The "Tornado" Roller Coaster operated at Wedgewood Village Amusement Park, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma from about 1961 to 1969.

Designed by John C. Allen and Construction Supervisor was Frank F. Hoover. Philadelphia Toboogan Company.

When the Park closed the coaster was moved to Petticoat Junction in Florida.



Wedgewood Village opened 1958 and was known for its fancy Carousel. It had swimming, boating, a roller coaster, and all the standard Amusement Park features before closing in 1969.

Wedgewood Village Amusement Park operated in northwest Oklahoma City in the late 1950s and 1960s. Wedgewood, opened in 1958, had a fine carousel, swimming, boating, a roller coaster, and all the standard amenities before closing in 1969.



Wedgewood was first a golf driving range at NW 59 and May Avenue in 1954. Woods is a 1950 University of Oklahoma graduate with a business administration degree who loves golf. He remembers watching children sitting in cars while "daddy hit golf balls, and had the idea to bring in rides. The first ride was a miniature train.

In April 1958, he opened Wedgewood at the northwest corner of Northwest Expressway and NW 63.

The 30-acre park featured the tallest roller coaster in the city at the time, the Tornado. A photograph of the grand opening shows professional baseball player Allie Reynolds driving a golden spike into the miniature train tracks next to a smiling local TV celebrity, Danny Williams, in his "3-D Danny costume.

Woods said he had a good family atmosphere at the park. Parents trusted their children to stay at the park all day without adult supervision. But by 1963, a changing racial climate caught up with the park.

The park, like many segregated businesses of the era, went through changes after sit-in demonstrations by local activists, including Clara Luper in 1963. Woods, torn over helping break the color barrier and keeping white clients happy, decided to integrate.

The decision did hurt business, he said. Crowds disappeared. Whites stayed away and blacks mostly went to Springlake Amusement park in northeast Oklahoma City.

"I was caught up in what was going on in the rest of the world at the time, Woods said. "That summer you could fire a shotgun down the park and not hit anyone.

When profits dipped, Woods turned to rock 'n' roll to save the park. It was music that brought the crowds back in 1966, he said. Johnny Rivers, Johnny Cash and teen pop idol Johnny Tillotson helped make the turnstiles whirl.