IRONVALE PARK

IRONVALE PARK

The Lightning Frontier

Guests will enter through a Telegraph Relay Outpost that is built to look like a weather beaten wooden station on the edge of the frontier. Visitors will hear the clicking of Morse code echoes and the static electricity of exposed wires above them. There are maps and newspapers plasters along the walls talking about Western expansion and how the telegraph lines reached California. Guests enter the Transmission Chamber which is a massive copper dome that is surrounded by coils and giant generators. The ride vehicles, or Spark Runners, look like hybrid stagecoach engines and are powered by glowing telegraph batteries and random tubing. The ride is four passengers in a row and has control levers, side dials, and pulsing buttons. After guests get on, the begin to move forward as a telegraph operator appears on a holographic screen, telling them that they are the fastest dispatch riders, travelling through the wire itself. It says to take the message to the East Coast and make sure to keep the line alive. The lights will flicker and suddenly shut off as the riders can hear a charge run through the room and feel the floor beneath them hum. A countdown begins as the Spark Runner launches forward in a blast. The vehicle rockets through a dark tunnel with streaks of lightning streaking past them. Riders have essentially become the signal and the ride goes up and down as they dart between glowing telegraph poles and sparks random leap out. The speed builds and builds as riders twist through bursts of light. The ride slows and emerges into an outdoor desert canyon, winding through sandstone cliffs and trestles. Lightning bolts are illuminated across the sky as the signal wire is crossing through harsh West terrain. Riders can still hear the beeping of Morse code and a translation appears on the screen of the cart, stating that the line is down in Nevada and to have the repair team on standby. The ride goes back indoors as it enters a storm-damaged relay station. Sparks flash at the riders as the track slows, and steam bursts from ruptured pipes. The holographic conductor appears again saying that they’ve lost contact and the prairie lines have gone dark, and that the riders must reroute through the mountain. The vehicle is jerked backwards in reverse, and it races through a collapsing tunnel of random machinery and broken wires. The ride stabilizes returns back forwards and ascends a hill with glowing telegraph poles, and at the top, riders can see the New England industrial landscape at the edge of the frontier down below. The ride descends the mountain peak towards the town at high speeds, until it finally descends and the ride comes to a slow speed as riders watch the telegraph poles blink one by one and hear the words, message received. The vehicle slowly enters the final station. The Lightning Frontier represents how the telegraph revolutionized communication and connected the American frontier to the bustling cities in the East. It expanded across the continent and became the first techn ology to transmit information faster than transportation, by turning communication into electricity. The ride turns that innovation into an experience and allows guests to become the signal that carries messages across the frontier to the industrialized East. Once the ride begins, riders experience the telegraph’s journey through the wire itself with twisting and flashing tunnels as well as the high speed launch in order to represent and show the speed and power of the message transmission across the western frontier. The outdoor desert canyon is to represent the physical and environmental challenges that come when they had to string thousands of miles of copper wire through any terrain, and the damaged relay station is to symbolize western expansions unpredictability with constant repair and adaptation. The final descent towards the New England industrial skyline with a clear border between West land and East land is just to exaggerate the regional differences and also represent the success of uniting an expanding frontier with the East. This is able to reflect the telegraph’s broader legacy on how it enabled faster communication and more efficient trade, and changed the perspectives of time and distance for Americans.

Knead for the South Ft. The Little Reaper

Various different types of bread, pastries, and baked goods. Whole Wheat Toast is their most popular menu item. Wheat was cultivated primarily in the South due to its sustainability and the longer growing seasons (can be grown off-season). It also was made a profitable cash crop, which benefitted the Southern economy overall. There are wheat patches that grace the ground around the port, and form mazes and fun for people of all ages. On this mini-port, there are carriages drawn by horses with carts that were shaped like ancient-roman carriages but with the design of mechanical reapers. The carriages go through the paths on the wheat fields and “collect” a row of artificial wheat by “cutting it down” before it goes into the slanted platform for gathering on the back of the carriage. This is how the actual mechanical reaper worked, as this type of method was often used for efficient gathering and harvesting of grain crops like wheat. During the ride, the person drawing the carriage also explains the importance of it, describes the mechnical details, and how it served as a blueprint for the modern reaper. At the end of the ride, everybody gets a free coupon for a sample of bread to taste their “harvests”. This is meant to show the process of how the mechnical reaper collected grain crops, along with figuring out the different gadgets inside it too. The process of how the “reaper” is cutting down the “wheat stalks” and storing it is similar to how it worked back in the day. The efficiency of it, as seen through the fast speed of the horse and the rate at which the bucket was filled with “wheat”, which highlights the superb rate at which the mechanical reaper worked. Previously, harvesting crops by using scythes was hard work and time consuming for farmers. Also, with the connection to the present-day invention of more modern reapers, people can draw the conclusion on how and why it evolved to dominate the grain industry, especially in the early-mid 1800s in the South. Therefore, this bread stand is the most popular, and sells the most. It is both educational and rewarding as the person gets to taste the success of their trip by receiving a free bread tasting.

