Six Flags Great America has endured roller coaster-like ups and downs in 50-year history

Driving down Interstate 94 and looking out at Six Flags Great America today, it is hard to imagine what the landscape looked like a half-century ago, before the park forever transformed the then-small community of Gurnee.

But in the mid-1970s, the big question was: How could quiet farm fields, in a village with less than 4,000 residents, become one of the region’s most thrilling destinations?

Six Flags Great America marks 50 years as summer destination: ‘Just simple and beautiful’

Great America, riding a wave of similar developments across the country, has lived to see the beginning and end of several eras of theme parks since opening its gates in Lake County 50 years ago.

The first mention of a new park in Illinois was in an exclusive Chicago Tribune report on Aug. 23, 1972, revealing that a “giant amusement park” was planned in Lake County, west of Gurnee, in the vein of Six Flags Over Mid-America in St. Louis. Disney World, in Florida, had opened the prior year.

More news would come out in the following years. The park, to be called Great America, was an endeavor by the hospitality company Marriott. But developers had a grander vision than just a single theme park. They planned to open three parks consecutively across the country for the United States bicentennial in 1976: one in Santa Clara, California, the second in the Chicago area, and a third in their home market of Washington, D.C.

The parks’ development was driven by David L. Brown, then vice president of Marriott’s Theme Park Group, and designed by architect Randell Duell, also known for designing the Magic Mountain theme park and the original Universal Studio Tours in California, Six Flags over Texas and Opryland in Nashville.

Marriott’s plans for a D.C.-area park would ultimately hit local resistance and collapse, but Steven Wilson, who researched and wrote the visual history book “Six Flags Great America,” said opening two major theme parks just months apart was an “unprecedented” effort.

Jim Futrell, historian for the National Amusement Park Historical Association, also noted the sheer scale of Marriott’s ambition. Their foray into the industry was part of a wave of theme park construction across the country, and in some ways also marked the end of that boom era, he said.

Chicago theme park history

Theme parks as we know them today started — in many ways — with Disneyland in 1955, according to Futrell. Walt Disney kickstarted a “gold rush” of companies trying to duplicate his success, but for many years, “they just couldn’t capture that magic.”

But that would change with the 1961 opening of Six Flags over Texas, which “perfected” the concept of a regional theme park: a pay-one-price admission, live entertainment, family-oriented rides, and a staff of well-groomed college students.

These parks are not the international destinations that the Disney parks are today, instead drawing from more regional visitors and repeat guests.

The 1960s saw a rush of large corporations trying to claim a chunk of the market across the country. Marriott wasn’t the only one with big plans for the Chicago region; it was in a race against Taft Broadcasting — which already had park building experience — to try and seize the area’s market.

Chicago was actually an early hub of the amusement and theme park industry, Futrell said. The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition had the mile-long Midway Plaisance, a collection of amusement park-esque displays, rides, food and performances, planting the seed of inspiration for amusement park designs for decades to come.

The city saw numerous parks following the World’s Fair, among them Paul Boynton’s Water Chutes, opened in 1894, then the White City in 1903 and Luna Park in 1907. The beloved Kiddieland opened in 1929.

But the biggest name was Riverview, Futrell said, which opened in 1904 and dominated the region’s market for decades. In the years since, all those parks closed for various reasons. Riverview’s closing in 1967 was “devastating,” Futrell said, leaving a hole in the market that would take nearly a decade to refill.

Taft had plans for a massive park in Huntley, between Chicago and Rockford, but ran into difficulties in Illinois, and Marriott would ultimately “beat Taft to the punch,” Futrell said.

But even at the time, he said there was chatter that Marriott’s parks would be the last of their kind. The theme park boom was ending, as America simply ran out of markets large enough to sustain such massive parks. The sentiment has since proven largely accurate, he said.

Marriott to Six Flags

Great America has been owned since 1984 by Six Flags, which Futrell said has evolved into a thrill-ride-focused company, matching a shift in demographics seen over the decades.

The first amusement park boom was fed by baby-boomer families and their children, he said, which necessitated a wider variety of entertainment. Early on, parks actually tended to avoid roller coasters and thrill rides, he said, not wanting to draw associations with carnival-style parks.

But the 1970s would see a roller coaster “arms race” among theme parks, as Futrell described it, as they tried to build the longest, fastest, tallest or “loopiest” rides possible. The roller coaster race was — temporarily — ended with the opening of Great America’s American Eagle in 1981, according to Futrell, which at the time had the longest drop and fastest speeds of any wooden roller coaster.

While the American Eagle is a well-loved icon of the park, its construction pushed the limits of both the era’s roller coaster design and Marriott’s wallet. According to a 1981 Chicago Tribune article, it cost $8 million to build, and Futrell recalled the numerous technical issues it initially faced due to its size and speed.

The 1982 season saw ticket prices rise $2 — which Futrell said personally left him an “unhappy customer” — to try and help pay for the massive coaster. That season saw a “huge loss” in attendance, although that can’t be fully attributed to ticket prices, he said. The year was bad for Chicago’s economy in general.

Along with the failure to build a park in their home market, Futrell said the financial struggles “got Marriott thinking, ‘Maybe this is not the business for us.’”

Six Flags bought the Gurnee park in 1984, and while the company has had “struggles” of its own on the corporate level, Great America has remained one of the company’s flagship parks, Futrell said.

After merging with Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. in 2024, Six Flags has been cleaning up shop, closing Six Flags America in Maryland, and announcing that Great America’s sister location in Santa Clara, California, will be closing at the end of the 2027 season.

Despite the changes, Gurnee’s park will likely remain open, according to industry experts, who view the closings as the company reorganizing after being “mismanaged for the last two regimes,” according to previous statements from Dennis Speigel, founder of International Theme Park Services.

Six Flags representatives say Great America’s “core” has remained through the decades. Years of innovation, both in ride technology and overall guest experience, have “stayed true to the idea that the park offers something for everyone.”

“As attractions have grown more immersive and thrilling, that sense of inclusivity has never been lost,” a statement said. “The through-line is our commitment to being a place where guests of all ages can create memories together. We’re proud to be not only a beloved theme park in the region, but also a meaningful part of the community we’ve served for generations.”

But the future of theme parks is once again shifting, Futrell said. America’s population is aging, and large roller coasters are massive financial investments. Instead, he’s seen a rise in more immersive experiences that can appeal to families. While there will “always be room for thrill rides,” the types of attractions have begun to broaden.

It’s a shift that Six Flags referenced in its statement. The industry is evolving, new technologies and creative concepts are being developed, and park officials plan to look for ways to make visits “more immersive and memorable.”

“While specific plans are always under development, guests can continue to expect us to push boundaries, introduce new experiences, and find thoughtful ways to enhance how guests enjoy the park year after year,” the statement said.

On the international stage, the new industry focus is on China, India and the Middle East, Futrell said, which are seen as the next great theme park markets.

Today, he said it’s “hard to believe” that regional theme parks like Great America, still considered a relatively new phenomenon in the industry, are marking 50 years. They “changed the nature of the industry.”

“You wonder if, when Bill Marriott cut the ribbon on it 50 years ago, he thought it would still be there in 50 years,” Futrell said.