Thursday, November 05, 2009

Yet even more Frontierland, February 1960

Ahoy mateys; things have been busy for the past few days, so today I am going to bonk this post out like there's no tomorrow. BONK!

Just look at this brutal winter day in Frontierland, circa February 1960. No wonder everyone leaves California to go live in Wisconsin. Ya gots a couple of rafts, a Keel Boat, the Mark Twain, and the Columbia (which apparently spent 90 percent of the time in Fowler's Harbor). The only thing that would make this picture better is if picturesque Harper's Mill was removed and a huge stage was built in its place.


The Mine Train should have been closed at this point, since the fabulous "Nature's Wonderland" expansion wouldn't open until the end of May - so, this photo must have been shot from the Disneyland RR. It's nice that Old Unfaithful still erupted for folks!

12 comments:

Chiana_Chat said...

BONK!

Chiana_Chat said...

That picture of ROA is just like a slice o' Heaven.

lol and +1 about the stage... ROA and NOS didn't/doesn't need it, but DCA could benefit plenty from Fantasmic.

Rockwork looks overhauled in the desert scene there?

Thufer said...

ditto chiana ----- bonk!
what a really good picture.

Chris Merritt said...

Re: the date - I think a lot of the time we all assign the date on a slide to the date taken. I know I do - but it is possible that these slides were taken earlier, as the date stamped is the date developed, right? SO, it could have been taken in Fall of '59 - developed in Feb. of '60. Just a hypothesis....

Major Pepperidge said...

Chris, of course you are right, this could have been taken any time before February 1960. I agree with Chiana though (I agree with everybody!), the desert rockwork (like that arch) looks like the newer "Nature's Wonderland" version to me. Or am I crazy?

Chris Merritt said...

No - you aren't crazy - both you and Chiana are right. Definitely the 1960 Nature's Wonderland version of the rockwork. Perhaps they were in test and adjust in Feb. - it is possible - it was only 3 months off...

Jason Schultz said...

If only there were some California legislators in the picture, we could date it reliably...

Anonymous said...

I found this blog last week. Three if my very favorite things in the world are Disney, history, and photography. So seeing old photos of DLR (particularly bc I live 20 mins away) really makes me happy. Thanks for posting this stuff!

Major Pepperidge said...

Welcome, anonymous (why so shy?); I hope you keep checking back in!

Nancy said...

Anonymous, the Major has many amazing things in store for you as you look back and enjoy all his great posts of the past...over 1200 now...woohoo!

what a goregous blue sky. the first photo is definitely postcard worthy. thanks for these!

anonymous who's real name is chandle said...

Sorry for the "secrecy." ;) I was typing that on my iPod, i believe, and that's the easiest option.

chandler said...

oops. *chandler