CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North and South Carolina landmark celebrates its 50th birthday Friday, March 31.

Carowinds, the theme park straddling the border between the two states, first opened its gates on a rainy morning, March 31, 1973.

Now, the park is set to welcome its 50th year with a season-long celebration, kicking off in earnest Saturday, April 1.

The park will welcome guests from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., including live music beginning at 5 p.m., and a fireworks spectacular at 9:30 p.m.

Later this summer, celebrations will continue with other festivals and special events, including more fireworks. For more details, click here.

Also, the park will open a new airline-themed area next week, Aeronautica Landing, inspired by North Carolina’s history with aviation and discovery. The new area will have several new attractions, food items and restaurants, all themed on air travel.

Earlier this year, Carowinds also announced it would keep the park open the entire year for the first time ever, adding weekends in early 2023, despite the historically cooler temperatures. 

Related: Carowinds couple celebrate 25th anniversary as theme park turns 50

As the theme park celebrates its 50th year, Spectrum News 1 caught up with its first ever guest, Jim Henderson.

“None of this was here, except that tower I recall, that you can see. Very different,” Henderson said while looking at the park’s many roller coasters.

Back in 1973, one of the few attractions Henderson remembers is the Skytower, which remains operating at Carowinds. Carolina Goldrusher, Skytower, the Scrambler and Snoopy’s Junction are the only remaining opening day attractions. 

Henderson is now a bankruptcy attorney in Charlotte and has three adult daughters. He was born and raised in Charlotte and remained in the city after college at Duke and Wake Forest.

“Well it’s comfortable, I’ve got a lot of friends that are still here. And the bankruptcy business, I represent debtors and creditors and you can be — helpful to a lot of people in really stressful situations,” Henderson said about his life in 2023.

But Henderson is also a part of Charlotte and North Carolina’s history. Looking back, he says the early morning trip to Carowinds on a rainy March 31 was like Christmas.

“I was being driven by my dad, with my mom and my sister. And it was pouring rain, I wasn’t happy about that,” Henderson recalled.

At the time, 11-year-old Henderson was on his way to Carowinds’ opening day ceremony, an invited guest after writing a letter to the park’s developer, E. Pat Hall. 

“Probably six months or more before the park opened, and asked him if I could have the first ticket. I don’t know if I used the word 'buy' or not,” Henderson joked.

Eventually, Henderson says he forgot he even wrote the letter, until Carowinds and Hall replied, saying he and his family were invited to the opening ceremony, and they would give him a commemorative ‘first’ ticket. Looking back, Henderson said his dad had embellished the story a little bit in the first letter.

“He explained in this letter that I had been catching rats at my uncle’s bird-dog kennel in order to pay for this ticket, and that was not my understanding, the payment of the ticket had never been discussed,” Henderson said.

Rats or no rats, on March 31, 1973, Henderson was there to open the park.

“A small little affair, because who wants to go to an amusement park in the rain?” Henderson said. And that first ticket? “He said, ‘Unfortunately, with all the rain, that, my special ticket had been destroyed.”

Overall, Henderson said it still feels odd to keep talking about a letter he wrote 50 years ago on the whim of his childhood dream.

“I guess the moral is, write more letters, and think about different goofy things to do with your life,” Henderson said.

Henderson was one of 6,000 guests on Carowinds’ first day. The park cost $70 million to build in the early 1970s.