‘It’s Minnesota’s park’: High rollers and Tilt-A-Whirls, Valleyfair celebrates 50 years
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On May 25, 1976, in a Scott County flood plain, a collection of rides and amusements started whizzing, whooshing and whirling, forever changing the Shakopee skyline. Valleyfair was officially open.
The new amusement park was home to about two dozen attractions including the painted carousel, the Ferris Wheel, the “Tilter” Tilt-A-Whirl, SuperCat, Scrambler, Antique Cars and the main attraction: the High Roller, a white wooden roller coaster.
“It has withheld the test of time,” said Valleyfair president Stephen Summers, while watching the coaster’s click-clacking cars from the cabin of the spinning Ferris Wheel. “It’s a great training roller coaster for kids. That’s really where a lot of first roller coaster rides are coming from, is right there.”
This season, Valleyfair celebrates its 50th anniversary, having grown from the original 26 acres plot to 125, with more than 75 rides and attractions.
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“What makes these types of parks that have been here for 50 years so special is the fact that now we’ve got grandparents bringing out grandkids that remember their first ride on some of these rides,” Summers said. “It’s a generational experience that's being passed down.”
Summers said that one of the reasons Valleyfair has endured is because it’s been building this multi-generation fanbase for decades.
“In current times, newer theme parks are having a little bit of a tough time surviving,” said Summers. Summers has had a career working for Six Flags and Cedar Fair before coming to Valleyfair three years ago. “But those that are established, they've got a past base, they've got people that are passionate about visiting.”
This year Valleyfair leaves the Six Flags umbrella and comes under the new ownership EPR Properties and run by Enchanted Parks. The park was originally owned and operated by Cedar Fair, which also ran Cedar Point in Ohio.
From the Ferris Wheel, Summers pointed across the park to a series of turquoise pools and snaking tubes, the water park area that has been known as “Liquid Lightning” and “Soak City.”
To mark the half-century milestone, Summers explained, Enchanted Parks has rebranded the water park as “Superior Shores” and, on May 23, opened two new attractions: Lighthouse Landing, “a towering speed-slide complex,” and Minnow Bay, a “family-friendly lagoon with eight kid-size slides.”
“That is such a phenomenal water park for Minnesota,” Summers said.
Summers exited the Ferris Wheel and Andy Bursey entered, taking a seat. Bursey, who was recently promoted to director of operations, looked over the park where he has worked for 20 years, starting as a ride operator for the High Roller in 2006.
“I’d like to clarify the rumor: High Roller did not come from Excelsior Park,” said Bursey, referring to the former amusement park that operated from 1926 to 1973 on Lake Minnetonka. “High Roller was built specifically for Valleyfair and opened with the park.”
Bursey added: “We did bring over the carousel from Excelsior Park, which opened over 100 years ago, but opened with us in 1976.”
Even with updates, additions and changes, older attractions remain popular at the park, like the Antique Cars, carousel and Tilt-A-Whirl, which on this May afternoon is filled with teenagers visiting the park on school field trips, a longstanding tradition.
The Tilt-A-Whirl came from Sellner Manufacturing, a company in Faribault started by Herbert Sellner, who invented the ride in 1926 (another anniversary!). The carousel is a hand-carved wooden ride originally built a century ago and crafted by famous carousel artisan Daniel Carl Müller.
And the most popular attractions?
Bursey says the Tilt-A-Whirl and classics such as the octopus-looking Monster (1977), the Scrambler (1976) and the Xtreme Swing (2006) remain favorites.
“Wild Thing and Renegade remain probably the two most popular,” said Bursey. The wooden Renegade is Valleyfair’s newest roller coaster, opening in 2007.
The teal and lime green Wild Thing — a “hypercoaster” because its main hill drops more than 200 feet — celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. When it opened in 1996, the year Bursey started, it was the 5th largest roller coaster in the world.
An old Valleyfair advertisement stated of Wild Thing: “Your life will flash before your eyes … but don’t worry. You’ll have three minutes to watch”
Bursey, who is from Maple Grove, grew up coming to Valleyfair before he became an employee. Now, he brings his daughters whose favorite rides are the Corkscrew, which became the park’s first looping rollercoaster when it opened in 1980, and the Linus’ Beetle Bugs. The latter is an original park ride, which was formerly known as the Bumble Bees and one of the first rides Bursey operated.
“It’s Minnesota’s park, and that’s what it really comes down to,” said Bursey, before exiting the Ferris Wheel.
To mark the 50th anniversary, fans can also dig deeper into the history of the park (did you know when the park opened it housed Atlantic bottlenose dolphins known as Skipper and Dolly?) in an exhibition opening May 27 at the Scott County Historical Society museum. It’s called “Ride On: 50 Years of Valleyfair.”
Correction (May 26, 2026): An earlier version of this story misidentified EPR Properties. The story has been updated.
