Worlds of Fun history

In 1975 Robert Munger, who had accumulated almost 10 percent of the company's equity over his 15-year tenure on its board of directors, assumed the role of president and CEO.

In 1976, a new section opened in honor of the United States Bicentennial – the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence – and was named Bicentennial Square.

But instead of being acquired, Cedar Point ended up taking over Valleyfair, a small Minnesota park, in 1978.

In 1982, management took the two parks private as Cedar Fair Partnership through a $142 million leveraged buyout financed in part by investment bank Lazard Freres and Britain's Pearson, plc.

The facility reached back to its watery roots in 1988, when it launched Soak City water park.

Several years later in 1989, Worlds of Fun ended the decade with the addition of Timber Wolf, a wooden roller coaster that initially ranked high in several national polls.

Cedar Fair augmented its corporate holdings during this period as well, acquiring sister parks Wildwater Kingdom and Dorney Park, both of Pennsylvania, for an estimated $48 million in cash and Cedar Fair equity in 1992.

Cedar Fair LP purchased Worlds of Fun in 1995 for $40 million.

In 1996, Cedar Point earned its fifth consecutive designation as the world's "Best Traditional Amusement Park" from trade paper Inside Track.

Cedar Fair, L.P. is the parent company to a half-dozen of America's oldest and largest amusement parks. It's been acclaimed as both "King of Amusement Parks" and "Queen of American Watering Places." In the fall of 1997, the parent company announced its plans to acquire its first year-round facility, California's Knott's Berry Farm.