Amusement Park News

Lost Island Theme Park in Waterloo, Iowa, will become home to Rocky Mountain Construction's first Wild Moose roller coaster in 2027. The new ride, called Forbidden Lair, will be a family shuttle coaster based on RMC's Wild Moose concept.

Forbidden Lair will feature 910 feet of track and a custom layout. It also has the distinction of being the first RMC coaster designed to travel backward. The 79-foot-tall coaster will follow a general ride pattern similar to a family boomerang, with riders initially traveling backward out of the station and up a lift spike before falling forward through the station and navigating the course.

The ride is set to reach speeds of up to 38 mph and provide 11 airtime moments. The experience begins as riders are pulled backward up the 79-foot lift hill.

Gravity then takes over, sending passengers through the coaster's course, which includes an airtime drop from the lift hill, high-speed turns, a junior wave turn and a fly-through of the station.

The ride will also feature a tunnel and a floater airtime hill over Lost Island's Yuta Falls flume ride. Riders will dive into the underground tunnel through an element called the "Subterranean Shimmy," which passes beneath park pathways.

The coaster's turnaround comes with a climb up "Spelunker's Spike," after which the train reverses direction and sends passengers through the course again before returning to the station.

While considered a family coaster, Forbidden Lair will offer a considerably different experience from Lost Island's tamer Lokolo coaster while remaining a step below the park's major thrill coasters, including Nopuko Air Coaster, Matugani and Fire Runner.

Matugani and Fire Runner are both relatively recent additions to Lost Island's ride lineup. Matugani opened in 2023, while Fire Runner debuted in 2025.

Forbidden Lair represents a new direction for RMC, a company best known for intense hybrid and single-rail roller coasters. The Wild Moose concept brings the manufacturer's signature airtime-focused approach to the family coaster market.

The ride's custom design also allows it to make use of its location in Lost Island's Yuta realm. The theme park is divided into five themed areas: Mura, representing Fire; Awa, representing Water; Udara, representing Air; Tamariki, representing Spirit; and Yuta, representing Earth.

Forbidden Lair will become the second roller coaster in the earth-themed Yuta area, joining the high-speed Matugani.

RMC previously supplied Lost Island's Fire Runner, which opened in 2025 as the Midwest's first single-rail coaster. RMC is more commonly associated with high-thrill coaster designs, including its single-rail Raptor coasters and hybrid coasters such as Iron Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.

Forbidden Lair combines the company's emphasis on airtime with a customized design intended to appeal to a broader range of riders. The coaster will use RMC's I-Box steel track.

The train will feature an unusual seating configuration, with half of its passengers facing forward and half facing backward. The cars will be themed as mine carts, and riders must be at least 39 inches tall.

The ride's backstory begins with a question: "Are you brave enough to discover what lurks below?"

The underground "Subterranean Shimmy" tunnel leads riders into a lair carved by creatures known as the Buwago, who protect valuable "uni stones." The storyline ties Forbidden Lair directly into the earth-based theme of the park's Yuta realm.

According to Lost Island's lore, the Yuta people are guided by the earth and serve as protectors of plants and animals. The realm includes several characters, including Tunika and Yamil.

Other attractions already located in Yuta include the Yuta Falls flume ride, Pengali Ruins archaeological dig site, Kukui Station bumper cars and Matugani, an Intamin launch coaster that accelerates riders from zero to approximately 40 mph. Matugani has a minimum rider height of 52 inches.

Located in the park's Mura fire realm, RMC's other Lost Island coaster is Fire Runner, billed as the Midwest's first single-rail coaster. During the approximately 32-second ride, passengers encounter three inversions before returning to the station.

In contrast to those higher-thrill attractions, Lost Island is positioning Forbidden Lair as a family coaster designed to bridge the gap between the park's children's rides and its more intense roller coasters.

The park describes Forbidden Lair as "made for the whole family, built for big adventures."

Additional details about the attraction are expected to emerge as construction progresses toward its planned 2027 debut.