Plow Pull Off

Guests will grip a handle attached to a plow blade embedded in soil trays. There are different levels of soil trays, with the New England Rock, Prairie Clay, and Virginia Fields from hardest to easiest to sow. There will be pull sensors to measure the force of ‘tillage’ per person. Digital readouts/strength and amount and time spent pulling will be calculated into a number of Acres Plowed with Deere’s plow underneath there would be a small readout for Acres Plowed with wooden plow (significantly lower). A screen above the player shows a digital landscape as it transitions from untouched prairie to farmland plowed and if they win, crops will grow (and if they lose their crops wither). The top scorer will trigger the Deere Green light and a steam whistle will blow. This represents how Deere’s invention revolutionized American agriculture because it translates the physical act of labor into mechanical efficiency. Farmers originally used wooden or cast-iron plows that were hard to break through most soils, especially in the Midwest, and damaged a lot of their plows. Deere’s polished steel plow is more efficient and allowed farmers to settle and farm land that was thought unusable. In this carnival game, the visitors can experience the transformation and impact. The different Soil Tray difficulties, such as New England Rock, Prairie Clay, and Virginia Fields, reflect the different regional farming conditions of 19th century America but while the plow may seem harder to pull on, the readout and final values are all similar because this symbolizes how the plow made any soil in any land arable. The pull sensors and digital readout can convert each player’s physical effort into measurable Acres Plowed, to quantitatively put a value to the difference between the new plow and old plow. The dual display comparing the plows just reinforces the leap that made westward expansion and a rise of commercial farming possible. As the digital landscape shifts from untouched land to fertile farmland paired with the animation of crops growing or withering is a visual representation of the successes and failures on the frontier despite new technology. The Deere Green light and steam whistle is also a nod to the inventor’s inventions. This carnival game is able to connect the physical experience with historical meaning, symbolizing the mechanization of labor and allows visitors to learn about the strain of early farming and also see how one invention reshaped the landscape, economically and literally, of the nation.

Undergo the Cotton Gin! Ft. Eli Whitney

A ride with two separate lanes with cars of two different colors. One lane is the cotton fibers (white and fluffy looking), and another is the seeds (brown). There are mini speakers nearby that blast out (with the voice of Whitney) the introduction of himself, then the cotton gin: its structure and why was it used. They start together at the beginning of the ride and climb up the slope first. This relates to the drying part when they are still together. At the top, they reach an elevation where they feel the blowing of air, signifying the “cleaning” part of the process. Then, they separate out into two different directions. The cotton fibers go left and down a speedy lane that has many cute props of cutouts of cotton-made clothing, and goes down a very fun and relatively smooth turns too. The speakers now talk about what the cotton is used for (clothing, sheets, and international cotton trade), and use an excited voice with vivid imagery to convey the softness of the Southern cotton. This symbolizes the use of cotton that bolstered a smooth uprising of the Southern economy and the process of making nice things as well, such as cotton clothing items. It ends in a tunnel that is decorated with cloud-like cotton and a very pleasing background with pastel colors and dancing lights. On the other hand, the ‘seed’ cart underwent a more bumpy and chaotic rail. They are considered the unwanted/ disregarded part of the cotton gin process. The speaker talks in a more hushed and hurried tone as it describe what they use the seeds for: replanting and making cottonseed oil). It burrowed hard into an underground tunnel and experienced sprays of water as “moisture” to prepare the ‘seed’ to undergo another cycle of cotton growing. This was to ensure the continuation of cotton-planting as a viable part of the Southern economy. It ends in a tunnel that is dimly lit and decorated with soil-like textures on the walls, and it’s very cool, like the soil the seeds get put back into. In both rides, the attendants that lead the group out are African Americans who are actors (purely actors for the sole purpose of educational) who have makeup and clothing of slaves back then to symbolize the growth of slavery and the hardships they went through because of the invention of the cotton gin. This is meant to educate riders on how cotton revolutionized the Southern economy and make them experience what it was like being an actual cotton in this process (2 different components: seed vs cotton fibers). It was invented because planters faced a lot of difficulty hand-planting cotton and it was very labor intensive→ less profitability. By using the Cotton Gin to separate seeds from cotton fibers, it made the production of cotton faster and more profitable. The addition of having Eli Whitney, an American inventor and manufacturer, famous for inventing the Cotton Gin that made cotton profitable. This led to the expansion of slavery, as symbolized by the African American attendants, and the increased production of cotton, with the visual addition of cotton products on the tracks. it will help add to the understanding of the effects of the cotton gin in every sector. However, this also led to many economic and social problems (slavery vs. free men) that eventually led to the Civil War. This was because although there were mass amounts of enslaved Africans, the white male plantation owners were the ones that ultimately benefitted from the growth of these cash crops.

