GhostRider is a wooden roller coaster at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. It is located in the Ghost Town section of the park, south of the main entrance. Manufactured by Custom Coasters International, GhostRider is the longest wooden coaster on the West Coast of the United States, measuring 4,533 feet (1,382 m) long and 118 feet (36 m) tall. The ride follows an L-shaped double out and back pattern, with a station themed to a mining building. There are three trains, each themed to a different precious metal, though only two are in use at any given time.

GhostRider was announced in August 1997 as part of an expansion of Knott's Berry Farm. The coaster cost $24 million and opened on December 8, 1998, earlier than originally scheduled. After it opened, GhostRider became one of Knott's most popular rides. Between 2015 and 2016, Great Coasters International conducted a major renovation of the ride, replacing the track and the trains. Amusement Today's annual Golden Ticket Awards has consistently ranked GhostRider among the world's top wooden roller coasters.

By 1997, the Knott family, which operated Knott's Berry Farm amusement park in Buena Park, California, planned to add a wooden roller coaster to the park. Knott's already had several major attractions, including the Calico Mine Ride, a prototype Corkscrew coaster, a looping shuttle roller coaster named Montezooma's Revenge, and a water ride named Bigfoot Rapids. According to historian Eric Lynxwiler, who wrote a book about Knott's Berry Farm, a wooden roller coaster was the only major attraction type that was absent from the park. The Knott family had begun planning for a wooden coaster almost five years before GhostRider was ultimately completed in 1998. Knott's officials hoped that the construction of a wooden coaster would increase the park's annual attendance to 4 million.

A new wooden coaster was announced in August 1997 as part of an expansion of Knott's Berry Farm. The expansion project would cost an estimated $35 million, of which the coaster cost $24 million. The ride would be the park's fifth roller coaster, as well as the first attraction to be built in Knott's Ghost Town section since 1969. The ride would cross over Grand Avenue, which separated the main section of the park from one of its parking lots, and would occupy a portion of that parking lot. It would replace the Pan for Gold attraction and a decorative volcano built by the park's founder, Walter Knott. Knott's vice president for maintenance and construction at the time, Robin Hall, said he wanted the project to serve as a "billboard" for the park on Beach Boulevard, along the park's eastern boundary; the project would also allow Knott's to relocate warehouses in the attraction's path.

Custom Coasters International (CCI) was hired to manufacture the coaster, while Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters (PTC) provided the trains. The project lasted two years. The first phase of the project involved clearing land and relocating the warehouses, which took about a year and comprised much of the ride's budget. The ride would be the Knott family's last investment in the park, as Cedar Fair acquired Knott's Berry Farm in October 1997. At the time, land was still being cleared for the new ride. Cedar Fair's CEO Dick Kinzel briefly considered canceling the ride because of its high cost, but Cedar Fair ultimately continued to develop the new coaster. By March 1998, the ride was being referred to as "Ghost Rider".

Construction of the ride itself took 11 months. Hall said that park officials wanted the ride to be taller than Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain, which Hall had also designed. As a result, the ride's height was revised from 112 to 118 ft (34 to 36 m) so it would be taller than Colossus. Labor union members protested outside Knott's Berry Farm in April 1998 over the fact that the park did not hire unionized workers to build GhostRider, prompting the park to file a lawsuit to stop the protests.

GhostRider was originally scheduled to open in early 1999, but it opened on December 8, 1998, ahead of schedule. Jack Falfas, the general manager of Knott's, had advocated for an accelerated opening date. During a preview event on the roller coaster's opening day, one hundred members of nonprofit group American Coaster Enthusiasts rode GhostRider. At the time of its opening, GhostRider was advertised as the longest wooden roller coaster on the West Coast of the United States. As of January 2023^[update], it remains the longest wooden roller coaster on the American West Coast as well as the Pacific Coast of the Americas. Park officials also claimed that GhostRider was the fastest wooden coaster on the West Coast; however, Colossus traveled at a maximum speed of 62 mph (100 km/h), compared to GhostRider's 56 mph (90 km/h).

After it opened, GhostRider became one of Knott's most popular rides, and Knott's officials predicted that the ride would increase the park's annual attendance from 3.4 million to 4 million. During the second quarter of 1999, attendance at Knott's increased more than 10 percent quarter-over-quarter, at a time when other amusement parks in Southern California were experiencing decreased attendance. The ride was temporarily closed for repairs in August 1999 after an incident that injured five people.