Hopkins Rides

In 1962 O.D. Hopkins incorporated Hopkins Engineering of Contoocook, New Hampshire and started installing ski lifts for J.A. Roebling & Sons of Trenton, New Jersey.^[2] In 1965, Hopkins purchased the ski lift division and all the related assets from Roebling & Sons. Soon afterwards a competitor, Universal Design Ltd., discontinued manufacturing Sky Rides, and their customers turned to Hopkins Engineering for parts.^[2] Hopkins' first customer in the amusement business was Charles Wood of Storytown USA.

In 1971, the name of the company was changed to O.D. Hopkins Associates Inc. In 1979, Hopkins was approached by Paul Roads, owner of Wonderland Park (Texas), to build a reasonably-priced log flume for his park. The success of that project started Hopkins in the water ride manufacturing business.^[2] The aerial ropeway/sky ride division was spun off to Skyfair, Inc. on January 1, 1986.^{[citation needed]}

In November, 2001, O.D. Hopkins and Associates Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection. The company reorganized and emerged as Hopkins Rides, LLC in May 2002, and was for a brief time in partnership with Reverchon Industries of France.^[3]

In August 2012 water slide manufacturer WhiteWater West acquired assets and intellectual property from Hopkins Rides, LLC. Although WhiteWater Attractions has adopted the Hopkins Rides technology, it is not a parent company to Hopkins Rides, LLC and the companies operate independently. WhiteWater sells its products under the Water Rides brand.^[4][5]

The company originally manufactured Sky Rides, but in the 1980s, with the increase in popularity of their water-based attractions, those rides became the company's primary product. In addition to the water-based attractions, Hopkins built seven roller coasters from 1985 to 1996. They also occasionally made other amusement ride types such as a SkyGlider, tube slides, and a water jet ride known as an Aqua Drag. Santa's Village still operates its SkyGlider, and Wonderland Park still operates its Aqua Drag and SkyGlider in addition to its other Hopkins rides.

Hopkins also re-fabricated portions of track on two Arrow Dynamics-built coasters: Dahlonega Mine Train at Six Flags Over Georgia received 1,400 feet of new track and supports in 1986 and Canobie Corkscrew at Canobie Lake Park received new track and supports in 1990.^[2]

The company currently focuses only on water ride attractions:

• Shoot the Chute rides
• Flumes and larger capacity Super Flumes
• River Raft ride
• Water Transportation Systems

As of 2019, Hopkins Rides has built 7 roller coasters around the world.^[6]

More information Name, Model ...

Name	Model	Park	Country	Opened	Status	Ref
Texas Tornado	Looping Coaster	Wonderland Amusement Park	United States	1985	Operating	[7]
Polar Coaster	Junior Coaster	Story Land	United States	1987	Operating	[8]
Cliff Hanger Formerly Red Devil	Looping Coaster	Ghost Town Village	United States	1988	Closed	[9]
Dragon	Looping Coaster	Adventureland	United States	1990	Removed	[10]
Desert Storm	Looping Coaster	Castles N' Coasters	United States	1992	Operating	[11]
Patriot	Junior Coaster	Castles N' Coasters	United States	1992	Operating	[12]
New Wild Mouse Coaster	Wild Mouse	Misaki Park	Japan	1996	Closed	[13]

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