Silver Dollar City unveils $10M roller coaster

BRANSON, Mo. (AP) - Silver Dollar City in southwest Missouri has unveiled its new $10 million roller coaster, which the park says combines a traditional wooden track with modern technology that allows it to go upside down.

Outlaw Run is scheduled to open in April 2013 and was kept under wraps until the park showed it off Thursday during a news conference, The Joplin Globe reported (http://bit.ly/MmWqLK ).

At more than 16 stories high, the coaster will feature the world's steepest drop on a wooden coaster. It will be the world's only wooden coaster to go upside down, with three inversions and a double-barrel roll. It's expected to reach a top speed of 68 miles per hour.

The ride, which is Silver Dollar City's biggest investment in the past decade and its sixth roller coaster, has top track layers that are built with a customized steel overlay.

Duane Marden, creator of the online Roller Coaster Database, was in Branson for the unveiling and said Outlaw Run is unexpected.

"What's most interesting about it is something I didn't think I'd ever see," he said.

"Normally, a wooden track gets bumpier season after season," Marden said. "It expands, it contracts, etc. You have to account for that, so you have to limit what you can do in terms of features."

But, he said, with the all-steel top, Outlaw Run "will last, will allow you to do things you couldn't do before."

Gary Slade, publisher and editor of Amusement Today, traveled from Arlington, Texas, for Thursday's unveiling. He said people love wooden roller coasters because they're "nostalgic."

"This is our history right here," he said. "You're seeing our amusement center history being built, but with modern technology added to it."