How can theme parks best honor and preserve their history?

The useful part

It deserves to be remembered for the technical innovation that it brought to the coaster industry, and it also deserves to be remembered for the problems that it had. Part of the purpose in remembering, teaching, and preserving history is so that we will not forget the lessons that history should be teaching us. X2 and its predecessor X combined several elements that have become popular in modern roller coasters, including a face-down 90-degree dive drop, wing-mounted coaster seats, and programmed seat rotation.

How it works

• As Disneyland and the parks that followed it approach and pass the age of the average American lifespan, the question of what parks should do to preserve their history will reson...
• X2's legacy lives on whenever a guest boards a coaster that has improved upon those elements and walks away a fan.
• The lessons of X2 have been learned, and now it is up to those new coasters to leave their own legacies and teach their own lessons.
• No one needs to see the skeleton of X2 looming over Magic Mountain to remember what the coaster did and what it meant to the industry and its fans.

Details worth keeping

Six Flags Magic Mountain did the right thing by retiring X2. As I wrote in my Orange County Register column today, theme parks need to be more aggressive about closing rough and painful thrill rides, especially when those rides develop a history of injuring guests with no pre-existing medical conditions. we have covered that topic extensively here on Theme Park Insider.