Project
Mystery Mine Steel Rollercoaster
Dollywood Theme Park, TN

Nature of Facilities
Theme park attraction

Client
Theme park attraction

Date of Completion
June 2007

Scope of Work
Audio visual entertainment technology, show control of special effects, documentation and installation.

Challenges/Solutions
Mystery Mine is the United States’ first system based on Gerstlauer’s Euro-fighter ride, which combines an intimate guest experience with hair-raising 95-degree drops. Located in Dollywood’s Timber Canyon area, Mystery Mine is themed as a long-abandoned coal mine with an eerie past. Mystery Mine utilizes a state-of-the-art show experience built on special effects, audio video integration and lots of excitement. ETI installed multiple zones of audio soundscapes within the structure as well as audio playback for the cue line areas that includes pre-recorded safety announcements. In addition, ETI tied the audio into the park wide auditorium sound system. One of the key scenes in the attraction is at the top of a vertical lift which creates the illusion of looking through the roof at the stormy skies beyond. This is accomplished with front 3d projection theatre onto an angled screen that both enhanced the illusion and reduced maintenance time. The projection is sourced from a hard disk based High Definition (HD) media player. Through a series of tracked mounted ride vehicle sensors, the show control system triggered the various audio and visual cues, as well as several other special effects such as wind, fog, fire, show action equipment and lighting effects. The Mystery Mine opened with rave reviews from Dolly Parton and the Herschend Team.