History
Frontier City was opened in 1958 as a Western "town" theme-park. It opened up at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds, but moved to its current location a few years later to become a "boom town," since it sprung-up quickly. The park added spinning rides, several roller coasters and a log flume ride starting in the 1960s and 1970s. Rather than a traditional ribbon cutting, Frontier City was scheduled to have an old fashioned six shooter aimed at a piece of rope stretched across the stockade entrance. The rope stretched across main street is still used today for the opening of the park.
Frontier City was originally owned and operated by Premier Parks. It was the company's first and flagship park. Premier Parks' corporate offices were located at the southeast corner of the Frontier City property until 2006 when the company's offices were moved to New York. Premier Parks purchased Six Flags Inc. in 1998. It was thought that Frontier City, Wild Waves/Enchanted Village, and Great Escape would eventually be re-branded as Six Flags parks, but they never were. The other two parks sols Six Flags season passes good at all Six Flags parks except for Frontier City and White Water Bay. The Frontier City passes were only good there and not at other Six Flags parks. But in some years, Six Flags passes were also available for purchase at a higher price. Six Flags corporate offices remained in Oklahoma City, but left in 2006, despite Oklahoma City's now booming economy.
On January 27, 2006, Six Flags put Frontier City and White Water Bay, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Elitch Gardens, Darien Lake, a couple of waterparks, and Wild Waves/Enchanted Village for sale. At the same time, Six Flags also announced its plan to close corporate offices in Oklahoma City and move to New York City. Six Flags CEO Mark Shapiro had said he expected the parks to continue operation after the sale. But rumors surfaced that some of them could close.
On January 11, 2007, Six Flags opted to keep Magic Mountain, but then announced that it would sell Frontier City and White Water Bay, along with Elitch Gardens, Darien Lake, Splashtown (near Houston), and Wild Waves/Enchanted Village to PARC 7F-Operations. As a part of the deal, the Six Flags prefix was removed from the names of Elitch Gardens and Darien Lake. Frontier City and White Water Bay were never branded as Six Flags parks.
Since the management was changed from Six Flags to PARC Management, Frontier City has been granted the largest capital investment that the park has seen in its 50 years. The new ownership allowed for the addition of the Steel Lasso, as well as a few minor changes within the park.
On November 24, 2010, CNL announced that it had reached an agreement to terminate PARC's lease of Elitch Gardens and up to 17 other locations. The move came after, according to their 2010 SEC filings, PARC defaulted on their lease obligations on the properties. Five of the original six parks originally purchased from Six Flags are also involved in the lease termination.
CNL Lifestyle Properties, Inc., owners of Frontier City; Frontier City theme park and White Water Bay water park again will be getting the Six Flags management touch when former Six Flags executives Kieran Burke and Gary Story begin managing the properties.
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