The History of Cedar Creek Mine Ride

Cedar Creek Mine Ride has been carrying families through the woods and over the lagoons since 1969, which makes it the second-oldest roller coaster at Cedar Point. It is a runaway mine train, and it does something almost no other coaster does.

A runaway mine train

The mine train was one of the first great steel coaster designs. It grew out of the tubular steel track that Arrow Development had pioneered on Disneyland's Matterhorn a decade earlier, track that could twist and dive smoothly in ways the old wooden coasters could not. Designed by Arrow's Ron Toomer, Cedar Creek Mine Ride opened in 1969 as the centerpiece of a new frontier-themed section of the park, its trains styled as ore cars racing through the timbers.

Two trips up the hill

Most roller coasters climb one lift hill and spend the rest of the ride coasting. Cedar Creek Mine Ride climbs twice. The train tops its first lift, drops and winds through the trees and over the water, then climbs a second lift hill before the final run home. It is a signature trait of Arrow's early mine trains, and at Cedar Point only one other ride shares it. The coaster has given tens of millions of rides over its life, and for its fiftieth anniversary in 2019 the park refreshed it with new tunnel effects and mineshaft scenery rather than replacing it.

Sister coasters

Cedar Creek Mine Ride belongs to Arrow's family of runaway mine trains, a design that spread to parks across the country. The line traces back to the original Runaway Mine Train that opened at Six Flags Over Texas in 1966, the ride that started the whole genre. Cedar Point's version is one of the larger and longer-lived members of that family.

One thing to know

Its two separate chain lift hills make it unusual, since almost every coaster lifts only once, and at Cedar Point that quirk is shared only by Iron Dragon.

Cedar Creek Mine Ride is one chapter in the history of Cedar Point.

Cedar Creek Mine Ride at a glance