How did water parks develop

For many children, and even those young at heart, water parks are a key pastime of summer and, increasingly, winter, with indoor parks now developed in many areas. The history of water parks is generally relatively recent, particularly after World War II when they became popular, but they have evolved rapidly in the last few decades from simple places of amusement to complex parks that compete for status symbols such as the 'largest water park' or 'tallest waterslide'.

Early History

In the late 1940s, with the country recovering from World War II and beginning to contemplate more fun as normal life resumed, the United States began to look for new amusements. Many outdoor pools and lidos had existed already but only a few had diving boards. Even fewer had slides. However, by the late 1940s more pools began to integrate slides and even began to include water being incorporated into the slide to easy movement down towards the pool. Although this is often seen as the beginning of water parks, the waterslide appears to have first developed in New Zealand during the 1906 International Exhibition (Figure 1). In an exhibition called "Wonderland," a chute was installed that allow swimmers to slide right into the pool. The chute moved people down in a wooden ramp that then allowed them to briefly skim across the surface of the water, as it came in a slight angle. Already in 1906, even government officials, such as the speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, was impressed and gave the slide a try.

Perhaps the first document waterslide in the United States was in Faribault, Minnesota, created by furniture maker Herbert Sellner in 1923. He created what was a water toboggan slide that would have riders going on a wooden sled and then slide into the water, skimming the surface. It was given a patent, number 1,737,032. Similar slides were built through the late 1920s and a few parks in the United States began to have slides. Most of the slides were based on Sellner's original design. Most slides simply allowed one to go to the top, get on a sled, and then go off in a slight angle towards the water.

Figure 1. Image showing perhaps the first build water slide.

Later Developments

George Millay, who famously founded Sea World in San Diego and later Florida, took the idea developed by Sellner and also increasingly noticed in the 1960s and 1970s incorporating splash pads and the first wavepool opening in Alabama. Waterslides became very popular within existing parks, so much so long lines were always evident. All these gave Millay the idea that a purpose-built water park might be enough to be profitable. He needed a warm, year-round place to have such a park to keep revenues steady. As Orlando, Florida already hosted well known amusement locations and had the weather that Millay needed, this allowed Wet n’ Wild to be founded there as the first purpose-built water park in 1977 (Figure 2). When it opened, the first year proved disappointing, loosing about $600,000. However, Millay did not fret and from the second year it began to make a profit. The wavepool and its large waterslides became key features in the park. Although the park closed in 2016, it became the blueprint for most other parks in the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia. Demonstrating the success of the park, Wet n' Wild averaged about 1.3 million visitors a year in its later years. Millay took the Wet n' Wild brand to many areas and other countries, expanding the brand and building new water parks.

Since the 1970s, there has been a rapid expansion and often competition among parks to develop new types of slides, rides, pools and even novel features within water parks. For instance, for northern regions of the United States, where the weather is too cold for much of the year for water parks, a novel feature has been creating an ice skating rink in the main plaza by placing underground cooling pipes. By the early 1980s, communities around the United States began to realize that they could make their area more appealing to tourists by building water parks. This was the case for Wisconsin Dells in southern Wisconsin, not far from Chicago. In that case, five major water parks were built near each other, allowing the town to claim itself as the 'water park capital' of the world. This inspired not only new water parks to be built across the country, where today there are more than 1000 water parks in the United States. Routinely, water parks became ranked across the United States, with other countries sometimes following. This has helped to inspire the explosion of innovation in waterslides, rides, attractions within water parks.

Figure 2. Wet n' Wild in Orlando was the first purpose-built water park.

Modern Trends

As cold regions struggled to build water parks that could attract new tourists, different ideas emerged. The first indoor water park was built in Edmonton, Alberta in 1985 at the West Edmonton Mall. This soon proved successful, inspiring other locations, including in the UK, to create their own indoor water parks. In 1994, the first significant indoor water park built in the United States was in Wisconsin Dells at the Polynesian Resort Hotel. The success of indoor water parks made business investors realize that water parks, incorporated within hotels, allowed places to extend the tourist season. The Great Wolf Resorts/Great Wolf Lodge developed as the first company to build hotels around indoor water parks.

Other innovations included developing faster waterslides, new types of water features including tube with mounted crafts, and large rafts that would be sent hurtling down large themed-slides. The Verrückt, located in Kansas City, became the tallest water slide at 168 feet, although it closed down in 2016 due to a tragic accident. The success of indoor and outdoor water parks led to a few trends. First, many existing community pools began to cater to the desire for water parks by adding slides and features such as wavepools. In effect, they became small water parks that catered to local communities during the summer months and holidays. Water parks began to create amusement areas, such as in Wisconsin Dells, where new amusement parks began to develop as the Dells tried to keep tourists around longer. Local recreation centers even began to develop miniature indoor water park features, such as lazy rivers and slides. Water parks, today, bring in about 3 billion dollars annually. Indoor parks and municipal water parks or water parks incorporate within community recreation centres are perhaps the fasted growing segments of the water park industry.

Summary

Water parks continue to be very popular, where they are now found perhaps in over 100 countries. Water parks have also proven to be great economic engines for communities, generating tourist revenue in areas that struggled economically. Water parks have also generated new forms of tourism, with year-round indoor water parks, hotels and resorts built around water parks, and new amusement attractions incorporated in areas that feature water parks. Although water parks have come a long way from the first waterslides, the core thrill of combining speed, water, and excitement have allowed waterslides and water parks to be highly successful.