Wild Waves Theme Park
amusement park and water park in Federal Way, Washington, United States
Wild Waves Theme & Water Park was an amusement park and water park in Federal Way, Washington. Opened in 1977 as The Enchanted Village (with its accompanying water park, Wild Waves, opening in 1984), the park is a popular summer destination in the Pacific Northwest. The park's name was reverted to Wild Waves Water Park and Enchanted Village Amusement Park in April 2016, and once again changed to Wild Waves Theme and Water Park in November 2016, as a result of the park's acquisition by EPR Properties. On December 10, 2025, the park announced that the 2026 season would be its final year of operation, reopening on May 23, 2026. The water park portion closed on September 7, 2026, while the rest of the park is set to close to the public on November 1, 2026.
History
Founding through today
The Enchanted Village theme park was first opened on May 28, 1977, by Byron Betts, operator of Point Defiance Park in Tacoma. Betts had previously planned to open an amusement park in 1961 near the SeaTac Mall, but plans fell through. The initial 12-acre (49,000 m2) park site held only a half-dozen rides and included a playground, wading pool, and petting zoo. The 24-acre (9.7 ha) Wild Waves Waterpark was built adjacent to Enchanted Village and opened on August 4, 1984; the combined amusement complex became known as Enchanted Parks. In 1991, co-owners Michael Moodenbaugh and Jeff Stock paid $8 million for Enchanted Parks.
“Wild Waves Theme Park” enters the record as amusement park and water park in Federal Way, Washington, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Wild, Waves and Theme can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3568128. Authority coordinates are 47.273, -122.312. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1977, 1984, 2016 and 2025.
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This entry incorporates text from “Wild Waves Theme Park” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.