prhauthors

My father met a ride engineer named Ken Bailey who came up with something he called The Bailey Ball. It was basically a giant hamster ball that could fit a human. Bailey built a PVC track on the mountain and his idea was to launch people down the slope in the ball, which would stay on a fixed path on the track. We had one trial launch. The ball broke free and rolled across the road. It was terrifying.

Believe it or not, the court would side with the park more often that not because people who got injured were often behaving erratically. The rides were largely safe if you used them with caution. Most people didn't.

Action Point was a stunt movie that was only loosely inspired by Action Park. I had a few conversations with Johnny Knoxville about it but it wasn't intended to be a faithful depiction of the park. I believe Johnny's eyeball was knocked loose during filming, though, so I have to give him credit for his commitment.

My understanding is that a total of five people died while at the park. I wish the number were zero. These people weren't statistics to me. I was personally involved in one of the drowning incidents and it's a terrible thing. My father was trying to do something that hadn't been done before--a participatory park where people had agency. It was hard to foresee the benefits and consequences to a place like that.

No. My family sold off our interest in the park in 2015. It's now known as Mountain Creek Water Park.