Jaguar!

Through the mid-1990s Knott's expanded Fiesta Village's Mexican-inspired setting, and rather than adding another generic family mine-train ride, the park commissioned Zamperla to build a coaster wrapped in a full themed backstory: the legend of a Mayan Temple of the Jaguar, guarded by an ancient stone jaguar statue that still stands over the layout today.

The ride covers about a tenth of the park's total acreage as its train winds past temple ruins and jungle set dressing, climbing to 40 feet and reaching 35 mph across 1,600 feet of track — modest statistics by thrill-coaster standards, but paired with an unusually elaborate theme for a family-oriented mine train of its era.

Jaguar opened in 1995 as one of the first Knott's coasters designed around a specific narrative rather than a straightforward ride concept, setting a template the park would return to with rides like Pony Express and HangTime years later.

Three decades on, Jaguar remains a Fiesta Village anchor and one of the more thoroughly themed family coasters in the park, valued as much for its temple set dressing as for its gentle mine-train layout.