Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Frontierland Snapshots, December 1964

I recently found a small stack of color family snapshots from Disneyland, dated December 1964. There's something appealing about their slightly faded colors, the white borders, and the little printed-on date. I guess it reminds me of digging through boxes of my own family's snapshots, which I did for hours when I was a kid.

Today I want to share three from Frontierland! The Mark Twain. It really does look like some kind of wedding cake.


Like most people, I tend to head for the top deck when I ride the Twain. But some day I want to try to restrain myself and sit up at the front of the lower deck, where the water seems to be practically at the same level as your feet.


The burning cabin is really blazing here; imagine how it must have looked at night! The small channel on the shore was almost certainly used by maintenance crews, and it looked like the place where the unfortunate settler probably pulled his own boat (the Indians must have scuttled it) onto shore.

6 comments:

Chiana said...

Maj, I do the same thing. Go right for the upper decks. You're right. We really must try some cruises on the bottom level.

The burnin' cabin scene looks particularly realistic in that pic.

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

Nice set, I love these old prints! The cabin really blazes in these old pics, it's like the whole interior is a ball of fire, too cool!!! Thanks.

Nancy said...

for some reason, we normally enjoy the ride on the second level...

and i dont remember ever riding on the ground floor. ill have to try that next time!

Jim said...

Not to be a downer but...I read somewhere that the last image appears to be very close to the supposed location of the drowning of a park guest that occurred in 1973. As the story goes,two brothers stayed on the island past dusk and then tried to swim the river to escape their own self made confines with tragic results. Anyone have any information on the incident that clearly reveals my morbid fascination with this side of the park's history?

Anonymous said...

Never heard of that story Jim. It's plausible but could be an "urban myth?"

Jim said...

I've considered that as well. Hard to debunk those things.