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After more than 50 years, the Six Flags America amusement park in Bowie, Maryland, will close its gates for the last time on Sunday.
This past May, Six Flags announced that this would be the last season for the amusement park and its water park, Hurricane Harbor.
A storied history
Billionaire and former presidential candidate Ross Perot was one of the early investors involved in what is now Six Flags America.
In July of 1974, the ABC television network’s attractions division opened ‘The Wildlife Preserve’, which was a drive-thru safari. The park did not take off, and in less than two years it was closed. In 1978, the park was sold to Jim Fowler, the host of ‘Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom’, and renamed it ‘Wild Country’. That park also closed after two seasons.
In 1981, the park reopened under the name ‘Wild World’, and over the next decade it would get rid of the animals and add rides, roller coasters and a water park. In 1992, the park would undergo another name change, thanks to its purchase by Premier Parks.
For the next six years, the amusement park was called ‘Adventure World’, until its parent company bought Six Flags. Since then, Six Flags America has been where families from the D.C. area have spent their summers.
The park went through some turmoil in 2005, during then-Washington NFL team owner Dan Snyder’s time as the chairman of its board. Snyder was removed as chairman after Six Flags filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2010.
