Classic Florida Roller Coaster Emerges from Storage

People often find delightful, long-forgotten treasures in storage: classic cars, a trove of historical photographs, early works of famous artists. It’s rare to find something as large as a roller coaster in storage. But that is what happened to roller coaster lovers Teddy and Jenny Meeks. The Meeks have uncovered the old Starliner roller coaster, a historic wooden coaster built in the 1960s, and are bringing it back to Florida's Miracle Strip.

The Starliner, which is 70 feet tall, 2,640 feet long, and includes eight hills and a tunnel, was the first permanent roller coaster in the state of Florida. It was originally built in 1963 to be a part of the Miracle Strip Amusement Park, in Panama City Beach, Florida. It operated there for 40 years, until the park closed in 2004. Then the coaster was purchased by Cypress Gardens in 2004. By 2006, the Starliner was one of only 11 roller coasters like it worldwide to still remain operational. But then Cypress Gardens closed, and the historic wooden coaster was carefully dismantled and put into storage in Tampa. Legoland bought the Cypress Gardens property earlier this year, but announced that the Starliner would not be a part of Legoland Florida.

New owners Teddy and Jenny Meeks expect to spend about two million dollars to buy the Starliner, move it and rebuild it near Pier Park at Panama City Beach. During the rebuilding, the Meeks will provide the Starliner with a new magnetic braking structure and other safety improvements to bring the roller coaster into compliance with modern safety codes. The coaster will keep its wooden structure, however. It has not been decided yet exactly where the Starliner will be located, but it will open for rides no later than the spring of 2012.

Teddy Meeks told The Panama City News Herald that he and his partners had initially expected to use the wood from the Starliner to make a boardwalk for the carousel and for other rides at Pier Park. But then “we just decided to take the risk,” he said, and bring the entire coaster back for refurbishing and make it operational again. They hope to get a $250,000 grant from Pepsi to help pay for the Starliner’s restoration (Jenny Meeks noted in the News Herald that Pepsi recently awarded a grant to a wooden roller coaster in Pennsylvania to pay for restoration).

The Starliner is not the first treasure the Meeks have rescued from storage and installed at Pier Park. They previously bought a balloon ride and a biplane ride from the Miracle Strip. Both are functioning at Pier Park today. The Meeks also paid for the refurbishing of the painted ponies from the old Miracle Strip carousel.

Sources used:

Caldwell, Leigh. “Classic Florida Starliner roller coaster rescued from storage.” Gadling.com. Oct. 4, 2010.

Kelly, Pat. “Old ‘Starliner’ roller coaster to return to Panama City Beach.” The Panama City News Herald. Oct. 2, 2010.

Shrout, Ryan. “Starliner moving back to miracle strip.” Coaster-net.com. Oct. 4, 2010.