From Cyclone to Twister III: Ride Through Denver’s Roller Coaster History

Elitch Gardens unveiled Twister III: Storm Chaser last Friday, June 30, which still has the thrill ride’s classic features — like its ninety-foot drop and hundred-foot, pitch-black tunnel — but with some freshly made repairs and a major refurbishment.

The iconic wooden coaster had been closed since last year while the theme park gave it the newest facelift and tornado-chasing theme.

Twister III has the same track as Twister II, which is longer, taller and faster than the original Mr. Twister. Elitch Gardens upgraded the ride to Twister II after moving the park from Tennyson Street to downtown Denver in 1995.

Despite its makeover, Twister III is still the only roller coaster running in Colorado that gives passengers a hint of the past.

The rides at Elitch Gardens left a lot to be desired. When the Cyclone opened in 1940 at the now-115-year-old Lakeside Amusement Park, it was almost twice the height of the Wildcat and offered more turns and drops.

The Cyclone is the longest-running roller coaster in Colorado, but it stopped operating temporarily last year after the park was sued for a 2021 injury. Lakeside says the ride will stay closed indefinitely “due to maintenance.”

The Cyclone opened almost sixty years after the first roller coaster in the U.S. — the Switchback Railway — opened at Coney Island in 1884. That was just a few years before Elitch Gardens debuted on 38th Avenue and Tennyson Street.

The coaster had 2,800 feet of wooden track that dropped from as high as ninety feet and swung riders around a sharp curve at 55 miles per hour. Compared to others, it didn’t stand out at the time, but the Cyclone was faster than most other popular rides at the time, like the carousal and the Ferris wheel.

Fifteen years after the Cyclone opened, Lakeside Amusement Park followed up with the Wild Chipmunk, which opened in 1955 as the first steel-track roller coaster in Colorado. Steel tracks weren’t as popular as wooden tracks owing to their higher cost, but amusement parks eventually realized that steel tracks could offer more curves, vertical loops and speed because of the metal’s sturdiness.

The Wild Chipmunk was forty feet tall — half the height of the Cyclone — and only allowed two people to ride at a time. It traveled 20 mph compared with the 50-55 mph top speed of the Cyclone. However, the coaster barely had a foot of straight track on it, instead taking countless turns and dropping suddenly on angled tracks for a much wilder and more entertaining ride than the Cyclone’s broad curves could offer. 

Mr. Twister, which opened at Elitch Gardens in 1965, was similar to the Cyclone. Tragedy struck the same year when Star Yelland Jr., the seventeen-year-old son of famous sportcaster Star Yelland, died after falling from a different roller coaster at the park. 

Mr. Twister had a wooden track and was slightly longer than the Cyclone, with 3,000 feet of track. Both traveled at around 50 mph, and rides on either lasted about two minutes.

It would be the only roller coaster that Elitch Gardens would add to the park until 1990, when it bought the Rolling Tornado from an amusement park in Arkansas. When the Rolling Tornado was dismantled and brought to Elitch Gardens, it was renamed the Sidewinder.

The Sidewinder had a short 500-foot track, and instead of turns, it shot riders up a five-story vertical loop before swinging them backward at 45 miles per hour — breaking the mold of past Colorado roller coasters and hinting at the kind of thrill-seeker’s paradise that Elitch Gardens would become.

Elitch closed its doors at 38th Avenue and Tennyson Street in 1994 after 104 years in that location. It reopened in 1995 in downtown Denver, the first amusement park to open in an urban area in the U.S. in more than thirty years.

The park brought Mr. Twister and the Sidewinder with it, but Mr.Twister reopened with a new design as Twister II in 1995. It was a few feet taller to allow for a higher drop and added a longer track. Now named Twister III: Storm Chaser, it remains the only wooden-track roller coaster in the park. 

The steel tracks of the Mind Eraser started humming in 1997. With legs dangling and the track overhead, the Mind Eraser swung riders around in nonstop loops and dropped them ninety feet at top speeds of 55 miles per hour. In 1999, the Boomerang opened and is still the tallest roller coaster in Colorado. Like the Sidewinder, it rocketed riders back and forth at nearly 50 mph, but it added a 125-foot drop and spun riders upside down six times.

The Flying Coaster, which opened in 2002, took its riders up a five-story spiral and shot them down a twister track like a smaller version of the Mind Eraser. Then the Halfpipe opened in 2004. It had a simple design but was one of the most intimidating rides in the park. While riders are seated around a spinning circle, they get launched up the side of a U-shaped track and then speed down and up the other side. 

The Halfpipe was the last roller coaster that Elitch Gardens built in the park, with the exception of the Blazin’ Buckaroo, a kiddie coaster that opened in 2013.

Meanwhile, the Wild Chipmunk is still running at Lakeside Amusement Park. Although the Cyclone stopped running temporarily, the 83-year-old roller coaster was awarded a rare landmark designation in 2003 by American Coaster Enthusiasts, the largest club of amusement ride enthusiasts in the world, to honor its history.

Only 46 roller coasters in the U.S. have an ACE landmark designation — out of more than 800 roller coasters in the country — and the Cyclone is the only one in Colorado.