Ironvale Railway

The Ironvale Railway is the main mode of transportation throughout the park and connects all regions, Mechanica, Harvest Row, Frontier’s Reach, and The Exchange. The railway symbolizes the railroad boom of the19th century America that revolutionized transportation and commerce throughout the U.S. Similar to how real railroads linked factories in the North, farms in the South, and ranches and expansion in the West, the Ironvale Railway physically connects all these sections into one network. Guests are able to travel smoothly between the lands of Ironvale, and the railway represents how innovation and transportation connects an entire nation. It is designed like a classic steam locomotive reflecting the era it was invented to match the aesthetic of the park and looks better than the metro train.

Grain Ol' Time

Proper sit-down restaurant that serves many hearty rice dishes such as rice and peas, rice and okra, and other one-pot meals that were heavily inspired by African Americans who labored in the South. This highlights the impact of African Americans not only on the Southern economy but their culture as well. Therefore, rice played a huge role in the Southern society, by filling bellies, both figuratively (money) and literally. The impact of rice as a cash crop was crucial in the trade the South participated in. This will add to the Southern theme of the focus on agriculture and how it impacted their economy/ trade system positively.

Phantom Sleep

Phantom Sleep is a prickly psychologically-scarring experience that pays homage to the horror of being the basis for a psychological experiment. Riders take on the world of immersive virtual reality through compression chairs that mimic the experience of surgery. It begins with burning feelings across the body to simulate the initial pains during surgery which quickly dulls after a puff of gas hits riders square in the face. The pain continues to go up and down in intensity. Moments of shock and simulations of pain scare riders but are relatively painless compared to surgery without anesthesia. These describe the experience of the first people who underwent ether anesthesia during surgery. Prior to the early 1800s, surgery was a painful, terrible experience for all involved because there was no way to dull the pain for patients. Ether anesthesia was a new medical innovation that was researched and tested by multiple scientists and chemists, the most famous demonstration done by William Morton on Edward Abott’s neck mass in 1846, with the intention of making patients numb to the pain of surgery. This invention revolutionized surgery because it took it from a cruel, last resort in an effort to save a life to humans, and a frequent life-saving tactic. Surgeons went from performing one surgery a month in hesitation to performing hundreds in days. However surgery didn’t become entirely painfree with the first patients experiencing dulled renditions of the pain rather than the full extent and increments of pain and screaming out. This resulted in ethical questions, and the state of uncertainty that comes with innovation and being a part of innovation is part of the basis for this ride. This horror depicts the fear and uncertainty that patients and doctors on the frontiers of innovation dealt with on a daily basis and how the newly found medical innovations were both dangerous and beneficial. It puts riders in the positions of patients and makes them truly feel the change between before and after ether experiments, since the pain after will make them understand the extent of the pain that comes from operating on a patient who isn’t numb. This also impacted the lives of people in American society by inspiring academic debates, modern surgery and innovations within surgery because of the possibilities it offered.

Meet Francis Cabot Lowell

Francis Cabot Lowell was an American innovator who created the first integrated textile mill in the United States to combine all the steps of cloth production into one factory. He combined new technology with a new labor model, like young, unmarried women to increase production efficiency in textile mills and laid the groundwork for new production techniques and a new working class through the jobs his factories offered people from different backgrounds. He embodies the spirit of innovation like Whiteny and the historical spirit of hustling and vision that characterizes America but also shows the exploitation and underlying harms that came from inventions like the Lowell System, especially to workers like the women.

