Vintage Postcards - Six Flags Over Texas, Part 3 - France
Here's more from Ken Martinez's collection of vintage amusement park postcards!
Six Flags Over Texas, Part 3
Continuing with the Six Flags Over Texas series in which Mexico and Spain were already covered, today's article features the French section of the park. Previous articles are located at:
The French section of Six Flags Over Texas featured only one attraction back in the early days of the park. La Salle's River Adventure was an original opening day attraction which entertained park visitors for 21 years before closing in 1982 to make way for Roaring Rapids raft ride. Also featured on this postcard is Fort St. Louis. The people on the bridge crossing over the river are waiting in line for a ride on the River Adventure while guests glide above on the park's AstroLift.
La Salle's River Adventure was similar to Disneyland's Jungle Cruise. It featured a captain-narrated boat trip down the Lavaca River in search of an alternate route to the Mississippi River. Along the way the boat passed by several animated scenes including a recreation of a Spanish fort pictured here. The finale of the ride featured a dead end of the river into a waterfall covering a rock wall. The boat would stop, the waterfall would park, and a cave door would open up. The boat would then proceed into the Indian treasure cave and exit into the loading dock area.
Besides the LaSalle River Adventure, the only thing in the French section was a small gift shop called Pierre's Treasures. I wonder if these wonderfully themed buildings are still standing today.
I hope you enjoyed your visit to the French section of Six Flags Over Texas.
Information source material:
Funland U.S.A. copyright 1978 by Tim Onosko
Park Times - http://parktimes.com
As always, many thanks to Ken for sharing his collection!
13 comments:
Ken-
I wonder if those marvelously-1960's cast members are still there "greeting" potential shoppers... Also love those Von Roll sky ride vehicles.
Thanks, Ken.
This ride shared many similarities with the "Mississippi Adventure" at Six Flags Over Mid-America (now Six Flags St Louis), which was removed the same year to be replaced by a clone of its Texas sister's replacement.
The Fort St Louis replica is reportedly still standing today as a backdrop to a display on the history of the park. I can remember seeing kids playing all over it a la Fort Wilderness, although by the time of my first visit in '85 as a 16-year-old, the people I was with were too cool to even check it out.
We locals just called it "The Riverboat Ride" and it was better than its replacement in every way. I remember at Senior Night in 1981, the skipper just let the passengers do the whole speil. Good times!
Yet another park that I wish I could have visited! Thanks for sharing these, Ken. Oh, and that water in the first pic looks fake.....sort of like the water from a Gumby or Davey and Goliath episode.
I’m wondering if any of these wonderfully themed ladies are still standing today. Gotta love a good bouffant.
TokyoMagic!, that water does look a tad Glad trash bag-ish.
Pierre's Treasures, indeed.
I never knew these parks existed, thank you, Major and Ken.
JG
Nanook, With the way things are today I doubt there's even anyone standing near the cash register to ring up the merchandise. I love the Von Roll sky ride vehicles too. So many of the Von Roll sky rides have disappeared from the theme parks over the last couple of decades. They really did add something magical to a theme park's skyline.
Chuck, Yes, all three original Six Flags parks had the narrated river ride and all three were replaced by the rapids rides which is kind of a bummer. So let me guess. Your too cool friends just wanted to go on thrill rides.
stu29573, Kind of like you locals just called the Spee-Lunker's Cave "The Cave Ride"? Yeah isn't it something when a unique home built attraction gets replaced by a rapids ride that can be found at just about every other amusement/theme park. Your senior night at SFoT sounds like it was a lot of fun. I wonder if the Disneyland Jungle Cruise skippers let the passengers do the whole spiel on their Grad Nite.
TokyoMagic!, I never noticed that before. It does look kind of fake. Now Gumby I haven't seen in years. He was once a little green slab of clay. Gumby!
Monkey Cage Kurt, These days the wonderfully themed ladies could be lying down taking a very long nap. It gets tiring standing that long.
JG, Glad this is something new to you. I have more to come so stay tuned.
Ken, your guess is correct. They were less than thrilled when a queue we were in snaked into a building and we discovered we were in line for Casa Magenetica instead of the Log Flume. But in their defense, I did manage to talk them into seeing an indoor show (first time I ever heard Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A") and riding Spee-Lunker's Cave - twice. I may have mentioned "air conditioning" in my sales pitch...
Ken, thanks for the wonderful Six Flags Over Texas postcards! LaSalle's Riverboat Adventure also featured the great animatronics, being part of the park designed by Hollywood set designer Randall Duell. I always loved the cannon fire, and the vegetation in and around the ride (another design by Duell) were always top-notch.
Yep Ken, it was just The Cave, lol! Ypu get extra points for spelling it right, though! Can't wait to see more!
You could hear the cannons firing from all over the park, it seemed like. As a kid, I would cover my ears on that part!
Chuck, Air conditioning is always a good selling point while waiting in a queue line in the heat. Especially in Texas and Florida.
Clyde Hughes, I first discovered Randall Duell back in the mid-1970's when I became really interested in the theme parks of that era. He worked on a lot of the theme parks in the 1960's and 1970's. Even one of my home parks "Marriott's Great America" in Santa Clara. He had a very interesting approach to theme park design.
stu29573, That sounds awesome that you could hear the cannons firing from all over the park. By the time I got to SFoT it was already gone along with the Fiesta Train. The only classic animated ride I got to go on was "The Cave".
I recall, also, that the volcano (on the Fiesta Train) would 'erupt' every so often. I read somewhere that the train would trigger a mechanism, which would fire a spark plug (yes, that's right), which would set off an explosive reaction. Maybe you mentioned it, Ken. Thanks again!
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