American Eagle

American Eagle opened on May 23, 1981, as Intamin's very first wooden roller coaster design — a striking debut for a Swiss company better known at the time for steel rides. Designed by Curtis D. Summers, James Figley, and Leonard Wright and physically built by contractor Figley-Wright at a cost of $10 million, the twin-track racer instantly became the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world at its opening, of any material, a title it would hold for seven years until 1988.

Two trains, painted red and blue, launch side by side down a 127-foot lift hill into a 147-foot first drop reaching 66 mph, racing along nearly parallel out-and-back courses for 4,650 feet before a closing helix brings both trains back together. That combined drop and speed also made it the tallest wooden coaster in the world until 1985 and the fastest wooden coaster until 2000 — records that stood for the better part of two decades even as taller and faster steel coasters eventually overtook its overall standing.

While much of its original wooden track has since been reinforced with steel I-beam supports to reduce maintenance and smooth the ride, American Eagle still holds the title of world's tallest, fastest, and longest racing wooden coaster, and in 2025 the American Coaster Enthusiasts formally designated it a Coaster Landmark. More than four decades after opening, it remains a defining anchor of the County Fair section and one of the last surviving artifacts of the early-1980s wooden coaster height wars.