California’s Great America will open a milestone season Saturday, marking the Santa Clara amusement park’s 50th anniversary.
Both Bill Marriott, former CEO of Marriott International, and his dad, founder J.W. Marriott, were on hand when the $70 million park first opened its gates on March 20, 1976. An estimated 15,000 people ventured to check out more than two dozen rides that day, including the double-decker Columbia carousel — which remains the park’s iconic symbol today — and the Turn of the Century rollercoaster.
A Mercury News article about the opening noted an admission cost of $7.95 for adults and a buck less for kids over three. Parking was just $1, and park officials expected most people would spend $13 to $15 during their visit. A daily ticket today will set you back $85 at the gate, but just $45 online. A season pass is still the best value at $85, and that includes parking. (All the details are available at sixflags.com/cagreatamerica.)
Marriott sold the park to the city of Santa Clara in 1985, and it later changed hands from Kings Entertainment and Paramount until finally landing in 2006 with Cedar Fair, which merged with Six Flags in 2024.
Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes crew were Great America’s original costumed characters. But five decades later, they’ve been replaced by Snoopy and the Peanuts gang. A lot of the original rides are still around, though some have changed names, and early favorites like the Tidal Wave and the triple-Ferris wheel Sky Whirl are just memories, replaced by “thrillier” thrill rides like Gold Striker and Flight Deck.
California’s Great America
Guests ride the Rail Blazer roller coaster at California’s Great America amusement park in 2021, in Santa Clara, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
California’s Great America
Riders on the Wrath of Rakshasa roller coaster at Six Flags Great America in Illinois. (Courtesy of Six Flags)
The Gold Striker roller coaster at California’s Great America, which has no new attractions this year as Six Flags ponders what it might do for the park’s 50th anniversary next year. Following a 2022 sale of the land on which the park operates, Great America could close as soon as 2028 (photo courtesy of Six Flags).
Elianna Hernandez Franco, 5, right, and her brother Romeo, 6, get a hug fro Snoopy during the 36th Courageous Kids Day held at California’s Great America in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, May 11, 2025. Elianna is battling leukemia and is undergoing stem cell transplants. Courageous Kids Day was started by two-time cancer survivor Gay Crawford on Mother’s Day in 1989. This one day event gives hundreds of young cancer patients and their families the opportunity to have a fun filled day without having to worry about the stresses of battling cancer. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Concept art of the Wrath of Rakshasa roller coaster coming to Six Flags Great America in Illinois. (Courtesy of Six Flags)
Guests ride the Delirium attraction at California’s Great America amusement park in 2021, in Santa Clara, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
The month-long Winterfest at California’s Great America culminates in a New Year’s Eve bash for the whole family. (Courtesy California’s Great America)
(Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
California’s Great America near LeviÕs Stadium in Santa Clara.Ê (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
A child runs towards The American Cancer Society’s Courageous Kids Day at California’s Great America in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, May 14, 2023. The event provides “a day away from cancer” free of charge to hundreds of young cancer patients and their families. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
The Star Tower at California’s Great America amusement park in Santa Clara, Calif., stands guard against the storm clouds rolling into the Bay Area, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022,. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
California’s Great America in Santa Clara, shown in 2007 when it was Paramount Great America, will close within the next 11 years after parent company Cedar Fair agreed to sell the site to a developer. (File photo by Paul Sakuma, The Associated Press)
2015: Diego Rivera cleans up Thunder Raceway as workers prepare for the weekend opening of California’s Great America theme park in Santa Clara, Calif., on Thursday, March 26, 2015. The park will be celebrating its 40th anniversary season. (Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group)
1991: Riders express their exhilaration after completing a ride on “Vortex” at California’s Great America.
1986: Marriott’s Great America patrons enjoy the thrill of riding “The Grizzly” roller coaster in this 1986 image.
