The American Adventure (at one time briefly known as American Adventure World) was a theme park in Derbyshire, England, quite close to both Nottingham and Derby on the edge of Ilkeston. The park for many years had a number of large white-knuckle attractions, but in 2005 was re-themed as a 'family' park aimed at the under-14 market. In January 2007 the owners announced that it would not reopen for the new season, and the rides would be sold off.
The American Adventure, built on an area of Country Park which had been subject to deep seam and opencast coal mining, was originally opened in June 1987 with an Old West and Cowboys vs. Native Americans theme. A theme park called Britannia Park had been opened on the site in 1985 but closed after just 10 weeks, insolvent, and its founder Peter Kellard was later imprisoned for fraud.[1] Derbyshire County Council purchased the site in 1986 and sold it to Granada, who in June 1987 opened the American Adventure, heralded as Britain's Major New Theme Park. Initial attractions at the American Adventure included the two-drop log flume, the runaway mine train, the Buffalo Stampede roller coaster, a pirate ship, and a ferris wheel.
1989 saw the opening of the Missile roller coaster, a Vekoma Boomerang coaster which was at the time voted the number one roller coaster in the UK. Shortly before this there was the Canadian themed addition of the Rocky Mountain Rapids. In the same year, the Assault Course round in the junior version of The Krypton Factor (known as Young Krypton) was filmed. In 1993 the log-flume was extended to have a third drop and was renamed from "Cherokee Falls" to "Nightmare Niagara". The extra drop made it the tallest log-flume in the UK throughout its operational life (this record has now reverted back to Loggers Leap at Thorpe Park as this ride used to hold the record before the new drop was added). In 1995 the Iron Wolf roller coaster (now located in a Polish theme park and known as the tic tac tornado)[2] was installed, which broke away from the American theming of the park and was instead themed around the ITV gameshow Gladiators.
From 1996 onwards the park began to decline, and in 1997 Granada sold it to a company called Ventureworld which was headed by John Broome, a former Alton Towers developer. During the reign of Broome as owner of the park the only noticeable change was the addition of minor or upcharge attractions, and the slow decline of many of the park's attractions.
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