A lot has changed since Nashville Shores opened on Percy Priest Lake nearly 30 years ago, but the thrill of speeding down a waterslide hasn’t faded one bit.
Middle Tennessee's biggest water park replaced Hermitage Landing, which operated from 1971 to 1997. Nashville Shores opened on the property a year later on June 17, 1998.
It all started with just a pair of waterslides, but expansions over the years have brought more water attractions, alongside the park’s adjacent marina, lakeside cabins and RV campground.
There have been several upgrades at the park over the years. A multimillion-dollar expansion ahead of the 2015 season brought the 57-foot-tall, 530-foot-long raft waterslide Big Kahuna, several years after the park added features like a wave
pool, a lazy river, and a giant water treehouse and spray ground.
And a few years later, coinciding with Nashville Shores’ 20th anniversary, the park launched Aqua Park, an interactive playground floating right on the lake.
Today, thrill-seekers have 10 slides to choose from. That includes the towering Mega Mayhem, the biggest slide in park history and one of only six slides of its kind installed around the world, and the Riptide Racer, which stands over 50 feet high and is longer than a football field.
In June, Kansas City, Missouri-based real estate investment firm EPR Properties purchased Nashville Shores for $12 million, after Premier Parks operated the park for more than 17 years.
That didn’t affect the current season, though, which is still underway in case you’ve yet to get your water park fix this summer. The week of Aug. 10 was the last full week of operations for the season, but Nashville Shores will continue to open on weekends only through Sept. 20.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Nashville Shores evolved from 2 slides to a regional attraction
