Dana Morgan, the son of
Arrow Development co-founder Ed Morgan, founded D. H. Morgan Manufacturing in 1983. He got his start in the amusement industry at age 14 as a ride operator at Playtown, a small children's park in
Palo Alto, California, that was owned by
Arrow Development. Upon graduation from
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo he went to work for Disney, primarily doing design work for the
Walt Disney World project. During the construction of Disney World, Morgan went to work for
Arrow Development which was building rides for Disney World. Morgan left Arrow-Huss in 1983 to form his own company, D. H. Morgan Manufacturing. Morgan had originally intended to build carousels, but the company's first contract was to build new trains for the Giant Dipper wooden roller coaster at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The last Morgan trains built for a wooden coaster were delivered to
Yomiuriland in Japan. In 1995 Morgan built a Mine Train type ride for Michael Bonfante for what was then called
Hecker Pass — A Family Adventure in
Gilroy, California. The coaster, Quicksilver Express, was manufactured in 1995 but sat at the Morgan Manufacturing facility for five years before it was finally installed in 2000.
Bonfante Gardens opened to the public a year later in 2001. In 1995,
Richard Kinzel of
Cedar Fair asked Morgan to build a 200-foot hypercoaster for
Valleyfair in Minnesota. Utilizing designer Steve Okamoto, whom he had worked with at Arrow Dynamics, Morgan opened
Wild Thing in 1996. Morgan went on to build seven more steel coasters, including two more for Cedar Fair. D. H. Morgan Manufacturing also redesigned the former Arrow Coaster
Steel Phantom at
Kennywood Park in Pennsylvania. Dana Morgan retired from the amusement industry in 2001 and sold the assets of his company on June 14, 2001 to Michael Chance, who was the sales representative for competitor
Chance Industries, Inc. ==List of roller coasters==