One hopeful highlight from my Ohio trip last month was a wooden roller coaster at King's Island that was not operational. Called "Son of Beast", it was the tallest wooden coaster in the world and, at first, the only one with a loop. It was so tall, it still holds the title of the only wooden hypercoaster ever built. However, an incident on the ride caused it to be closed down in the mid-2000s for repairs. During those repairs, lighter coaster cars were used and the loop removed to ease strain on the structure, as structural failure was the cause of the accident (though no one died as a result of it).

Later, in 2009, Son of Beast was blamed for another injury that, suspiciously, wasn't reported until 2 weeks after the victim rode the coaster. Although the claim has ultimately come to be accepted as fraudulent, Son of Beast has been closed since then. For the next three years, it stood as a tribute to how far wooden coaster technology could be pushed while the park's owners, Cedar Fairs, could decide on what to do with it. Ever since I saw it, I've wanted to conquer it. I've been hoping that it would reopen in the future. Unfortunately, the other day Cedar Fairs dashed all of those hopes against the wall with the announcement that Son of Beast will be removed from the park for good, to make room for additional attractions.

Son of Beast...you will be missed. I can only hope that whatever replaces it will be at least as good as Son of Beast was.