Kings Dominion
Virginia
The amusement park rising off to the side of the highway is Kings Dominion, which has been entertaining mid-Atlantic families since May third, nineteen seventy-five. The park was built in Doswell, Virginia, on a large tract of land chosen specifically to sit halfway between Washington and Richmond, making it driveable for both cities.
Its original centerpiece was a three-hundred-fifteen-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower, modeled on the Kings Island park near Cincinnati that opened a few years earlier. Opening day featured fifteen attractions including the Rebel Yell, a twin-track racing wooden roller coaster that became one of the park's signatures. The Rebel Yell ran under that name until two thousand eighteen, when it was rebranded as Racer Seventy-Five.
The park changed corporate hands several times over the decades, passing through Paramount Pictures in the nineteen nineties, then Cedar Fair in two thousand six, and finally merging into Six Flags Entertainment in two thousand twenty-four. The tower still stands. The coasters keep running.
