Wild Adventures Family Theme Park - Valdosta, Georgia

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Fun at Wild Adventures Family Theme Park

The Wild Adventures theme park is owned by the Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation and is located 5 miles from Valdosta, Georgia. The theme park consists of seven themed areas that feature over a hundred attractions and rides, including, roller coasters, exotic animals, Splash Island water park, shows and concerts featuring pop, rock, country, oldie and Christian music. Guests of the park can enjoy all the attractions, as well as the concerts, shows, and special events of the park upon admission.

Rides and Events at Wild Adventures

The Wild Adventures theme park is home to a number of roller coasters. Children and family-friendly roller coasters at the park include the Ant Farm Express, Gold Rush and the Tiger Terror. However, for those daring and adventurous, the park offers thrilling rides, which include the Boomerang, Bug Out!, Cheetah, Fiesta Express, Swamp Thing, and the Hangman. Recently, the park added the Rattler, which is a Frisbee ride, in 2008.

For water-loving visitors, the Wild Adventures theme park also has a Splash Island water park. Attractions included in the area are Lazy River, Tri-phoon, Tadpole Cove, Double-Dip Zip and the Rain Fortress.

Aside from the rides and attractions, the Wild Adventures theme park also hosts a number of events each year. For instance, the park holds the Artic Adventure event during winter, where guests can view several hills made of artificial snow and try ice skating lessons at an ice rink.

Other events held at the park include the Celebrate America, Kidspalooza, Haunted Adventure Nights, An Old Fashioned Christmas, Boy and Girl Scouts Day and Home School Day.

Wild Adventure Theme Parks Beginnings

The park, which started as a plot of farm land in the outskirts of Valdosta, was founded by Kent Buescher in 1996. The Wild Adventure theme park started out as a small petting zoo. Over the years, the park developed and is now home to nine roller coasters and several flat rides.

The rides were added in the year 1998 and have since grown in rapid speed. The park’s Splash Island opened in 2003 and served as the park’s largest expansion that included a number of attractions and water slides.

In the year 2005, the owners of the park added the Gauntlet, which is a Screamin’ Swing complex. Another year later, in 2006, the park celebrated its 10th anniversary and the owners announced their plans for adding a log flume called the Shaka Zula River Adventure. However, the construction of the ride was delayed but is expected to open some time in 2008.

Back in 2007, the Wild Adventures was required to be sold due to bankruptcy requirements. The Adventure Parks Group LLC, the owners of the park, then announced that two of their theme parks, including the Wild Adventures, will be placed into auction to be sold to the highest bidder. However, it does not mean that both parks would be totally closed to the public.

The purchase of both the parks opened at $53 million, $38 million of which for the Wild Adventures theme park. The owners then filed for bankruptcy protection in September of 2006 to keep them safe from creditors who sought for payments amounting to $25 million.

The Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation then bought the Wild Adventures theme park in September of 2007 for a total of $34.4 million.