Opryland USA (later called Opryland Themepark and typically called simply Opryland) was a theme park located in Nashville, Tennessee. It operated from 1972 until 1997. During the late 1980s nearly 2.5 million people visited the park annually.

History

1970s

Billed as the "Home of American Music," Opryland USA featured a large number of musical shows along with the typical rides such as roller coasters, carousels, and the like. It was opened by the now-defunct National Life and Accident Insurance Company, a Nashville insurer best-known for operating WSM-AM-FM-TV and the Grand Ole Opry. The Opry itself moved to an adjacent site, the Grand Ole Opry House, from downtown's Ryman Auditorium in 1974. (However, music at the park was not limited to country music; there were jazz and pop-themed shows as well).

Shortly before opening for the 1975 season, Opryland, located along the banks of the Cumberland River, fell victim to a large flood that covered most of the park and was as deep as sixteen feet in some locations. The park's opening was delayed by a month and several animals in the petting zoo were killed by the floodwaters.

Opryland became extremely successful during the mid-1970s, and by the 1977 season the park was drawing nearly 2 million guests annually. Attendance continued to climb into the 1980s.

In 1977, a large, resort-style hotel was built next door to the park, and the Opryland Hotel (now called Gaylord Opryland) has expanded several times to become the largest non-casino hotel in the United States.

1980s - 1990s

In the early 1980s, National Life was taken over by Texas-based insurer American General (now part of the American International Group). American General, not at all interested in operating a theme park or broadcasting interests, attempted to sell all of the National Life properties including WSM-AM-FM-TV, Opryland, Opryland Hotel, and the Grand Ole Opry as one, approaching companies such as MCA, The Marriott Corporation and Anheuser-Busch. While many of the companies showed interest in one aspect of Opryland, such as the theme park alone or the radio station, none were willing to buy the entire complex. American General began to feel that the only way to sell Opryland would be to split it up into separate entities.

Suddenly, the Gaylord Broadcasting Company of Oklahoma City stepped in and purchased the entire Opryland property in 1982. It also bought the WSM radio stations; it would have bought WSM-TV (now WSMV) as well had it not already been at the television ownership limit at the time. After the purchase, the company changed its name to "Gaylord Entertainment Company". Ed Gaylord, the then controlling figure of Gaylord Entertainment, was a huge fan of the Opry and weighed in on the decision to purchase Opryland.

Annual changes were made to the park to continue to attract local Nashvillians as well as out-of-town visitors. Large attractions such as the General Jackson Showboat, new roller coasters, and water rides were installed on a fairly regular basis until 1989, with the opening of the "Chaos" roller coaster. The next large attraction to open would be The Hangman roller coaster in 1995.

In the mid 1980s, "Trickets" (three-day admission tickets for one price) were introduced and large numbers of season passes were sold to residents of the Nashville area. In the mid 1990s, Opryland became the "official destination of NASCAR".

In the early 1980s Gaylord Entertainment Company took over National Life's previous efforts of starting a cable network, and The Nashville Network ("TNN") was born. TNN became a television network dedicated entirely to country music. For years, its main recording facilities were located on-site at Opryland, and the theme park was often featured on the network as a concert venue for country music stars. Also, beginning in the early-1990s, as a nod to TNN's NASCAR coverage as well as Opryland's official designation with NASCAR, the annual "TNN Salute to Motorsports" event would take place over a weeklong period. This included numerous motorsports exhibits as well as meet-and-greets with racing personalities.

Also, to entice out-of-town guests to come, package deals including rooms at the hotel, tickets to Opryland, and admission to the Grand Ole Opry were made.

In 1994, the park's official name was changed to "Opryland Themepark". The "Opryland USA" name was designated as the destination's name, to include all of Gaylord Entertainment's Nashville properties. For example: Opryland Hotel, Opryland Themepark, and the Grand Ole Opry were all components of Opryland USA, as were the Ryman Auditorium and Wildhorse Saloon, which are located a few miles away in downtown Nashville.

Shuttering

Opryland, however, was severely handicapped by its location. The park was located on a triangular tract of land. The Pennington Bend of the Cumberland River was on one side, Briley Parkway was on another, and the Opryland Hotel was on the third. This meant that not only was the site subject to occasional flooding but also that the park could not expand to include new attractions as consumer preferences changed. Opryland was forced to remove older attractions in order to add new ones. By the time Opryland closed, it had reached 200 acres in size and had nowhere else to grow. The company, at one time, explored purchasing land on the other side of the river and providing a bridge or tram service.

