Corkscrew is a steel roller coaster at Michigan's Adventure

Michigan's Adventure

Michigan's Adventure is a amusement park in Muskegon County, Michigan, about halfway between Muskegon, Michigan and Whitehall, Michigan. It is the largest amusement park in the state and has been owned and operated by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company since 2001...

 in Muskegon

Muskegon, Michigan

Muskegon is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 38,401. The city is the county seat of Muskegon County...

, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

. It was manufactured by Arrow Dynamics

Arrow Dynamics

Arrow Dynamics was a roller coaster and amusement ride design company based in Clearfield, Utah, United States. In 2002, the company went bankrupt but was quickly bought by fellow amusement ride manufacturer S&S Power to form S&S Arrow. During its peak, Arrow Dynamics was responsible for some of...

. Corkscrew was the park's first roller coaster during the Deer Park days. Arrow Dynamics has built several Corkscrew coasters and some, such as the Corkscrew

Corkscrew (Cedar Point)

Corkscrew is a roller coaster at the Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. When built in 1976, it was the first roller coaster in the world with 3 inversions....

 at Cedar Point

Cedar Point

Cedar Point is a 364 acre amusement park located in Sandusky, Ohio, United States on a narrow peninsula jutting into Lake Erie. Cedar Point is the only amusement park with four roller coasters that are taller than...

, or the Corkscrew at Valleyfair have an additional inversion, typically a loop

Loop (roller coaster)

The generic roller coaster vertical loop is the most basic of roller coaster inversions. Specifically, the loop refers to a continuously upward-sloping section of track that eventually results in a complete 360 degree circle. At the top-most piece of the loop, riders are completely inverted.-...

 in addition to the two corkscrew loops that give this coaster type its name.

This is one of the oldest original Arrow coasters still in existence. For the majority of its life, Corkscrew was painted white. Sometime after the purchase of Michigan's Adventure by Cedar Fair the track has been painted yellow and orange, and the supports painted teal or aqua. These are common corporate colors for Cedar Fair parks.

Color Scheme

Prior to the park being bought by Cedar Fair, Corkscrew had an all white track with white supports. The trains were red, white, and blue. After the park was purchased by Cedar Fair, the track was painted orange and the corkscrew portion was painted yellow. The supports were also painted to a teal/green color. The trains were as well given new colors, they now sport a red and yellow paint job. The station was given a face lift as well, changing the wood and white portions to a teal and tan color.

History

The corkscrew was added by Roger Jourden to help turn his small deer park petting zoo into a full fledged amusement park. Many of his additions to Michigan's Adventure were to help compete with its neighbor park Cedar Point. This was the reason he decided on adding an Arrow corkscrew at the time. When the ride was built it was considered one of the most high tech and thrilling rides in existence and was considered by many including the manufacturers to be too big for what was at the time nothing more than a petting zoo. Roger Jourden has been quoted as saying that he would of liked to have had a loop in addition to the two corkscrews, but at the time it was too much for his budget.