I breached this subject here a long time ago. I was a manager of a place in El Reno, OK, that had aspirations of being SDC for Oklahoma. We had a great start, but the oil bust and bank failures of the 80s fought back. The place went bankrupt with a full-scale railroad in the works with its dirt work already completed. The engine lay in ruins, never to be seen again. It would have been built around a beautiful 10-acre lake. We already took hayrides through a 40-head buffalo herd, but it would have been awesome to ride the rails through the herd. We also had a restaurant that was modeled after a horse barn, a petting farm, local indigenous animals including a wolf, elk, mountain lion, etc. The owners restored a working waterwheel-turned grist mill. I was successful in operating a full educational program for local schools. I had even taken the areal photos of the place and planned the whole park, with rides themed to authentic Oklahoma history. If only...I could be CEO today!
I showed these plans and outlined the rides to someone at SDC after realizing our place was not going to make it, and was offered a position at SDC as some kind of "educational manager", creating programs to kids to participate in while parents attended the Echo Hollow show in the evenings. In my sharing, I may have planted the seeds for some of the projects that have come to SDC since that time (I doubt it, but some of the attractions have been similar, though not exactly the same.).