Explore America's roller coaster history with Wildcat's Revenge
With the big Fourth of July holiday coming up this weekend, I have declared this "summer vacation week" on Theme Park Insider. Each day, I will be featuring one of America's themed attraction here on Theme Park Insider, along with some vacation advice.
Yesterday, I featured a coaster from Rocky Mountain Construction, which might be America's leading roller coaster manufacturer of the moment. Let's stick with RMC today as we continue our trip east to America's sweetest theme park, Hersheypark. Let's take a ride on Wildcat's Revenge.
Wildcat's Revenge invites fans to explore America's roller coaster history. This 2023 coaster was an RMC IBox rebuild of the 1996 Wildcat, which was the first coaster built by Great Coasters International. That coaster took its inspiration from Hersheypark's original Wild Cat, a Philadelphia Toboggan Company coaster that ran for two decades starting in 1923.
That coaster was replaced in 1946 by another Philadelphia Toboggan Company production, Comet, which remains in operation to this day. Comet is the oldest operating roller coaster at any of the top 20 most attended theme parks in North America. Hersheypark today runs 14 coasters, which ties it for the fourth most in the United States, behind Cedar Point (18), Six Flags Magic Mountain (17) and Six Flags Great America (16).
Hersheypark is the most-visited independently owned theme park in the country. Contrary to what many fans might believe, the park is not owned by the Hershey chocolate company, but by a separate company formed by Milton Hershey in the 1920s for all his non-chocolate businesses. The Hershey Company does own the Hershey's Chocolate World attraction located next door to Hersheypark, however. If you are looking for an attraction that feels more like an EPCOT pavilion dedicated to chocolate than a day riding one of America's best coaster collections, Hershey's Chocolate World is that choice.
Of course, many fans opt to visit both, making Hershey, Pa. a popular roadtrip stop during the summer vacation season.
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