Steamboat & Sunshines

A large boat that goes on an artificial river (loops around the “southern” area) surrounding the entire Southern section. It is a whole experience- afternoon teas, coffee shops, kids' play area, viewing ports, gift shops, and gambling places. This is meant to include a variety of different people/cultures, commodities, and trade, which connected to the original purpose of the steamboat, which also helped move goods and people. It stops at the ports of different farmers who cultivate different types of crops. This will add to the Southern theme of the focus on agriculture and how it impacted their economy/ trade system positively. Prior to the invention of steamboats, traveling upstream on rivers was difficult, and it was hard for farmers to transport their goods at great distances due to their perishability, along with the time constraint. Post-invention, the Steamboat was used to help farmers reach new customer bases further, which was key to the growing cotton industry (as a cash crop). The river is based on the Mississippi River, which played a key role in the transportation of goods with steamboats during this time period. The dropping of people off/ picking up on different ports with different types of crops adds to the knowledge on which cash crops were grown, and also how they affected locals’ diets from the considerations of sustainability and ethnicity. Also, as Southern did primarily focus on the growth of crops, the many restaurants/ opportunities to indulge add to our theme, especially since they use historically accurate crops. The Steamboat itself also connected these “farmers” from these various crop sectors into one big interconnected trade web- increasing economy, cultural diffusion, and social gatherings. This shows the grandeur of the impact of Steamboats on Southern life.

The Iron Market

Throughout the park, guests may participate in an interactive economic arcade game that mirrors 19th-century America economic trade structure. Each guest upon entering the park will receive 15 Tokens that they can use the play carnival games or trade for Commodities. Each Commodity is represented by a collectible card and is unique to the region of the park you are at. For example, Commodities of the North would be iron, textiles, and machine parts. The South has cotton, tobacco, and sugar. The West has timber, cattle, and land. There will be carnival style mini games across the park where guests can play in order to earn Commodities using Tokens. The games are styled differently depending on the area of the park you are in. In the North, there are more ‘value per unit’ games, while the South can give you more ‘volume’, and the West has unpredictable jackpots. If a guest would like to play a game but has no Tokens, they can use a certain number of Commodities from other areas of the Park to play the game. For example, if you wanted to play a game in the South, you would have to use North or West tokens. Besides carnival games, there are Bargain Booths that are themed as trading posts or stock exchanges where the visitors can barter for commodities. This demonstrates the way goods from the North, South, and West were exchanged and facilitated and the whole system is able to symbolize capitalism and specialization.The Iron Market represents the interconnected regional relationship between their economies as well as the rise of industrial capitalism. Each guest is able to act as a participant in trade, while also showcasing the North, South, and West specialized production sectors. The North’s Commodities are based on the region’s industrialization and mechanized manufacturing, the South’s Commodities on its plantation agriculture and export based wealth, and the West’s Commodities on the expansion, settlement, and resource extraction. The trading, bartering, and the competition with carnival games for Tokens also represent how Americans operated with an increasingly capitalistic economy, and success depends on efficiency and the exchange of goods across regions. By playing this game, guests experiences how goods, capital, and labor are circulated in an interdependent system. The fluctuating reward rates in each region also demonstrate the unequal but profitable opportunities created by industrial progress and market expansion.

Meet Eli Whitney

Eli Whiteny is a well-known and revolutionary American inventor who changed the trajectory of the cotton and textile industry through the making of the cotton gin (which as well as laid the groundwork for a groundbreaking new style of manufacturing through interchangeable parts and an assembly line process, both of which are still used to this day. He embodies the spirit of innovation that overtook the US and uses that spirit to support the manufacturing needs of the industry at the time, much like other great American inventors. Since the north is all about innovation, efficiency, and profits, his inventions helped fuel the change in culture and provide the backbone for what the north looked like at the time

Gunsmith Gauntlet

The Gunsmith Gauntlet is a harrowing, pressure-filled competition designed to showcase the revolutionary inventions of interchangeable parts and the colt revolver, created by the one and only…Eli Whitney. Contestants have to pick 5 random people out of the crowd at the Gunsmith Gauntlet and together you must assemble colt revolvers at the fastest possible speed to make as many as possible. Teams of 5 will be competing against one brave individual who can earn the coveted prize of $100 if they beat the team of 5 at assembling the most colt revolvers. If the team of 5 wins, they will each receive cold revolver key chain prizes. This carnival/fair fame commemorates the transformation illustrated by the use of interchangeable parts in manufacturing which drastically increased production efficiency and revolutionized the manufacturing process by becoming the basis for mass production, lower costs, quick repairs, and assembly through an effort to revolutionize the tedious manufacturing process. It also provided the logistics to create assembly lines to increase production efficiency even more. The importance of the concepts is shown in the colt revolver, where its significance is based on the fact that it validates the efficiency provided by interchangeable parts. Identical parts could be produced and assembled in an assembly line procedure to quickly turn out guns rather than be crafted specifically by artisans. It provided the proof for this idea to essentially be used in larger projects like Ford for cars and other factory systems later in history. This game is located in Mechanica because it was integral to the manufacturing process and was designed to be a fair game because of the idea that the “best man” wins. Since the assembly line approach will keep proving to accomplish more, more people will lose faith in the single person method and transfer over in the same way it happened in history. Everyone’s playing to win in the same way that industry was in the early 1800s which is why these inventions were revolutionary. It helps players understand what common folk and rich elites alike saw when they looked at the plethora of opportunities offered. This provided the necessary means for changing workplace leads by allowing for more jobs in unskilled labor and creating a growing middle class, and as a byproduct increasing class inequality and social tensions.

