Holiday World & Splashin' Safari history

Beginning in 1955, Santa Claus Land charged admission for the first time; adults were charged 50 cents while children continued to be admitted for free.

In 1960, Bill Koch married Patricia "Pat" Yellig, the daughter of Jim Yellig, the park's Santa Claus.

In 1976, Santa Claus Land shifted its focus along with its entrance, which was moved from State Road 162 to its present location on State Road 245.

In 1984, Santa Claus Land expanded to also include Halloween and 4th of July sections, and the park’s name was changed to Holiday World.

In the following years, Frightful Falls and Banshee were added to the Halloween section, Raging Rapids was added to the Fourth of July section in 1990, and Kringle's Kafé restaurant was built in the Christmas section.

Splashin’ Safari was added to the amusement park in 1993.

The park added the first of its three wooden roller coasters in 1995 with The Raven, built by Custom Coasters International.

In 2000, The Raven was ranked as the #1 wooden roller coaster in the world by Amusement Today magazine, a distinction it held for 4 years.

The Legend's ranking reached its peak in 2002, when it was voted the fourth best wooden roller coaster in the world.

In 2003, Splashin' Safari added Zinga on top of The Legend's spiral drop, a ProSlide Tornado, while Holiday World replaced Banshee with Hallowswings and the Hall of Famous Americans wax museum with Liberty Launch.

In 2004, the highly-coveted international Applause Award which honors “foresight, originality, and creativity, plus sound business development and profitability,” was presented to Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari, the smallest park to ever receive the award.

Bahari Wave Pool was added in 2005, which marked the beginning of an expansion project that would double the size of Splashin' Safari.

In 2006, the park introduced a new holiday.

In 2009, Holiday World continued to break records by opening the world's tallest water ride, Pilgrims Plunge, in the Thanksgiving section of the park.

In February 2010, Holiday World's rival park, Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville, Kentucky, announced that it would be closing permanently and ending operations after park operator Six Flags could not reach a lease agreement for the property.

As of the 2011 awards, The Raven has remained ranked among the top twenty wooden roller coasters in the world.

In 2012, Mammoth, the World’s Longest Water Coaster, opened.

Pilgrims Plunge was renamed to Giraffica in 2013 when the boundaries between the Thanksgiving section and the water park were slightly altered.

Dan Koch, along with his sister Natalie, would go on in 2014 to form Koch Family Parks and buy Alabama Splash Adventure, a previously troubled theme park in Bessemer, Alabama.

America’s first launched wing roller coaster – Thunderbird – premiered in 2015.

In 2016, the park celebrates its 70th birthday.

Plans for 2020 include Cheetah Chase: The World’s First Launched Water Coaster.