Lightning Lagoon is a project that received prominent growth recently due to its niche steampunk/art deco inspired architecture and theme crossing technology, engineering, and nature. It was my utopia to envision a world where human creation worked in harmony with the environment rather than at its expense. The park mostly operated in-house attractions by my design before a large investment was made for the construction of a new thrill coaster. The new ride was named Electric Enigma, a Gerstlauer-made “Eurofighter” roller coaster themed to a mysterious encounter that led to a power plant’s ultimate meltdown. It was a successful attraction due to the surprises and theming throughout the custom layout. The ride featured many destroyed machines and near-miss elements that were caused by the entity’s calamity, and finished off with a beyond vertical dive off of a building narrowly escaping death. The only other roller coaster was an in house dark ride/family roller coaster that was themed to renewable energy, but this ride was not very well liked for the lack of airtime and boring theme. It seemed guests were much more attracted to the edgy, more dangerous sensations, which redirected my interest to use the large plot for a new project guests will see as they enter the park’s midway. It was around this time that the manufacturing company Rocky Mountain Construction began converting old, crappy rides into flagship attractions for a very reasonable price. These rides were quite gnarly and noteworthy for leg amputations via excessive negative g’s which is exactly what the park needs to continue attracting thrill seekers. I contacted Alan Schilke, a prolific engineer that designs most of RMC’s roller coasters, and explained some of my ideas for this project. I told him that I wanted the iron-horse treatment done to a lackluster roller coaster I designed and I wanted it to have a launch because it was an element I was lacking in my park. I described the theme to him and a design concept I conjured quite some time ago; I pictured a world where the elements that once held omnipotence on the natural cycle were depleted and rendered unusable due to pollution and atmospheric deterioration. But at last, mankind once again played the forces of nature themselves by compartmentalizing and harnessing the elements. It was a portal that would be hoisted into the sky and would use solar energy to regulate the water cycle and emulate weather; including the power to emulate lightning. The ride would be called “Lightning Rod”, and due to the highly impractical nature of this concept, I figured it would be quite amusing to theme a ride to quite literally riding the lightning. I could tell that my pitch was on the nose, for I could hear Schilke’s heavy breathing on the other end. Schilke, seething, said that RMC does not convert steel coasters due to electrical infetterence that wooden supports negate. In all of my past engineering experience I am fairly convinced that he made that up, but I persisted anyway. After some time and bribing he got back to me and said the design was complete. He claimed it was his finest work to date. We later met up for him to go over the concept he made with the resources allotted. He pulled out and unfolded what appears to be a Chilli’s napkin in which he seemed to have sketched the ride layout in crayon. He explained some of the elements; at the base of the lift is the portal I designed, in which riders would go “really fast” to the top, piercing the large building that looks over the park. It represented a bolt of lightning striking the very top of the tower, but at an inclined angle due to the direction in which the portal model is facing. He drew some keyhole towers that he thought would look cool and had the ride pass over several buildings before finishing with a “euphoric quad down”. It was an overwhelming project, but it was an offer I couldn’t refuse. Construction began and finished fairly quickly considering it looked like 3 maybe 4 people were working on it and only one of them seemed to be using tools. The ride did not raise attendance much at all and breaks down more than it is open, but it’s still really cool I think.

POV: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8SrCSDpqY8E