The Daily Grind-Wich

The Daily Grind-which is an up-and-coming restaurant in Ironvale that produces sandwiches at record rates because of its revolutionary assembly process. Visitors are given sandwiches that are made by employees in an assembly line style where they build their own sandwiches from identical parts and are not allowed to choose what to remove and what to put in. There is no customization but they get their order as fast as possible, much like in the theme of north manufacturing. Workers who make the sandwiches are only given food every two days and work hard daily, which is why the “Grind” aspect of the name is a homage too, much like underpaid, and terribly treated working class during the market revolution. Shortbread with jam is also offered but only to those who can afford it like the middle class show accessibility of consumer goods to more people but still not lower classes. There is also a Tea House with treats like Cornish Pasties and Ginger snaps where women can go. Most middle class women are forced to only sit here, and other women are supposed to sit here as well but there is a backdoor for working class women to help out with serving sandwiches. We also have sewing machine cookies that used to be rare but are not quickly made.

Rise & Recoil

Rise and Recoil is a thriller rollercoaster experience with several ups and downs to showcase the ups and downs of industrialization, both for the people and the economy. It starts out as a flat black monotone track to showcase how tedious manufacturing can be with more workers, with continuous and identical actions, but it stays in the open environment to show the freedom and economic opportunity offered to people. It passes through a bright tunnel super fast where there is pink money hanging from the ceiling in the tunnel, low enough to grab. The roller coaster continues to speed across the track going up and down but slowly half of the money moves closer to the ceiling and out of reach. The roller coaster speeds up even faster and riders are holding on for dear life until suddenly it stops. Then the roller coaster starts to zigzag and gives off the impression that the ride is about to throw the rider into the sides. All of the money disappears and the rollercoaster goes into a dark, dreary tunnel where it's really hot and uncomfortable. Suddenly, the ride starts shaking back and forth and there are women crying. Finally, it stops in the middle of the tunnel where a light shines clearly at the end, but still out of reach and riders are guided off the ride away from the actual end of the journey. This ride depicts the emotional rollercoaster associated with workers who participated in the Lowell Factory System. Invented by Francis Lowell, the Lowell Factory System was an industrialized textile production model that utilized vertical integration by combining all the components of textile production including mills and other machinery into one factory rather than separate ones and a new model of labor with young, single women (Mill Girls) who worked in factories in exchange for wages and some independent opportunities. It also showcased the early problems with the new industrialization as people were seen less as humans but as cogs in a machine. For instance, the Lowell girls protested and organized strikes in 1834 and 1836 when wages were cut, rent increased, and poor working conditions imposed after competition became more cutthroat. These movements were unsuccessful but allowed for the beginning of the American Labor movement through the promise of hope. The ups and downs of this experience and the thriller really show riders the thrill of new opportunities in the high moments of innovation and new industrialization techniques and the lows of new types of social inequalities and needs for activism like in the strikes. The money being in reach and then out of it shows how women and workers thought that they had freedom but it was easily taken away from them. Finally, the light at the end of the tunnel idea being out of reach shows how they were the ones to start the story but they would not be the last people to follow the opportunities or fight for better conditions.

Cumberland Corridor

Cumberland Corridor is an open air market for food and souvenirs and other attractions, an outdoor boulevard beginning at the edge of Mechanica and winds westwards deep into Frontier’s Reach. It is designed to look like a trade route and the path is paved with rough cut stone and wooden market stalls, blacksmith shops, and wagon style souvenir carts. Along the path the light poles are styled as telegraph wires and represent an early national highway as people and commerce constantly move. The path becomes paved dirt as you make your way into the West, and the goods begin to change into more artisan stands with handmade goods and leather products. There are also many food stalls lining the highway, with grilled meat skewers and beef jerky being popular options in the Western part of the road. Transforming the Cumberland Corridor into a souvenir and marketplace road that winds around to connect Mechanica and Frontier’s Reach is able to represent the road’s original purpose in America. It was the first federal infrastructure project and was designed to link eastern industry into the expanding frontier. It became a physical and symbolic pathway for economic exchange, migration, and national unity. The corridor here embodies the same themes as it acts as a transitional pathway from industrial progress meeting frontier opportunities. The merchant stalls represent how trade and transportation transformed the 19th century landscape, facilitating cultural exchanges and commercial growth, allowing guests to experience firsthand the movement and market connectivity. The gradual shift in architecture and atmosphere also narrates the transition from urban to rural. The pathway and marketplace is a way to show visitors America’s modernization not only through inventions, but networks that link people and places together.

