The Demon

Story

Demon is a multi-looping roller coaster at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois in the Chicago area and California's Great America in Santa Clara, California. Both coasters opened in 1976 as Turn of the Century and were heavily rethemed and renamed as Demon in 1980.HistoryThe Turn of the Century coasters opened with both Marriott's Great America parks in 1976 and were designed by Arrow Dynamics. Both were painted blue and were among some of the first roller coasters to feature a double corkscrew. They also featured two airtime hills after the first drop. The hills were well known for ejecting loose articles from the trains, such as hats, sunglasses and stuffed animals. The ride was custom-built for both parks.After the 1979 season, Turn of the Century was heavily modified. The airtime hills after the first drop were removed and replaced with two back to back vertical loops and a lighted tunnel. Fake rock formations were built around the second loop and around the first half of the lift hill, with a third formation just before the corkscrews. The entire ride was painted black and was renamed Demon. In addition to the re-design, the theme was changed as well. Fog machines were placed in the tunnels, blood red colored water fell out of the rock formation by the corkscrews and a unique logo was unveiled. The original trains were also modified. A three-dimensional logo was attached to the front car of each train and flames were painted on the sides of the cars. In 1980 when the loops were added it became the 2nd 4 inversion roller coaster. The 1st was the Carolina Cyclone which opened 2 months earlier and is a very similar roller coaster The storyline of the ride's transformation heard in the Demon soundtrack is that the park accidentally missed three payments on the roller coaster, and that a demon has repossessed the ride.