Carowinds is a 398-acre (161 ha) amusement park, located adjacent to Interstate 77 on the state line between North and South Carolina, in Charlotte and Fort Mill, respectively. The park opened on March 31, 1973, at a cost of $70 million. This was the result of a four-year planning period spearheaded by Charlotte businessman Earl Patterson Hall, who was inspired to build the park by a 1956 trip to Disneyland and a dream of bringing the two states closer together. It is owned and operated by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company.

Boomerang Bay is a 20 acre (81,000 m2) water park located within Carowinds 398 acres and is included in regular park admission.

The Carowinds theme park was originally envisioned as a component of a large resort-type area that would have included hotels, a shopping center, a golf course, and a pro football stadium. However, as was true for many other theme parks across the country, attendance at Carowinds was severely diminished by the 1973 oil crisis, and the plans for the resort that would have surrounded the park were abandoned. Hall and the other stockholders of the Carowinds Corporation continued to operate the theme park through 1974, though sagging attendance and mounting debt forced the company to sell out to Taft Broadcasting in early 1975.