Powder Keg: A Blast into the Wilderness

Powder Keg is a steel roller coaster at Silver Dollar City that winds through a wooded landscape with a compressed air launch system and sharp spiraling turns. The ride carries trains holding 16 passengers across four cars arranged with two seats per row.

This ride opened in 2005 as a replacement for Buzzsaw Falls in the same section of the park. Elements from the earlier attraction, including its original lift hill structure, were incorporated into the new design.

The ride's name and setting reference the gunpowder production that took place in nearby Marvel Cave during the 1800s, when workers gathered raw materials from the ground below. This mining heritage shapes how the coaster area looks and feels, with design elements tied to that period of extraction and industry.

The ride processes a high number of visitors per hour, so waits tend to be manageable during most times of day. The wooded setting around the coaster provides natural shade while you wait between rides.

This coaster uses two different acceleration methods: a compressed air launch that accelerates trains from 0 to 53 mph in seconds, followed by a traditional chain lift. This mix of modern and classical engineering on a single ride makes it stand out.