Six Flags Great Adventure through the years

Visitors from around the country annually enjoy the sights, sounds and rides at Six Flags Great Adventure.

Another summer season brings another year for residents of New Jersey and people from all over the world to make a pilgrimage to Jackson Township and enjoy the sights, sounds and rides at Six Flags Great Adventure.

Warner LeRoy greets the first guests to the amusement park on opening day, July 4, 1974.Courtesy of Six Flags Great Adventure 

In a Times of Trenton article on the park's 40^th anniversary in 2014, Mike Davis noted that "when Great Adventure opened on July 1, 1974, businessman Warner LeRoy -- who later bought and renovated the Tavern on the Green and Russian Tea Room restaurants in New York -- saw it as just one phase of a multi-park resort, something that would rival Walt Disney World."

LeRoy's vision never quite panned out, but Great Adventure gradually turned into the park that employed more than 4,000 people each summer and drew 2.8 million visitors in 2013.

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"The park has changed a great deal over the past 40 years, but one thing has remained the same," Six Flags spokeswoman Kristin Siebeneicher said at the time of the 40^th anniversary. "Six Flags Great Adventure is a place to create happy, lasting memories."

The park is well known for introducing rides that become must-do's among amusement park aficionados. Over the years, these have included The Great American Scream Machine (1996), Hurricane Harbor (2000), Nitro (2001), Kingda Ka (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom (2014).

Here's a look back at Six Flags Great Adventure in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Greg Hatala may be reached at ghatala@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregHatala. Find The Star-Ledger on Facebook.