SANTA CLARA, CA – JUNE 5: California’s Great America opened the new South Bay Shores water park to the public in Santa Clara, Calif., on Saturday, June 5, 2021. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
SANTA CLARA, CA – JUNE 5: California’s Great America opened the new South Bay Shores water park to the public in Santa Clara, Calif., on Saturday, June 5, 2021. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
SANTA CLARA, CA – MAY 23: Guests are photographed inside California’s Great America amusement park on Sunday, May 23, 2021, in Santa Clara, Calif. The park opened to the public on Saturday for the first time this year, operating at 25% capacity under county COVID-19 restrictions. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 14: Pier 76 Cafe under construction during a preview of California’s Great America’s “South Bay Shores” waterpark in Santa Clara, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. They plan to reopen the waterpark in 2021. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
SANTA CLARA, CA – SEPTEMBER 17: California’s Great America remains closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Santa Clara, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020. The amusement park will remain closed for the 2020 season, according to their website. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor speaks during an opening ceremony for California’s Great America’s newest roller coaster the Patriot at the amusement park in Santa Clara, Calif., on Friday, March 31, 2017. The first floorless coaster in the park’s history takes riders from a nine-story drop, into a 360-degree loop, a helix that threads the loop and a corkscrew at a top speed of 45 mph. The coaster will makes its official park debut on April 1. In celebration of the new ride all current and past military service members with a valid ID will receive free admission from March 25-May 29. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
California’s Great America VP and General Manager Raul Rehnborg, Snoopy and Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor, from left, cut the ribbon at an opening ceremony for the amusement park’s newest roller coaster the Patriot in Santa Clara, Calif., on Friday, March 31, 2017. The first floorless coaster in the park’s history takes riders from a nine-story drop, into a 360-degree loop, a helix that threads the loop and a corkscrew at a top speed of 45 mph. The coaster will makes its official park debut on April 1. In celebration of the new ride all current and past military service members with a valid ID will receive free admission from March 25-May 29. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
The 10-story tall Gold Striker wooden roller coaster made its debut this weekend at Great America in Santa Clara, Calif., luring people Sunday morning, June 2, 2013. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
Entrance, carousel at Great America in Santa Clara. Photo from the 2011 season.
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Guests ride the Rail Blazer roller coaster at California’s Great America amusement park in 2021, in Santa Clara, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Great America got bigger, adding a water park — originally called Crocodile Dundee’s Boomerang Bay and now known as South Bay Shores — in 2004.
The name’s evolved, too, from Marriott’s Great America — kids my age just usually called it Marriott’s — to Paramount’s Great America and now California’s Great America, which gets a failing grade in geographic possibility but distinguishes it from its sibling park, Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Ill., which opened a couple months later in 1976.
Former employees who were part of the Great America staff back in ’76 will be on hand to celebrate the golden anniversary, a group that includes John Poimiroo, an outdoors and travel writer who served as the park’s publicist until the early 1980s. A special 50th anniversary pin will be given to Opening Day guests on Saturday.
In an interesting twist, this is not only the 50th anniversary but the 50th season since the park did not open during 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The less cheerful part of all this is that Great America is unlikely to celebrate a 52nd birthday. In 2019, Cedar Fair bought the 112 acres of land beneath the park, and in 2022 it was sold to Prologis, which agreed to lease back the land for 6 to 11 years. Last June, Six Flags CFO Brian Witherow said the park would close after the 2027 season if the company doesn’t extend the lease.
That should be motivation enough to take one more ride on the Columbia Carousel before it’s too late.
DANNY’S BIRTHDAY: I remember when Danny the Dragon got his AARP card a few years ago, and now he’s already eligible to go on Medicare. That’s right, the green-and-red mascot of San Jose’s Happy Hollow Park & Zoo is turning 65, with a birthday party taking place March 27 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
A couple of Danny’s mascot friends, Frenzy from the San Jose Barracuda and Gigante from the San Jose Giants, will come by for a “Happy Birthday” sing-along at noon.
Sophie Horiuchi-Forrester, left, of the American Association of Retired Persons and Happy Hollow Foundation member Lissa Kreisler, right, present an AARP card to park mascot Danny the Dragon on Thursday, May 25, 2023, at Happy Hollow Park and Zoo in San Jose, Calif. The event celebrated the 62 anniversary of the park and took place on the first Senior Safari day of the season. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Danny’s birthday, of course, coincides with the opening of the park and zoo in 1961, which included the Danny the Dragon train, a ride that has been a rite of passage for San Jose kids for a couple of generations now. Happy Hollow will continue its own 65th anniversary celebration throughout the summer. Get more information and tickets at www.happyhollow.org.
FINAL SHOWS: As you may have heard, 3Below Theaters in downtown San Jose will be closing its doors next month. Owners Scott and Shannon Guggenheim announced that the theater, which has been showcasing live performances and movies since 2018, couldn’t get its footing back.
3Below’s last movies were the Academy Award short-film nominees earlier this month, but it’s going out on a high note with “The Bardy Bunch,” a Shakespeare send-up that pits two 1970s TV clans — the Brady Bunch and the Partridge Family — against each other a la the Capulets and the Montagues. It runs through April 26, and tickets are available at www.3belowtheaters.com.
By the way, in case you’re wondering if this is final or not, the Guggenheims are selling costumes, props, sets and cafe equipment. You can find out more on their website.