More Cool Frontierland Views! - 1977
Frontierland scans. Mysterious Benefactor. You know the deal! Here are five images from 1977 that I think you will enjoy.
This first one is a beauty, with one of Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes (formerly the Indian War Canoes) preparing to get underway. I wonder how hard it was for the CMs to control one of those big canoes when they were being powered by 20 inexperienced guests? It seems like it would be a workout, for sure. The fellow to our right looks like he has gotten into the spirit of things with his cowboy hat and jaunty red feather.
Listen, there's been just a little too much running around on Tom Sawyer Island, and these three are ready for a break. I personally like to lay down under some bushes for a snooze, but that's not for everyone.
I love this photo of Tom's Treehouse. He and his pals took more time than most kids do when building a treehouse; there's an entrance and an exit, instead of just a rickety series of wood planks nailed to the side of the tree. Does anybody know if there was anything inside the treehouse (furniture, maps of caves, an X-Box 360, etc), or was it just an empty room?
This one was hella dark, but Photoshop helped to make it somewhat presentable. You can see that Tom, Huck Finn, Joe Harper, and the other boys used boards from old crates (plentiful along the wharves) as lumber for their treehouse. Too bad they didn't use aluminum siding, which is attractive and impervious to bugs and weather.
And finally, here's a nice view of the interior quad (or whatever you call it) of Fort Wilderness. Looking at plans for Fort Astoria (1811), the open middle area is referred to as the "Parade". So there. Like the rest of Tom Sawyer Island, Fort Wilderness offered simple pleasures, but that doesn't mean they weren't truly fun. It's all gone now, of course.
As always, many thanks to the Mysterious Benefactor for his generosity in sharing these great scans.
16 comments:
Major-
Some lovely shots, along with bell bottoms, plaids, and a general look of the 1970's. I believe the folks in the second image are actually 'professional sitters', and are ensconced there to encourage guests to slow down and chill-out. (Is it working-?)
Thanks to our M. B. and The Major.
Bell bottoms of the 1960’s and 1970’s were technically a “revival” as they were developed in the 1800’s for sailors - the bell bottom prevented water from getting into the sailors boots.
That seated little girl in the second pic, is sort of giving the same evil look as the last swan in your post from Sunday. I don't trust her. EEEEEEEEVIL, I tells ya!
In that last pic, there is is an object on the far left, which I sort of remember as being a large kettle or a pot of some sort. Didn't it have a wire mesh over the top of it, so that coins could tossed through the mesh and into the kettle? Am I imagining this?
The Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes pic is wonderful! It really is one of my favorite attractions at Disneyland. I never found paddling the canoes to be difficult since most everyone does there part and I'd assume the two CMs know how to control it. Occasionally a small child doesn't know how to paddle correctly and people get wet, but most know how to paddle and it's always a fun and interactive experience. The Rivers of America really is a wonderful part of Disneyland and I hope it never goes away. Thanks, M.B. and Major.
TokyoMagic!, They're all EVIL! The others are just subtle about it.
Watch out for the phantom in pic’s 2 and 3!
Wow the little girl on the left of pic 2 looks evil. She kinda looks like a chuckle doll to me. Very creepy.
I’m sure I forgot to say it enough, but thanks for sharing these great pictures
Another reason I always visit TSI at WDW is the Fort. Even as an adult, U've been known to pull off a few "shots" from the rifle toward the Big Thunder train! When we took my grandkids a couple of years ago, my seven year old grandson loved it! (Especially the escape tunnel) i hope it never meets the fate of the DL version ...
Steve Birnbaum, in a Guide to Disneyland from decades ago, assured readers that the two canoe cast members were capable of propelling 20 guests on their own; it didn't matter how much effort the visitors put into rowing. Birnbaum offered another odd fact: trees in the canoe vicinity had branches curved out horizontally from the trunk. They were transplants from forest areas with real Native Americans; the theory was that as Indians made trails through thick foliage, they were bending low branches aside to pass, and the branches continued to grow in the bent fashion.
The only thing inside the treehouse was lots of visitor graffiti, some of it going way back--the one place in Disneyland where this kind of guest interaction could flourish. Ditto tree carving; in the summer of '83 near Fort Wilderness was a tree with initials carved in 1963, which seemed positively historical to a youngster.
I used to love the idea that right in the middle of a crowded day, in a theme park in Anaheim, CA., you could escape, "the escape", and pretend you were somewhere along a river in Missouri. The picture of ol' Fort Wilderness and its' Parade area, with it's shady trees spilling onto the roof of tge snack shack Trading Post, give me such a warm feeling. Oh, how I do miss it.
Always your pal,
Amazon Belle
Nanook, I wonder if those professional sitters every worked at awards shows? “I’ll just sit here in somebody’s seat while they accept an Oscar”.
Mike Cozart, I suppose that is right, though I don’t know how much of the general public was wearing bell bottoms before the 1960’s…
TokyoMagic!, that girl has pyrokinesis, so you’d better be nice to her! I sure don’t remember that kettle thing, but the mesh top sounds legit. Otherwise it would be full of gum wrappers and cigarette butts.
K. Martinez, it’s funny to look at old photos of the canoes on the river; there are always a few people who are just sitting there with their paddles on their laps. I guess they are part of a royal family or something? I recently learned that it is perfectly acceptable to throw a child overboard if he splashes you, which is pretty cool.
