SIX FLAGS OVER TEXAS. Six Flags over Texas, a tourist attraction, is located equidistant between Dallas and Fort Worth in Arlington just off Interstate Highway 30 and State Highway 360. The amusement park is owned and operated by the Great Southwest Corporation. It was one of the first theme entertainment centers in the United States when it opened on August 5, 1961. Replicas of historic places on the grounds depict the history of the Lone Star State. The six flags are those that have flown over Texas: the flags of Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America, and the United States of America.The Texas Historical Commission placed Texas historical markers at a replica of Fort St. Louis, originally established in 1685; a "Boom Town" that contains some of the oil rigging and tools used by roughnecks during the 1920s; an antique hand-carved carousel; and at the park's demonstration of Texas railroads, which provides visitors a view of some of the original narrow-gauge railway tracks used in the nineteenth century. The 205-acre park, constructed at a total cost of $10 million, offers more than 100 rides and shows for the price of admission. Popular recording artists perform at the Music Mill Theater during the evenings. An amphitheater provides revues, and a number of restaurants serve traditional Southern, Mexican, and American foods. Rides include a runaway train, a 143-foot-tall wooden rollercoaster, a log-flume water ride, and the "Cliff-hanger," which provides the sensation of stepping off a nine-story building and free-falling for 155 feet. In its first thirty years of operation, Six Flags over Texas had forty million visitors. The park is open on weekends from March through May, daily from June through Labor Day, and on weekends through early November. Between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve the park hosts a festival called Holiday in the Park.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Texas (Austin: Texas Monthly Press, 1982; rev. ed., 1989).
