Friday, November 02, 2012

Frontierland River, January 1960

I have a small lot of slides from January 1960, and they all have a misty, vaporous quality that is probably due to some camera glitch; but in a way it looks kind of cool, too.

We'll start with this nice shot of the Columbia... it's nothing we haven't seen a hundred times before, except for certain details.


Notice the pilings and what might be a pile driver, in place for the early stages of construction on Cascade Peak. The hillside has been scraped bare to prepare for further work.


We wave a magic wand, and POOF! The Columbia turns into the Mark Twain. I'd tell you how it works, but that would spoil the illusion. Plus David Copperfield would kill me.


There's the Friendly Indian Village in the distance, but what interests me is the small piece of Tom Sawyer Island visible to our left. For a short while there was a piece of cultivated land where the Indians raised corn. I always thought that Indian tribes were somewhat nomadic (meaning that they wouldn't be in any one place long enough to farm), but I'll bow to the Imagineers and assume they did their research!


8 comments:

Rich T. said...

These shots have a great dream-like look to them.

I love that final picture. It has a wonderful sense of place -- it actually looks like a real community going about their lives there on the riverbank. Awesome.

Melissa said...

I can practically hear the banjo music!

K. Martinez said...

The last image is a winner. I love how the waters of the Rivers of America fill in the image as well as all the details along the riverbanks. Beautiful!

steve2wdw said...

These are the first pictures I've ever seen of Cascade Peak being constructed! The unique view of the Indian Village is awesome too. Excellent post today!

Major Pepperidge said...

Rich T, "dream-like" is definitely an apt description.

Melissa, yep, those Indians loved the banjo! ;-)

K. Martinez, it's hard to believe that the river was an orange grove only five or six years before this picture was taken!

steve2wdw, I think that Daveland might have a photo or two of Cascade Peak being built, and one of these days you will see a spectacular shot that I have in my collection as well.

Anonymous said...

One detail that changes from year to year is the type and quantities of the prop cargo on the pier waiting to be "loaded".

These pictures show bales of "something", some recent shots of yours showed barrels or casks, and today, there are a lot of wooden crates with different "insider" names painted on. It seems to change frequently.

I have always liked the Indian village and this is a great shot of the old original. the "today" version is good too. I guess Chief Wavy is out of field to the left.

Thanks Major!

JG

steve2wdw said...

Major....where's the "like" button?!

Chuck said...

These Indians WERE nomadic until the Park was built. Now there's no reason to move on.