Kings Dominion, Amusement park in Doswell, Virginia, United States.
Kings Dominion is an amusement park in Doswell, Virginia, covering 280 acres (113 hectares) with more than 60 rides. The grounds include 13 roller coasters and a 20-acre (8-hectare) water park called Soak City.
The park opened on May 3, 1975, with a wooden coaster called Rebel Yell and a monorail safari through animal enclosures. Over the following decades, management added steel coasters and themed areas.
The facility once influenced when Virginia students returned to class each year, as management needed enough seasonal workers through early September. That requirement ended decades later, though locals still remember the scheduling rule by the park's name.
The site sits 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Richmond and 75 miles (121 kilometers) south of Washington D.C., opening from spring through fall. Visitors should arrive early on warm weekends and plan breaks in the water park when queues grow long.
One of the coasters drops 305 feet (93 meters) and reaches speeds of 90 miles per hour (145 kilometers per hour) along its steel track. The structure opened in 2010 and belongs to the giga coaster category for extreme dimensions.
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