Threads Of Change

Threads of Change is a compelling, comprehensive story depicting the revolutionary tale of how the spinning jenny and the sewing machine overtook the Market revolution and transformed the textile industry. The story begins with the initial spinning jenny invention by James Hargreaves, a handloom weaver, who invented it in London because of the growing demand for goods and the bottleneck and the slow, inefficient outtake of hand-spinning, and viewers follow it through the world as it becomes integral in the US's textile production. We see it drastically increasing yarn production with much less effort which fostered the improvement of textile mills and opened more opportunities for workers in cities as they began to meet the demand. Soon after, we see the cities growing tremendously in size and urbanization beginning as the factory system grows into several large-scale factory systems rather than at-home cottage industries. It displaced some skilled hand-spinners and fostered uniformity in the job which hurt some and helped others. Quickly following the end of that story line, viewers are shown multiple pictures in succession from 1790 to 1846 where Elias Howe’s sewing machine allows for major leaps in manufacturing because. After the spinning jenny created yarn, the sewing machine allowed for the automated stitching of clothing which allowed for mass production of inexpensive clothing and eliminated manual sewing jobs. This was needed because hand-stiching was also a slow and laborious process that increased the time needed for creating clothes and other cloth items. This once again fostered the creation of large-scale factories in replacement of home cottage industries. This put a lot of hand-spinners and hand-stichers, who were essentially considered skilled laborers, out of work but also opened opportunities for new workers in factories, demonstrating both benefits and pitfalls. This ride was chosen to be a show because it truly embodies the story line of improvement, innovation, and increased efficiency from the beginning of creation like creating materials like yarn to actually revolutionizing the process of creating clothes through the sewing machine as well. It shows the domino for the cause of effect as inventors continued to create inventions to eliminate the bottlenecks of each popular production process. It follows a storyline which is why it needed a show to demonstrate the full effect and how all the pieces fit together.

The Great Crossing

Aboard the Great Crossing, attendees squish onto Clipper ships packed to the brim with books, goods, and others to enjoy the company of throughout the ride. It starts in New York and takes you across a network of rivers and sees to take you to different islands within the ride that represent different locations like Asia, India, Europe, California and more. It has many twists and turns with unknown directions for passengers because of the world of possibilities that new shipbuilding techniques that created Clipper Ships offered like transferring so much knowledge, high-value goods, and migrants to different parts of the world safely and efficiently. Riders can choose their directions to travel where they would like to go, and the boats also travel at incredibly high, thrilling speeds to excite riders. The basis for this ride, Clipper Ships, were fast boats that had a narrow hull and a large sail area to prioritize speed over efficiency. They were often used for time sensitive items like people, tea, perishables, and high-value items. These ships dramatically increased trade by revolutionizing transportation methods during the revolution along with steam boats, canals, and railroads. It linked markets and allowed for faster, longer and more sustainable transportation and trade in the same way that this rollercoaster is fast, safe, and packed to the brim with new opportunities with wealth as it takes to the unforgiving waters of the ride. It also represents a change for American society because citizens are open to a whole new world of possibilities like within the California Gold Rush where countless migrants traveled aboard the Flying Cloud to travel from New York to San Francisco to try their hand at getting rich. Overall, this ride’s autonomy for riders and the potential options for riders showcases how Clipper ships crossed boundaries and obstacles by connecting people internationally and locally. Socially, this provided for the basis of massive wealth accumulation for owners of clipper ships who gained large amounts of money from the success of trade through their ships. Furthermore, immigrants gained significant opportunities for quick transportation to opportune areas like California during the gold rush.

