OK Corral, Western theme park in Cuges-les-Pins, France
OK Corral is a western-themed amusement park at Cuges-les-Pins in the Bouches-du-Rhône, between Marseille and Toulon. Its entrance area features a large circus tent with a conical roof of alternating yellow and blue vertical stripes edged by a red band, and a square wooden tower with a dark pointed roof rising from its peak. A dirt ground holds a second tent with gold and white panels, a dark statue on a pale stone base, and a wooden building whose sign reads "TENTE APACHE SHOW".
Jacky Rex and his wife opened a ranch in 1966 and gave it a Western theme. In 1970 Claude Lorge bought it, fenced the grounds, added the first rides and introduced paid entry. The Bembom Brothers, from the Netherlands, took over in 1979 and drove its growth; the World of Tipis lodgings followed in 1993.
The park takes its name from the 1881 gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Arizona, and its western buildings grew from the ranch opened by Jacky Rex and his wife in 1966. Presenters from the radio station RMC, among them Jean-Pierre Foucault, Carole Chabrier and Léon, once hosted and commented on the park's shows.
The park sits between Marseille and Toulon at Cuges-les-Pins, with the entrance leading into the western village of wooden buildings before the rides. The grounds are fenced, and the water slides Blue River and Carbon Canyon have operated since 1994. The Tipi village, with more than sixty tipis, lies on a separate plot near the park.
The park's name comes from the 1881 gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Its record attendance was reached on Sunday 30 October 2016, with 10,000 visitors in a single day. Around 400,000 people visit each year.
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