Toboggan Company | Wooden | 1994 | Operating |
| Flashback | Vekoma | Shuttle | 1997 | Operating |
| Frankie's Mine Train | Zamperla | Kiddie | 2005 | Operating |
| Steamin' Demon | Arrow Development | Sit-Down | 1984 | Operating |
Past
| Name | Manufacturer | Type | Opened | Closed | Relocated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine Bobsled | Intamin | Bobsled | 1998 | 2023 | Scrapped |
| Nightmare at Crack Axle Canyon | Schwarzkopf | Enclosed | 1999 | 2006 | Scrapped |
| Italian Roller Coaster | Pinfari | Sit-down | 1971 | 1988 | Unknown |
| unknown | Vekoma | Inverted | Never operated | Never operated, relocated to La Ronde | |
Attractions
Operating
Closed
Water slides
Six Flags Great Escape also includes Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, which opened in 1995 and was known as Splashwater Kingdom until 2019. The park is located within the grounds of the amusement park and is included with the price of admission.
