 In Nantasket Beach, Massachusetts, about 25 miles from Boston, there was once a park named Atlantic Park, which was built in 1868. Renamed to Paragon Park in 1905, this local fun spot erected its first roller coaster, a wooden sit-down coaster named Green Streak in 1912. Unfortunately, the Green Streak burned to the ground on September 11, 1916. Paragon Park wasted no time in replacing its first coaster, and in 1917, the giant coaster was born. Built by the famous Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters, Inc., Giant Coaster was a double-out-and-back side-friction coaster designed by PTC's John Miller. The ride was not only the world's tallest roller coaster at the time, standing 98 feet tall, but was also New England's longest and fastest coaster at the time of its opening. The Giant Coaster ride, in its original form, lasted just short of two minutes and took up roughly 4,000 feet of track for its 88-foot first drop and 53 mph ride. The coaster was given a PTC serial number of 23 and gained international attention for the height of its first drop. According to PTC archives, quote, legendary engineer Herbert P. Schmeck, who became president of PTC in 1922, was tasked to make a more thrilling ride in 1932 while using as much of the original structure as possible. The layout was christened PTC number 91 and was now a single out-and-back with much steeper drops, especially the first drop, and a high-speed helix as the finale. End quote. Though this quote from PTC archives discusses the redesign of the Giant as an attempt to make it a more thrilling ride, some reports claim that the main reason for the changes were because the ride suffered damage due to a fire happening early that year, 1932. Regardless of the driving reason behind the adjustments, these design changes can be seen most evidently in the first drop, which went from a double-down drop to a much steeper first single drop. And more changes can be found in the subsequent airtime hills, as well as, of course, the new helix at the end of the ride. Though the Giant coaster ran without any major issues for several years, an unfortunate turn of events happened just over 30 years later, when the park experienced yet another fire on April 21, 1963. This fire destroyed the trains, station, double helix finale, and part of the lift hill. Luckily, the ride was not completely destroyed and Paragon Park made the decision to salvage what was left of the ride and rebuild it as best they could. They had two main hopes for rebuilding the Giant coaster. First, they wanted famous ride designer and PTC president at the time, John C. Allen, to rebuild the coaster. Second, they wanted Allen to rebuild the ride exactly as it had stood before the devastating fire. One of these wishes came true. John C. Allen did rebuild the Giant coaster as PTC serial number 130. And though Allen was able to rebuild the ride a much better alternative to tearing it down, the budget to do a full blown replica of the ride simply didn't exist. So in order to allow the park to afford the rebuild and to bring a version of the ride back to life, Allen had to leave out two bunny hills, the helix finale, and the ornate station. Though this version of the Giant was nowhere near as thrilling as the design with Miller's ending, and was missing much of the airtime of Miller's version of the ride as well as the charm of the original station, it was a more affordable option for Paragon Park and allowed them to keep the spirit of the Giant alive. In fact, you can thank this budgie-savvy decision for being the reason why a version of this coaster still exists to this day. If it weren't for that decision, the ride would likely have been torn down and lost forever. Now, a little fun fact about the 1964 rebuilt version of the Giant coaster. It was actually able to come back to life thanks in part to the death of two other coasters. You see, when the Giant first reopened in 1964, it borrowed trains from the National Amusement Devices Century Flyer in Crescent Park, since the coaster that those trains came from, the Zephyr, closed after its 1961 season. But the more permanent trains that the rebuilt Giant used came from a park in St. Louis called Forest Park Highlands, which ironically also suffered a fire in 1963, the same year as Paragon Park. Another PTC coaster called the Comet had stood at Forest Park Highlands and actually survived that park's fire, though the park itself did not. So when the Comet was torn down in 1968, Paragon Park bought its trains instead of buying more expensive new ones from PTC. The Comet trains ran on this new version of the Giant with the Comet name still intact on the front of the trains for the duration of the Giant coaster's operation at Paragon Park. After many more years of enjoyment at Paragon Park, the Giant coaster was forced to close when Paragon Park closed in 1984. It was in this same year, in a last-minute bid at auction, that the Giant was sold to a park in Maryland. The Giant was then retracted, restored to its original condition, including the reincorporation of the original helix at the finale, and opened in 1986 under its new name, the Wild One. The ride's new home, then called Wild World, is known today as Six Flags America. Of course, the ride has been repaired, renovated, retract, and rebuilt so many times that it would honestly be hard to argue that there is any of the original Giant coaster left. Even Rick Howarth, president of Six Flags America, was quoted saying, quote, I don't believe that anything remains from the original 1917 coaster, end quote. The Wild One that we know and love today may be made up of newer pieces of wood and steel than the original ride, but the motor, the lift chain, the blueprint, and most importantly, the spirit and history of the ride still stand, giving the public a version of the Giant coaster the crowds have loved for over 100 years. This ride is truly the Frankenstein's monster of roller coasters, given its many new leases on life. It's such a cool piece of coaster history and has been recognized as such, earning itself an Ace Coaster Landmark Award on June 18th of 2018, even in spite of its many changes and rebuilds through the years. Did you know how many times this ride has been rebuilt and how many fires were involved in its story? Have you had the chance to ride any of the versions of it for yourself? Please share your thoughts and stories in the comments down below. I'd love to hear from you. Thanks so much for joining us again for this week's episode of Ride History with Amusement Insiders. I'm your host, Jazim, and I hope you join us again next week when we'll be diving into the history of not one, not two, but a trio of historic American coasters. Can you guess which three classics I'm talking about? Comment your guess and make sure to tune in next week to see if you guessed right. Thanks for watching.