Rail & Ranch House

(Rip off TX Roadhouse) Guests will enter through swinging saloon doors and see that the interior is a cross between a stockyard mess hall and rustic trading posts, with timber beams and iron chandeliers, with walls that are filled with branding irons, cattle horns and trail maps. Booths are covered in fake cowhide, and tabletops are carved to represent railroad crates that are labeled with different cities such as the Chicago Stock Yards or Missouri Packing Co. Each table has a unique branding logo, representing how ranchers used brands to identify their herds. Everything on the menu is beef essentially. Not very vegetarian friendly. There is free bread though (just not as good as TX Roadhouse free bread). Near the entrance, guests can participate in a Cattle Drive Challenge which is a motion sensor simulation where they guide a virtual herd across the plains, and try to keep them together and avoid stampedes or river crossings. Successful players will earn Cattle Tags that are redeemable for small free items at the restaurant. The Rail and Ranch House represents a mixture of agriculture and industrial trade in the American West. The restaurant’s stockyard-railroad aesthetic represents how the cattle industry became one of the first large-scale commercial enterprises later on and using the railroad was able to export beef all across America. The interior details, such as branding irons and cattle horns and trail maps, represent how the cattle economy relied on identity and had many logistics behind it. Branding isn’t just because of the ranch, it was an early form of intellectual property and ownership and ensured herds could be traced across hundreds of miles of open land. The tables named after different cities highlight the rise of industrial distribution networks and trade as well that turned the West’s economy into a part of the national supply chain. The Cattle Drive Challenge recreates and educates visitors on the hardships of moving herds along trails and allows guests to experience how skill, weather, and chance determine success or failure in the West.

Sweet As Cane Be

Drinks: both natural sugarcane juice, as well as mixed drinks (like coffee and lemonades). One of the major cash crops produced that needed a lot of labor and significant capital investment. It was in high demand to sweeten tea and other pastries that were slowly infiltrating into commonfolk's lives. There is a small river that cuts through this portion of the land and there are actual sugarcane stalks that grow there. People can harvest their own sugarcane (envision how the enslaved laborers did it back then), and get rewarded with a free drink from the stand.

Erie Expedition

Riders will board canal style carts shaped like half wooden and half iron tubes, similar to the 19th century canal barges used to move stone and cargo. The ride will begin on dry land and uneven track sections that are very violently shaking and rattling and as it shakes along the bumpy track, it rises and dips to simulate digging through rough terrain with pickaxes as there are projections surrounding the riders showing workers cutting rock and shoveling clay, in order to carve a pathway while the cart slowing descends. It is loud and chaotic with sounds of metal striking stone, explosions, and shouting, to create the feeling of construction in progress. After being jolted and descending down, the cart will climb a short incline and enter a twisting and turning section where the motion begins to become rough swaying side-to-side, in order to simulate the draining of swamps and the building of aqueducts. Mist will be sprayed on the riders as pipes around them will hiss as they travel through a marsh-y landscape outside. After, the cart makes its way back inside as it ascends to a very tall peak and stops momentarily as it’s pitch black. You can hear a voice stating that the canal is ready to be filled and visitors hear the sound of water being to flush below the cart as the cart rises a little and the riders feel the barge begin to float. The track transitions into a water channel, and the dry construction site becomes a complete canal. A gate in front of the riders begins to open revealing a steep slide slope back outside (Splash Mountain kind of slope but on slide instead of tracks) and the moment it finished opening, the cart drops down into the massive splash pool. After getting drenched, the final part of the ride is peaceful as the cart drifts through canal towns with traders, bridges, and other barges, and you can see advertisements and newspapers stating the marvels of the Erie Canal such as promoting going from Albany to Buffalo in five days instead of twenty. The Erie Expedition recreates the construction and significance of the Erie Canal which became one of the most influential infrastructure projects of the era. Each stage of the ride represents a historical aspect of the canal’s construction and finally showcases its legacy. The first, bumpy and uneven opening represents the intense manual labor of digging 363 miles of canal by hand, and is shown by violently throwing guests around in the cart. The second section, smooth and swaying side to side, giving guests motion sickness, symbolize the draining of swamps or other water ways in order to solve elevation problems. At the peak, the transition from dry land to a water-filled canal marks a moment of completion as the canal becomes physically connected to Lake Erie and the Hudson River. The calm ending scene, as riders float past canal towns and hear the voices of celebration, is able to show guests of the positive impacts of the canal that brought economic prosperity and interconnected markets.