Anon, yes, it is eerie the way those figures absorb ALL of the light. No human would do that! It’s as if there is a person-shaped hole in reality. Glad you liked these pics!
stu29573, I am definitely jealous of the Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland. They still have their Tom Sawyer Island (no pirates), the river has not been truncated, and they still have a fort that is open to guests. Even though I have never been there, like you I hope that they don’t mess it up.
Stefano, I’m sure that once the guides get a canoe moving, it wouldn’t take a ton of effort to keep it skimming along. The story about the trees being from a forest where real Native Americans lived sounds like one of those Disney myths, but what the heck, I suppose anything can be true! I never thought about graffiti; I’m not sure I get the impulse to scratch names and symbols on stuff - I did it when I was a little kid, but once a person grows up, shouldn’t they know better? Guess that makes me a grumpy old man by now. I was in Egypt many years ago, and saw a man scratching something on a pristine column that had been buried beneath the sand for 4000 years. I wanted to hit him with a blunt object!
The way I remember it, the interior of the tree house had a couple of barrels or crates to sit on, and there were also two or three telescopes, built into the walls, permanently aimed at various spots around Frontierland. I remember a lot of graffiti/carved initials inside the tree house too.
Major...the canoes were as much work as we wanted it to be. Always reminded guests that 'if you don't paddle for us...we will end up paddling you!' Steering was a challenge which took some effort. Always liked 'shooting' the rapids going though the rocks smoothly. Since we were the most agile of crafts on the river we were always to give right of way. Of course if we got close to the rear of the Columbia...we could draft it..paddles up. And we never wanted to get too close to the rear wake of the MT paddle wheel. It was a boat never to be passed. As for the CMs in the picture, I'm going to post it and see if I can get an identity or two. One looks familiar but I want to verify. Let's see if I get lucky. KS
I can't get enough of ROA, there is so much to see and do. One could spend an entire day at the river, riding, playing and exploring. I think the little girl in the photo is thinking, please don't take my picture next to the guy in the sharkskin leisure suit. Yuck. Great subject matter and great comments, thanks Major.
Major, these are wonderful photos as always. MB gets a gold star for saving these.
Agreeing with Stefano and the other anonymous, the interior of the treehouse was pretty sparse. I don't recall the crates and barrels, but it was a long time ago. It was a low ceiling and the ladder in the trunk was steep and tight, really made for kids, and quite different from the more-or-less roomy stair at the Swiss tree.
There were definitely more than one telescope, some windows, lots of graffiti, and a kind of a mask of a man's face (a pirate, I think) with holes for the eyes. You were supposed to put your face up to it to look out. This was a kind of a stereotype pirate like a kid's drawing, and long before the movies.
My best memory of the treehouse was that my Dad let me climb up in it and he came up too, which was a struggle for him, since his back pained him. Then years and years later, I climbed it again with my little boy. Such a great time, and now all closed up.
I'm going to repeat my theory that this tree was more than just a feature of the island. There is no treehouse per se in the Tom Sawyer books, I think this one was added because the small boy paradise that this island was to be, had to have a treehouse and also because the tree and river is a powerful symbol of life.
The concrete tree has a fountain of water at the base which becomes the stream that drives the mill down at the end of the island. This symbolic image of a heavenly tree of life with the world's rivers springing from it's roots is repeated over and over in religions all around the world, from Hebrew to Hindu to Norse to American Indian.
It's the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, the Bo Tree in the forest, Yggdrasil in Asgard and a cool place to play. I think this is an Imagineer telling us (if we have ears to hear) that the joy of being a kid playing is the source of all the happiness there is, and maybe ever will be.
Also, I think you are right, at one time, the treehouse was clad in aluminum siding, but the pesky aluminum termites caused so much damage it was replaced.
Always loved the canoes, and have gone on these nearly every trip until my last few, which were in winter and it's too cold to get that close to water. Every trip I'm afraid they will be eliminated because they are fun, risky, and do not have a merch tie-in.
Thank you, Major.
JG
Matthew, it’s funny, I don’t like being at Disneyland when it is crowded, but I sure enjoy vintage photos from very busy days. I wish I had more vivid childhood memories of all of the old features on Tom Sawyer Island.
Anon, I suppose that walking up those 15 steps left some people out of breath, so they needed to sit! Telescopes, neat; I can totally see those being there. Thanks.
KS, sounds like you have some sweet memories of your time with the canoes. I’m amazed that you could actually draft behind the Columbia! It would be cool if you could ID any of these people over 40 years ago.
Jonathan, as a kid the idea of spending all day in Frontierland would have made my brain explode. But I could do it now (or in the 1970’s for sure) with no problem. I didn’t really notice the man’s suit, I thought it might be denim of all things. Either way, I agree, yuck!
@KS I remember having the canoes draft off the Columbia. I believe it was mostly done on the back of the River as you would pass the Friendly Indian Village all the way to Smuggler's Cove and the Pontoon Bridge. Once past that point, the River opened up to wide to catch the draft and you were back in sight of Guests and, more importantly, Supervisors. And yes, they never got to close to the chop of the paddle wheel on the Mark Twain.
Always your pal,
PS - I hope you can ID those Cast Members... that would be fun!
Matthew...So far my friends have a good guess on the individual in the middle of the picture but not the one in the foreground.
And your memory of the drafting process is spot on! KS
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