General · EdgepediaSeptember 17, 20267 min read

Six Flags Over Texas

Six Flags Over Texas is a 205-acre theme park in Arlington, Texas, located between Dallas and Fort Worth just off Interstate Highway 30 and State Highway 360. It opened on August 5, 1961 as one of the first theme entertainment centers in the United States, gave the Six Flags chain its name, and today operates as part of Six Flags Entertainment Corporation with more than 100 rides, shows, and attractions, including 14 roller coasters.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Opened	August 5, 1961, with a reported 8,374 visitors on opening day¹
Founder	Angus G. Wynne, Jr., a Texas oil man and real estate developer; initial investment of $10 million on a 105-acre tract¹^•²
Name	Represents the six flags that have flown over Texas: Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America, and the United States¹
Size and rides	205 acres; more than 100 rides, shows, and attractions, including 14 roller coasters such as Tormenta Rampaging Run, New Texas Giant, and Titan¹^•²
Ownership	Six Flags Entertainment Corporation owned approximately 54.1% of the Texas limited partnership interests as of December 31, 2024, and operates the park under a partnership arrangement running to 2028³^•⁴
Notable safety event	A 52-year-old Dallas woman was killed on the Texas Giant roller coaster in 2013; the park redesigned restraint-bar pads and seat belts and added a test seat at the ride's entrance⁵
Chaperone policy	Since September 2024, children under 15 must be accompanied by someone over 21 after 4 p.m.⁶

Origins and founding

The park was the brainchild of Angus G. Wynne, Jr., a University of Texas at Arlington graduate (then North Texas Agricultural College) who served in the Navy during World War II and then entered the real estate business with partners. Wynne conceived a massive industrial park in the Arlington/Grand Prairie area, which he called the Great Southwest Industrial District. When the district struggled financially in its early years, he proposed a sporting complex to draw visitors; during planning, a family visit to Disneyland in Anaheim inspired him to build a theme park with a Texas theme instead.¹

Construction began in August 1960 on a 105-acre tract between Arlington and Grand Prairie, backed by a $10 million initial investment that many local leaders and businesspeople doubted would succeed. The park's grand opening on August 5, 1961 reportedly drew 8,374 visitors. By the end of that first year the owners had committed another half million dollars to new attractions, including a "city" depicting Texas's Spindletop oil-boom era, an expanded lake, live entertainment, and the jungle-themed Skull Island.¹

The park's six original themed sections each referenced one of the historic governments that had ruled Texas: Spain, Mexico, France, Texas, the United States, and the Confederacy.⁷ Replicas of historic places carried Texas Historical Commission markers, including a replica of Fort St. Louis (established 1685), a Boom Town with 1920s oil rigging, an antique hand-carved carousel, and a railroad demonstration with original nineteenth-century narrow-gauge track.¹

The flags controversy

The Confederate national flag, the "Stars and Bars," flew at the park alongside the five other national flags until 2017, when all historic national flags, including those at the entry mall, were replaced by American flags. The change drew criticism from visitors who saw theme parks as a medium for teaching history, but it continued a movement away from direct ties to Texas history that had been underway at the park for decades.⁸

Growth and attractions

By 1972, just over a decade after opening, the park had grown to more than ninety rides and attractions, a 300-foot oil derrick, and numerous theaters and auditoriums, and it recorded two million annual visitors. Expansion continued through the 1980s and 1990s with larger and more thrilling roller coasters. In its first thirty years the park received forty million visitors, and in 2011 it was the number one paid tourist attraction in the southwestern United States.¹

Current lineup. The park's roller coasters include New Texas Giant and Titan, and in 2026 it opened Tormenta Rampaging Run, which the park describes as the tallest, fastest, longest, and first-and-only giga dive coaster in the world.² Other signature rides include Batman: The Ride, a suspended looping coaster with five inversions located next to Mr. Freeze, and the family-oriented Bugs Bunny Boomtown section for young children.⁹ The adjacent Hurricane Harbor Arlington water park, with attractions such as the Surf Lagoon wave pool, operates alongside the theme park.¹⁰

The park's seasonal calendar runs from weekends in March through May, daily from June through Labor Day, and weekends through early November, with a "Holiday in the Park" festival between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve.¹

Ownership and corporate history

The park was originally owned and operated by the Great Southwest Corporation, and it was founded partly as a money-making scheme to support the surrounding commercial development.¹ Unlike most Six Flags parks, Six Flags Over Texas has always been held through a partnership structure: a company set up to own, but not operate, the park, with Six Flags Entertainment Corporation controlling day-to-day operations while investors hold the remaining ownership percentage.³

As of December 31, 2024, Six Flags Entertainment Corporation owned approximately 54.1% of the Texas limited partnership interests. Under the merger agreement that combined Six Flags with Cedar Fair (closed July 1, 2024), the Combined Company assumed obligations regarding the "Partnership Parks," Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags Over Texas, with the Texas obligations continuing until 2028 and an election regarding the park required by December 31, 2025. In January 2026 the company announced it would not exercise its option to buy out the remaining partners, continuing the existing ownership contracts.³^•⁴

The July 2024 merger created a combined company worth more than $3.5 billion operating 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks, and nine resort properties across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, trading under the ticker FUN.¹¹

Role in Arlington's economy

Six Flags Over Texas anchors Arlington's Entertainment District, alongside AT&T Stadium, Globe Life Field, Hurricane Harbor, and the National Medal of Honor Museum. More than 15 million visitors come to Arlington each year, and visitor spending supports the city's sales tax base, which nearly doubled from $48.8 million in 2005 to an estimated $97 million in 2025, helping the city keep property tax rates low for two decades.¹² Arlington visitor spending reached a record $4.5 billion in 2023, supporting nearly 27,600 jobs and generating $341 million in state and local tax revenues.¹³

The park's parent company has also felt economic headwinds. Arlington-based Six Flags Entertainment estimated that 400,000 fewer people visited its theme parks in the three months ending July 2, 2023 because of heat waves across the South.¹⁴

Safety record and regulation

A fatal accident occurred in 2013, when a Dallas woman, aged 52, fell out of the Texas Giant coaster after coming loose from her seat. Six Flags responded by redesigning restraint-bar pads and seat belts and adding a test seat at the ride's entrance so guests could check whether they fit safely.⁵ The federal government has no regulatory authority over roller coasters and comparable attractions at big amusement parks like Six Flags; instead, states provide oversight, and following a distinct 2025 death at Six Flags Over Georgia, Georgia's insurance and safety commissioner carried out a thorough investigation.¹⁵ Industry-wide, a study conducted for the International Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions found 4.3 injuries per million park attendees in 2011 across 383 parks.¹⁶

References

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026