Wild Mouse

By the late 1990s, the compact wild-mouse format had become a popular way for parks to add a genuine steel-coaster credit without committing the space or budget of a full-sized thrill ride, and Lagoon installed one on the South Midway in 1998 with Maurer Rides supplying the hardware.

Small single-row cars climb a short lift before a sequence of sharp zigzagging turns and sudden small drops send riders through 1,214 feet of track, generating lateral forces well out of proportion to the ride's modest 49-foot height and 28 mph top speed — the wild-mouse format's signature trade-off of intensity for compact scale.

The ride's narrow gauge track and boxy, low-slung cars have remained visually unchanged even as Lagoon added far larger and more technically ambitious steel coasters like Wicked and Cannibal to the surrounding midway in the decades since.

More than 25 years after opening, Wild Mouse continues to serve South Midway guests as one of Lagoon's most accessible steel credits, a common step up for riders working toward the park's bigger thrill coasters.