Any roller coaster fan worth their salt knows the name The Beast. According to Guinness World Records, The Beast is the longest wooden roller coaster in existence. This roller coaster lives up to its fierce name with a jarring and thrilling ride over 7,400 feet of track at speeds of over 60 miles an hour.
The Beast roller coaster was built in 1979 and was designed by Charlie Dinn, who designed many of the great roller coasters found in theme parks across the U.S.
While The Beast may seem slow in comparison to more modern rides, this roller coaster makes up in thrill what it lacks in speed. Most roller coasters today will zip you though the track in under a minute. The Beast will keep you in its clutches for a whopping four minutes and seven seconds! During the ride you will be launched a twisted web of turns, hills and almost too small tunnels with the signature double helix at the end that The Beast is famous for.
What makes this roller coaster even more thrilling is the fact that it was built out into an undeveloped part of the park, which by design or accident has remained to this day undeveloped. So, while you are whipping through the ride’s twists and turns, you are under the impression that the roller coaster is in fact a living beast that is dragging you through the wilderness.
Of course, a ride like this is not without its legends and rumors. The Beast roller coaster is supposedly haunted. The Beast’s ghostly reputation started shortly after its completion. The story goes, that during the testing phase, one of the test dummies came back without a head. Just for the record, The Beast has never done this to a live person and has an excellent safety record.
After the ride was opened to the public, both employees and riders reported seeing a ghostly light chasing the roller coaster cars around the track at night. Investigations into the light have turned up no reasonable explanation. There are some rumors that the light is related to an accident that occurred at the Eiffel Tower (another King’s Island attraction) in the 1970’s. A boy was killed in the elevator mechanism on the Tower and the elevator was redone. The cables from the old elevator were supposedly reused as some of the cable supports for The Beast. One legend says that the ghostly light is the ghost of this boy.
The legend of The Beast ghost was famous enough to come to the attention of young adult horror writer, R.L. Stein, who used the legend as a loose basis for his book “The Beast”.
Whether the ghost stories are true or not, The Beast roller coaster is certainly worth the wait time in line to ride it. The Beast has been named the all time best roller coaster in several polls and every year roller coaster enthusiasts from around the world travel to Cincinnati, OH just for the privilege of riding The Beast.
So, next time you find yourself in the Ohio area, you may want to try to tame The Beast as well.