In true Dollywood tradition, Dolly Parton herself was on-hand to debut her park’s newest attraction.  After the initial media interviews and preliminaries, the crowd that had gathered was ready to take on the mystery that is Mystery Mine.

The ride is located right up the hill from the park’s world-famous wooden roller coaster Thunderhead.  What was just an unused piece of land a few years ago, has been transformed by the park into Timber Canyon.

Timber Canyon now is home to not only Thunderhead (voted the No. 1 wooden coaster in the world, two years running by readers of Amusement Today), but last year's additions - Timber Tower (the only Huss Topple Tower in North America) and the Lumberjack Lifts (a unique spin on the drop tower).

But you haven’t come here for facts on Timber Canyon, so we’ll get right to the review of the ride.

Mystery Mine is best described as one part Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter coaster (the only one in North America), one part retro dark ride and one part crazy drop tower. Stir well and you might have an idea of what you’re in for on Mystery Mine.  Oh and did I mention fire?  We’ll get to that.

Mystery Mine is themed around a mysterious abandoned 1900’s coal mine where the miners have disappeared and the mine has been taken over by crows that seem to be up to no good.

*WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD.  PROCEED WITH CAUTION.*

I’ll attempt to take you on a play-by-play account of the ride from my perspective in case you’re one of those people that likes to read all the spoilers before riding a new coaster.

As you make it to the top of the loading platform, you are grouped into parties of four.  The ingenious station can accommodate two trains in the load section at a time and a third train unloading behind them.  A fourth train can be not far behind, but will remain at the brakes until the third train moves forward.  In all, Mystery Mine has 7 trains and when all are running, the ride has a very good capacity of 1,000 passengers per hour.  Quite a feat when you consider each train only carries eight people.  I was amazed to see trains flying through the course and only being 30 seconds apart.  A side-note, the park also has a single-rider line for Mystery Mine and I found it to be very quick! 

After you are locked into the comfortable over-the-shoulder-restraints (OTSRs) you realize that you can’t see any track ahead. You take a dip out of the station (into the dark) and then level off.  The articulated trains  start to sway back and forth as they maneuver along the track.  The crows that have taken over the mine seem to have something up their sleeves. Ominous red eyes peer at you as you make your way through the mine and things do not look good for us.

We have a narrow-miss as we dive under a huge log that looks like it would like nothing more than to make us flat as a pancake! After a mist filled section of track we turn a corner and come to a stop.  To our left we see some more of those mischievous crows and this time they have taken over the controls of what looks to be an abandoned mine lift.

Riders look straight up as the lift engages and off we go up the first of two vertical lift hills. As we crest the hill, you assume that the first vertical drop is coming…it doesn’t.  The train scoots out into the daylight and we make our way across a trestle and then unexpectedly the train takes a 90-degree drop throwing us forward as the train plummets to earth!

We fly up into a 90-degree banked turn (remind anyone of Voyage a bit?) and then make our way around two little helices and a drop before heading back into the mine. On returning to the mine we stop yet again at the bottom of another vertical ascent.  This time we are going up and a long way up.  Uh oh, did we just see one of those birds they said was bad luck to see in the mine? Oh my.

As we head up the lift, a screen on top of the roof  shows that something is going on (or is it a window to the outside?) well forget about that because the roof is caving in on us! The “roof” (on the screen) slams down and we are left in darkness. 

Our train comes to a stop at the top of the lift and slowly starts to slide forward.  Someone (probably those pesky crows) lights a match and BOOM!  A huge explosion goes off right in front of us!

Our train rolls over the 95-degree drop and 85 feet later we are flying along at 60mph right into two inversions!  The first inversion, a heart-line roll is fluid and smooth as glass and leads into the second, a rollover loop with around three seconds of hang-time!

After a quick little hop, our train hits the brakes. We’ve escaped the Mystery Mine!  But just barely.

*SPOILERS OVER.*

Mystery Mine is one of the most innovative and imaginative coasters I’ve seen at a regional park in a long time.  I think even Walt Disney would probably appreciate the storyline and quality of Dollywood’s latest creation.

The coaster features the following specifications:

• Vertical Lifts: 2
• Track Length: 1,811 feet
• Ride Duration: 2 minutes, 30 seconds
• Maximum Speed: 60 miles-per-hour
• Tallest Drop: 85 feet at 95 degrees
• Maximum G-force: 4.5
• Inversions: 1 Heart-line Roll, 1 Rollover Loop
• Vehicles: 7 trains that carry 8 passengers, 4 passengers per row
• Capacity: 1,000 passengers per hour
• Minimum Height Requirement: 48 inches
• Ride Manufacturer: Gerstlauer Elektro GmbH, Munsterhausen, Germany

Dollywood and Gerstlauer have definitely created one of the most unique coaster experiences you’ll find in the United States this year. The park has taken the Euro-Fighter model from Gerstlauer to the next level and then some.

If you would like more information on Mystery Mine or any of the great attractions at Dollywood be sure to visit www.dollywood.com.

For myself, I must thank Dolly Parton, Pete Owens, Public Relations Manager and the wonderful staff of Dollywood for a great day at the park! 

If you would like to view even more photos, check out Wes’ photo album here.