Opryland USA was an amusement park

Amusement park

thumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...

 located in suburban Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

. It operated seasonally from 1972 until 1997. During the late 1980s, nearly 2.5 million people visited the park annually.
Billed as the "Home of American Music," Opryland USA featured a large number of musical shows along with typical amusement park rides such as roller coaster

Roller coaster

The roller coaster is a popular amusement ride developed for amusement parks and modern theme parks. LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the first coasters on January 20, 1885...

s, carousel

Carousel

A carousel , or merry-go-round, is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders...

s, and the like. The theme park was opened on May 27, 1972, by the now-defunct National Life and Accident Insurance Company

National Life and Accident Insurance Company

The National Life and Accident Insurance Company is a former life insurance company which was based in Nashville, Tennessee.National Life and Accident began in 1900 as the National Sick and Accident Association, a mutual company...

, a Nashville firm best known for operating WSM-AM

WSM (AM)

WSM is the callsign of a 50,000 watt AM radio station located in Nashville, Tennessee. Operating at 650 kHz, its clear channel signal can reach much of North America and various countries, especially late at night...

-FM

WSM-FM

WSM-FM is an FM radio station in Nashville, Tennessee. The station broadcasts at 95.5 MHz and broadcasts a country music radio format, with an emphasis upon recordings released since the 1990s....

-TV and the Grand Ole Opry

Grand Ole Opry

The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...

.