Matugani is a steel accelerator roller coaster located at

Lost Island Theme Park Lost Island Theme Park is a amusement park, theme park in Waterloo, Iowa. The park includes five themed lands, which feature numerous attractions; including three roller coasters. Lost Island Theme Park is owned by the Bertch family, who operate ...

Waterloo, Iowa Waterloo is a city in and the county seat of Black Hawk County, Iowa, Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2020 United States census the population was 67,314, making it the List of cities in Iowa, eighth-most populous city in the st ...

, United States. Manufactured by

Intamin Intamin Amusement Rides is a design and manufacturing company in Schaan, Liechtenstein, best-known for designing and constructing Amusement ride, thrill rides and roller coasters at dozens of international theme parks, amusement parks and other e ...

, it originally opened at

Liseberg Liseberg is an amusement park located in Gothenburg, Sweden, that opened in 1923. It is the second most visited theme park in Scandinavia, with around three million visitors annually. Among the noteworthy attractions is the wooden roller coaste ...

amusement park in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

, Sweden, in 2005 as Kanonen ("the cannon"). The ride features a

hydraulic launch The launched roller coaster is a type of roller coaster that initiates a ride with high amounts of acceleration via one or a series of linear induction motors (LIM), linear synchronous motors (LSM), catapults, tires, chains, or other mechanisms em ...

and two inversions. The coaster was built with a tightly packed layout because of the limited area that was available at Liseberg. On December 30, 2016, Kanonen closed permanently at Liseberg, and was relocated to Lost Island Theme Park to make room for the park's new ride Valkyria, a

Bolliger & Mabillard Bolliger & Mabillard, officially Bolliger & Mabillard Consulting Engineers, Inc. and often abbreviated B&M, is a roller coaster design consultancy based in Monthey, Switzerland. The company was founded in 1988 by engineers Walter Bolliger and Cl ...

dive coaster. The coaster was dismantled and sold in 2018 to Lost Island Water Park, where it reopened in 2023.

History

Liseberg

In 2002, Liseberg's only looping roller coaster HangOver, a

Vekoma Vekoma Rides Manufacturing is an amusement ride manufacturer. Vekoma is a syllabic abbreviation of Veld Koning Machinefabriek (Veld Koning Machine Factory) which was established in 1926 by Hendrik op het Veld. History The company originally manu ...

Invertigo Invertigo were an Australian four-piece pop rock group active in the early 2000s. They originally formed as Vertigo in 1996, by the three Leigh brothers: Jerry (born 10 May 1961) on guitar, James (born 1 December 1967) on keyboards and Vince (b ...

model, was removed. The park contacted several roller coaster manufacturers with the aim of introducing a new looping ride, with the winning bid coming from

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

company

. Lars-Erik Hedin, technical director of Liseberg said "Due to the good experiences with

Balder Baldr (Old Norse also Balder, Baldur) is a god in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, he is a son of the god Odin and the goddess Frigg, and has numerous brothers, such as Thor and Váli. In wider Germanic mythology, the god was known in ...

and the impressive catapult launch we decided to mandate Intamin again with the project". In 2016,

announced that Kanonen would close to be replaced by a B&M

dive coaster The Dive Coaster is a steel roller coaster model developed and engineered by Bolliger & Mabillard. The design features one or more near-vertical drops that are approximately 90 degrees, which provide a moment of free-falling for passengers. T ...

called Valkyria in 2018. December 30, 2016 was Kanonen's last day, it was then dismantled and sold afterwards.

Lost Island Theme Park

On July 19, 2018, the roller coaster was sold to Lost Island Water Park located in

. It was planned to be included within a theme park expansion of the complex that was planned to open in 2022 and was initially set to be placed on the park's lake shore before soil stability concerns resulted in it trading places with the Yuta Falls flume ride. Located in the Yuta Earth Tribe realm, the coaster was renamed Matugani, with a green track repaint and snake themed trains. Matugani did not open with the rest of the park in June 2022, as the new brake motor parts were delayed by supply chain issues. Within the attraction's backstory, Matugani is a giant emerald serpent that prowled the jungle of the Yuta Realm and was considered a menace until it rescued the Yuta people when their civilization became trapped in their mines in a landslide by guiding them back to the surface through one of their burrows. This act lead the Yuta to begin living in balance with nature and Matugani was celebrated as a wise protector. The coaster's station is themed as the Yuta's former mining headquarters, now converted into a temple to honor Matugani.

Track layout

After departing the station, Matugani's 16-person trains are accelerated to 72 km/h straight into a high top hat element. This is immediately followed by an air time hill and a high

vertical loop The generic roller coaster vertical loop, also known as a Loop-the-loop, or a Loop-de-loop, where a section of track causes the riders to complete a 360 degree turn, is the most basic of roller coaster inversions. At the top of the loop, rid ...

, the first inversion of the ride. After a highly banked turnaround, the trains pass through a

heartline roll Roller coasters are widely known for their drops, inversions, airtime, and other intense ride elements that contribute to the ride. They are also made up of a variety of features and components responsible for the mechanical operation and safety ...

before entering the

brake run A brake run on a roller coaster is any section of track that utilizes some form of brakes to slow or stop a roller coaster train. There are various types of braking methods employed on roller coasters, including friction brakes, skid brakes, a ...

, bringing the ride to an end.

Rollbacks

On June 8, 2009, a train got balanced at the top of the top-hat with 14 riders on board.

References

{{Reflist Lost Island Theme Park Roller coasters in Iowa Fictional snakes Articles containing video clips