John Deere’s Steel Pitch

John Deere will appear and roll into the town on his wagon which is a mobile demonstration cart that is green painted steel. It’s fitted with fold out shelves, a small anvil, gears, and a soil display. Every hour, he will appear somewhere randomly in the park and give a Shark-Tank style pitch to the crowd. Deere will explain the challenge of farming western soil and how his new steel plow stays sharp and can cut through prairie soil. He demonstrates using the tools from his wagon and he demonstrates the efficiency of the invention. He then announces that he is looking for pioneers who believe in America’s future in the West, and asks for volunteers. After picking five volunteer pioneers, he asks them a series of questions such as if cast iron or steel is stronger, or which soil is the easiest to till with the steel plow (and he says its a trick question because all are easy with the steel plow) and more historical questions, and if the answer correctly they receive a Deere Token that count as five normal Tokens (that are to be used in the Iron Market). After giving out his shares, Deere wraps it up stating how the plow is not just plowing paths in the fields, and how it’s plowing paths to America’s future. And then he boards his wagon and chug a chug a choo choos off into the distance. The design turns John Deere’s steel plow innovation into a live demonstration of the entrepreneurial culture in the era. The inventors had to sell progress as much as they built it. Deere’s invention solved one of the biggest problems of westward expansion and was able to break through the prairie sod of the West, and this demonstrates his marketing of public demonstrations to spread his design.

Railroad Run

The Iron Trail is a mix of coaster and show scenes, similar to Rise of the Resistance in Hollywood Studios or Guardians of the Galaxy in Epcot. The coaster is influenced by the construction of railroads throughout the U.S. When guests queue for the ride, they walk through three different rooms before boarding. The first room, The Workshop, is decorated with boilers and real steam vents releasing steam, and you can hear the voices of immigrant workers speaking in Chinese, Irish, German, and Italian overlap. As you try to navigate through all the steam and fog, visitors make their way to a corridor with the Map Walls, as the tunnel’s walls are completely covered with parchment maps of different regions of the U.S. as well as maps of the whole entire country. On those maps, there are gold streams of light that illuminate where the rail lines were built across the nation. After making their way through the tunnel, the visitors will make their way to the Boiler room where they will board trackless Engine Capsule vehicles (similar technology to Rise of the Resistance or Ratatouille rides) that are designed as an iron pod similar to a 19th century locomotive steam engine section of the train with six passenger seats. The exterior of the pod has gauges and prop steam valves that hiss throughout the ride. The flooring are steel grated plates and in between the cracks there is a fiery glow, similar to a furnace with burning coal. The vehicles start in a circle around a middle high-rise circular platform, and after the guests board, a platform within rises up as a train conductor is revealed. He narrates a mission to the riders, about connecting the territories and expanding trade and the reach of goods in America, and how the West are the pioneers of this trade and exploration. He finishes with the first mission to first, clear the way for the tracks. As he finishes commanding the riders to go, a portion of the wall lifts up to reveal a hidden passage as the vehicles begin to arrange themselves into a line directly in front of the tunnel. The vehicles begin to vibrate and hum, steam hisses, and suddenly launches the pods through the tunnel. It becomes pitch black but there are suddenly bright flashes of light and sharp turns and it is extremely bumpy even though it doesn’t seem that fast, simulating using dynamite to clear paths for the railroad. After throwing the passengers around a bit, the vehicles come to a sudden screeching halt. A platform is suddenly illuminated and reveals the same conductor, and he gives his second mission to lay down the tracks. The vehicle begins to ascend through a smoke or steam column and after ascending the carts begin a lazy river kind of motion as they are brought into a room as the riders witness projected scenes below them through the floor glass and as they watch workers lay down track after track they are swayed side to side to side to side. Suddenly, everything goes dark onces again as the train halts. The conductor appears right in front of the train, suddenly illuminated and really really really close to the first cart. He gives his final mission, to test out the track. And before he even finishes his words, the train is lurched backwards super fast but really smooth, and at a very high speed, is even brought outside (similar to Mr. Freeze at Six Flags) and it is a smooth ride but super fast. At the end, after coming back in, the carts slowly glide through the final exit tunnel where they are surrounded by similar maps to the ones they saw on the queue, but all the railroad trails are glowing brightly and you can hear the conductor narrating and thanking the riders for helping connect America. This ride symbolizes the transformative power of the American railroad system during the 19th century. The construction of railroads along with the building of the Transcontinental Railroad demonstrates industrial ambition that depended on the new technology and labor. Each stage of the ride is able to show the railroad’s real evolution, from the violent explosive motion of blasting tunnels with dynamite shaking the carts and the grueling physical work when carving paths through hard rock, to the rhythmic swaying when they lay down track after track, and then finally a high speed and smooth ride after they finish linking the distant regions into a network, demonstrating the connection and accessibility between regions. At the very end, the glowing rail maps and conductor’s words remind riders that the steam engine and railroad system were ways of connection and progress for America.