Demon

Demon (originally known as Turn of the Century) is an Arrow Dynamics Custom Looping Coaster roller coaster which is an opening day attraction at both Great America parks. Originally opening as Turn of the Century, the roller coaster featured airtime hills which were turned into loops during the 1980 season.

Demon was one of the very first roller coasters to feature a corkscrew which made the ride very popular on opening. After it's conversion to Demon, it was one of the biggest looping coasters for a while.

History
Turn of the Century debuted as one of three opening day roller coasters, along with Gulf Coaster in Orleans Place and Willard's Whizzer in Hometown Square. It is thought that Turn of the Century was a late-stage addition to Great America as park models made near the beginning of construction do not show Turn of the Century and also because the model Turn of the Century is, a Custom Looping Coaster by Arrow Dynamics, was introduced in 1975. At opening, Turn of the Century proved to be extremely popular, seeing over a million riders before the 1976 season ended. Turn of the Century was one of the first roller coasters to feature a corkscrew, something revolutionary for the era as the first corkscrew roller coaster opened just a year prior, in 1975. Turn of the Century attracted millions of interested riders who sought to ride on one of the first corkscrew roller coasters, something never before seen.

The first few seasons of Turn of the Century were uneventful; no incidents occurred on the ride. In 1979, the rail of the corkscrew was painted red after the Looney Toons' Tasmanian Devil.

In 1980, Turn of the Century received a massive overhaul. Renamed to Demon, the roller coaster saw the replacement of it's airtime hills with two new loops. The theming was also redone completely for the entire roller coaster. New rock formations were added all around the track with the most eye-catching addition being a rock shaped in the form of a face which seemed to eat train cars as they entered the corkscrew. From the face-looking rock formation stemmed a red waterfall next to the corkscrews. The track and station were painted black along with one of the train cars (the other two train cars were repainted yellow and red).

Landscaping received very big changes as the queue for Turn of the Century was expanded and several external changes such as a new tunnel being added for the railway to pass through with trees on top. All of the landscaping changes also ended up requiring Hilltopper to be moved a few hundred feet away. After this was done, it was renamed to Industrial Revolution. Demon also now sported a new song, the Demon Song, and had an entire soundtrack made for it which played in the queue and explained the origins of 'the demon' and why the ride transformed from Turn of the Century to Demon. The song explained that scientists thought the demon may have originated from the Louisiana swaps, the bottom of New York harbor or from a lump of green slime that landed in New Mexico in 1923. It is then explained that after Marriott missed a few payments for the roller coaster, the demon repossessed the ride (a nod to demonic possession).

After Shockwave was removed in Gurnee, parts of Shockwave's corkscrew were reused on Demon as the waterfall by the corkscrew had corroded the metal and thus necessitated that it be replaced. The lift hill was also reused on Demon.

On April 18, 1998, before the 1998 season started, Six Flags Great America opened for a private event for employees of U.S. Steel. At around 11am, Demon became stuck in the first loop. 23 riders were upside down for 2 hours while firefighters helped them down using a cherry picker. According to a subsequent investigation by the Illinois Department of Labor, a wheel inside the track separated from the rear assembly on the last car after a nut became loose.

As the years went after Marriott sold the parks, in the 1990s, Demon began to lose many of it's theming elements such as it's signs, decals on the train cars, smoke and lighting effects, and eventually the soundtrack which played in the station queue. In 2005, Six Flags Great America reintroduced most of the themimg elements for its annual Fright Fest, such as the decals, logo, and lighting effects along with the soundtrack. These persisted when the park reopened in the 2006 season and since then, the Gurnee park has restored most of the elements which had been removed excluding the front signage. At both Great America parks, only the wordmark for Demon appears at the front, the logo featuring eyes peeking through a sewer drain are still absent apart from the train decals. The logo only reappears partially in the Gurnee park during Fright Fest.