As the 1990s wore on, Opryland Hotel continued to expand onto the remaining available land, further trapping the theme park. Also, Nashville's climate made year-round operations almost impossible; seasons were largely limited to weekends in the late fall and early spring and daily in the summer. Seasonal workers became hard to find, and Gaylord found itself with a labor shortage. They began to employ many immigrants from Latin America and elsewhere. Attendance plateaued, and, by 1997, Gaylord management decided that the Opryland property would no longer make a rate of return equal to that desired for its properties and was unlikely ever to return to doing so. Management decided the park should be replaced by a property which made year-round usage of the site. The rides were sold and the park demolished; the site is now occupied by the Opry Mills mall, which now has no connection to Gaylord other than the licensed "Opry" name.

Some also cite the rise of Dolly Parton's Dollywood theme park in east Tennessee as a reason for Opryland’s attendance plateau. During the early 1990s, the two parks competed fiercely with each other, as both were labeled “show parks” and attracted a similar demographic range. During this time many feel Opryland attempted to shed the "show park" image, as its advertising began to emphasize the rides over the shows and other attractions.

The park closed permanently on December 31, 1997 following the "Christmas in the Park" season. The decision to close the park and replace it with a mall was made public in October 1997. The 1997 "Christmas in the Park" season was billed as a "last chance" for Nashvillians to see Opryland, though it came as a shock to many to see the larger attractions already being dismantled. The park's closing was not widely publicized outside of Middle Tennessee and interstate signs directing drivers to Opryland were not removed. Due to this, tourists continued to show up looking for Opryland, only to find the park closed. The signs have since been replaced with signs that indicate Opry Mills.

Demolition and beyond

All five roller coasters and many other large attractions were sold to Premier Parks and moved to a field near Indianapolis, Indiana where the company was to build a new theme park. Those plans were soon scrapped when Premier Parks purchased Six Flags. The pieces of Opryland's attractions sat rusting in the Indiana field until 2002, when the site was sold. Some of the flat rides were sold for scrap metal, while the fate of many of the larger attractions remains unknown, although at least two of Opryland's former coasters (The Hangman and Rock n' Roller Coaster) found new life at Six Flags parks around the United States under different names. One of the Wabash Cannonball's cars appeared at a park in Europe as part of a Halloween display.

In February 1998, the remaining park souvenirs were sold at discount prices inside tents set up in the parking lot, in a fashion similar to a post-flood "fire sale" in 1975.

The themepark site was cleared and paved into a parking lot for a shopping mall called Opry Mills by July 1999. Opry Mills itself opened to the public on May 12, 2000.

The "Opryland USA" name disappeared permanently in 2001 when Gaylord repositioned itself, and all the Nashville properties were bundled into the newly renamed "Gaylord Opryland Resort".

Most traces of the park are gone, and even the hills and valleys of the park are now flattened and in fact are now a parking lot. The front gate is now the back wall of the former Tower Records location, and the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster's spot is now partially occupied by Regal Cinemas. However, along the sidewalk in the trees between the Opry Mills parking lot and the Gaylord Opryland Resort, sections of the old "Grizzly River Rampage" water ride are visible. This will, too, soon be demolished, as Gaylord has announced plans to expand the hotel onto this land.

Gaylord Admits No Reason for Opryland Closing

In 2004, The Tennessean published a statement by Gaylord Entertainment claiming that current company executives had found no evidence that previous management ever had a business plan for Opryland, let alone any strategic analysis that led to closing it, and that no compelling reasons had been found for the park's closure. Most of the Opryland-era executives left Gaylord Entertainment early in the decade when the company restructured itself into a more hospitality-oriented company.

A New Opryland?

Nashville's tourist economy has yet to recover fully from the loss of a major seasonal attraction as there has not been a comparable property opened (as of 2007) to in any way replace Opryland. Several developers have floated plans for a new Nashville-area theme park. To date, none have come to fruition.

Rumors of a new Gaylord-owned theme park resurfaced in late 2006, as Gaylord Entertainment petitoned to reclassify 105 acres it owns near the former site of Opryland Themepark to include "Commercial Attractions". Analysts say, however, that a new park the size of Opryland (which at 200 acres was considered relatively small) would not fit on the 105-acre lot. The company unsuccessfully attempted to buy more than 50 adjacent acres of land owned by Two Rivers Baptist Church in 2006.

See also

• WSM-AM
• Grand Ole Opry
• Opryland Hotel
• The Nashville Network (TNN)
• General Jackson Showboat
• Nashville, Tennessee
• Opry Mills

External links

• ThrillHunter - a site devoted to preserving Opryland USA's history
• Opryland Radio USA - Live365 internet radio station that plays music from the Opryland theme park.
• Memories of Opryland Yahoo! Group
• Opryland USA Timeline

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