Dollywood's newest attraction celebrates the great outdoors and the natural beauty of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a place close to Dolly’s heart. Dolly said,
"My new Adventure Mountain is just one of the many fun and exciting additions I have in store for folks during Dollywood’s 25th anniversary season."
Adventure Mountain covers two acres of mountainside terrain in Dollywood’s Wilderness Pass area. It boasts more than 140 obstacles located a few inches above ground to some obstacles more than 36 feet in the air.
Wilderness Pass is home to Dollywood’s award-winning coasters Thunderhead and Mystery Mine.
Dolly’s love for the Smoky Mountains was shown again at Dollywood with the addition of the Mystery Mine steel coaster. Dolly, dressed as a mountain miner, announced to crowds that through a first rider auction more than $35,000 was raised to benefit her Imagination Library.
The new Mystery Mine ride takes riders through an abandoned mine and tells the story of superstitions believed by Smoky Mountain miners. Dolly said,
"I've had to keep my big mouth shut about the Mystery Mine, but I can tell you, it's the most exciting thing to come out of these hills in a long, long time. And I've got a few more tricks up my sleeve for this ride that I'm not telling you about, but I can guarantee you they're well worth the wait!"
The "tricks" Dolly referred to are a 1,811-foot track featuring a hair-raising 95-degree, 85-foot vertical drop as one of its many maneuvers.
Marking the largest capital investment in the company’s history, Dollywood’s new ride for the 2007 season is the $17.5 million Mystery Mine steel roller coaster. Mystery Mine brings a one-acre expansion of Dollywood’s Timber Canyon area, also home to Thunderhead™, the world’s number one wooden coaster.
In a continuation of the area’s lumber camp theme, the Mystery Mine ride is set in an abandoned coal mine where eight-passenger mine carts immediately plunge riders into darkness before continuing along a 1,811-foot track through the ruins of an early 1900’s mine. Dolly said,
“I’ve had to keep my big mouth shut about the Mystery Mine, but I can tell you now, it’s the most exciting thing to come out of these hills in a long, long time. And I’ve got a few more tricks up my sleeve that I’m still not telling you about until it opens at Dollywood next year, but I can guarantee you it’s well worth the wait!”
During the ride, passengers encounter several high-speed twists as the mine cars maneuver their way through a series of uncertain encounters including a fall from a collapsed trestle and a plunge into an abandoned tunnel. Mystery Mine, the first ride of its kind in the U.S., also incorporates state-of-the-art special effects.
