Frontierland, August 1970
Here's a trio of perfectly nice photos from Frontierland, which would be called "Tomorrowland" if you'd been born in the Middle Ages. Think about it.
The Mark Twain has taken on a full compliment of passengers, to be delivered upriver to the Soylent company (founded by General Amos Soylent) for a factory tour. I've heard that guests receive a snack and a juice box at the end of the tour (sort of like the cookie and soda you get after touring Walt's apartment), but can find no first-person accounts for some reason. Gosh it sounds like a hoot!
The Burning Settler's Cabin was living up to its name in 1970 - a few years before that dumb Energy Crisis ruined all our fun. As you can see, the cabin was surrounded by large, mature trees by 1970, which makes it look quite a bit smaller than it used to. But don't worry, those trees never grew larger than 5/8 scale. Stinky Sam is so relaxed, I really admire him.
This view of an elk was definitely not taken from one of the Mark Twain's upper levels - perhaps it was taken from a Keelboat? Impossible to say of course. You might see many critters along the River, including elk, meese, deer, and giant sloths.
7 comments:
Major-
I never tire of seeing the Settler's Cabin a-fire - this being a particularly nice shot, with all those "5/8's scale" trees looking so lush.
"This view of an elk was definitely not taken from one of the Mark Twain's upper levels..." Absolutely correct - it was taken from Monorail Red-!
Thanks, Major.
Wait... Disney offers tours of the Soylent factory? AND you get a snack and juice box at the end of the tour?.... SIGN ME UP!!! (Really strange that you can't find anyone who's been on the tour to give an account. Hmm... Oh well.... LET'S GO!)
Wow, full compliment indeed! Purple-hat lady has a red Mickey balloon. And on the left, there's a guy wearing a red and white t-shirt; like a pirate sailor. He seems to be blowing his nose. Must be the salt air. Bright and sunny with a big beautiful blue sky; really nice photo.
Isn't Stinky Sam (a.k.a. Carl Arrowshirt) usually 'relaxing' with his head to the right, not on the left, as he is here? He must've repositioned himself in his 'sleep'. After blazing all day, that burning cabin had to be rebuilt every night, from scratch, after the Park closed, to be ready for the next day's rope drop. Probably why they cut back on the flames.
Disney doesn't advertise the fact, but they had the only thriving herd of giant 20 foot ground sloths (Megatherium) in existence. More recently, they culled the entire herd to make room for Galaxy's Edge. TRE. This photo reminds me of one of my dad's 'hunting trip' 35mm slides. Except the elk would've been about 200 yards farther away and could only be seen if you already knew it was there.
Yes, we've seen a lot of Frontierland photos, but these are nice and clear and crispy and juicy! Thanks, Major.
I think it’s only natural for Disney and the Soylent Company to have formed a partnership. Both companies exist to serve people.
By 1970, the tree growth around the Burning Settler’s Cabin creates a scene that really doesn’t make any sense. It’s like he built himself a nice cabin in a natural clearing in the forest made of logs sourced from somewhere else. Sure, it’s a pretty setting, but why is he here? He’s not growing any crops. The fence serves no purpose. And who services that gas line into his furnace?
Nanook, to get that close to wildlife, I think that last photo was probably taken from Monorail Green. It blends in better with the forest.
Thanks, Major.
On our tour of Walt's apartment, we got a cookie, soft drink, and a POSTCARD. Come on Soylent, Inc! Step up!
The Burning Settler's Cabin (ill-named because the settler rairly burned) was originally made of Play-Doh. Unfortunately, while Play-Doh does not burn, it does melt, and the "Burning Settler's Poop-Pile" didn't catch on. (They considered an attration where Mickey would put it on the Jack and the Bean Stalk giant's front porch, ring the bell, and run away, but it went nowhere)
Elk. Well, there ya go.
Looks like the MT couldn’t hold one more guest. A good time being had by all.
Frontierland is definitely Tomorrowland to observers in the Primeval World.
Sam made Union scale by lying around all day after archery practice, pretty good gig. The night shift comes in and scrubs down the cabin with wire brushes.
I thought we were resolved that Sam was a farmer before he became a hole-y man, and sold his corn to the Old Mill, which is why it was on the Island. Afterward he rented the cabin out to bake churros.
I’m sorry to see this tableau pass away since it offered a frisson of real danger to guests. If it could happen to Sam, it could happen to you. Maybe those Indians were watching you from the woods right now! The worst danger Disneyland offers today is that of incipient bankruptcy.
The last pic is the lookout for the Elks’ Club. Do you have the password and secret handshake?
Thanks Major, a fine post from the edges of civilization.
JG
Nanook, it seems like such a little thing, but I feel like the river lost a really memorable scene when the burning Settler’s Cabin was changed to a non-burning version. “…it was taken from the Monorail Red-!” - wow, they must have had a super-ultra-mega zoom lens!
JB, I could only find one account of the tour of the Soylent factory, and that’s from the time when they introduced their new “Berry Blast” Soylent flavor, which was not as popular as they’d hoped. Such a shame. I enjoy blowing my nose while having my picture taken, it’s almost as good as picking my nose. ALMOST. I know that Stinky Sam moved around a bit (surprisingly), but I am not sure as to how often he was facing to the left vs. to the right. Now I’ll have to go back and look at my many cabin pictures, thanks a lot JB! I wish we still had giant sloths, what a cool animal. Just imagine! I remember watching some show on PBS, and they showed an actual preserved piece of giant sloth pelt that was found somewhere (now I’m wondering if I imagined the whole thing). Let’s clone those babies and bring them back! I take photos much like your dad’s photos; in Morro Bay there are otters that are relatively close, but they always look twice as far in my pictures.
Chuck, just think of all the amazing character tie-ins Disney could do with Solent and their characters! “Mouse Chunks”. YUM. Try their new spicy nacho flavor! I agree with you re: the Settler’s Cabin scene in later years. At least early on, you could see that there were harvested crops. I never even thought about the logs sourced from somewhere else!! The fence is for ghosts, and it works great. If only there’d been a Monorail Brown.
Stu29573, wait, you got a postcard with your cookie and soft drink?? I didn’t! What the heck?! I didn’t know that Play-Doh doesn’t burn. In all of my days playing with matches, I never tried to light a lump of the stuff. If you can melt it, can you pour it into a mold? I don’t know why you’d want to, but this is important. I’m always glad to learn about attractions (such as the Mickey “ding-dong-ditch”) that were never built!
JG, it makes sense that the Mark Twain would be so busy in the summer; I don’t know if the steamboat at WDW had low ridership, and that was a factor in its demise, but I’m glad to see the Twain full of happy guests. Though I also can’t feel too secure - nothing is sacred. When the river and island were redone for “Galaxy’s Edge”, I allowed myself to hope that the cabin would be ablaze again. Which was dumb, in retrospect. The secret handshake is just like a regular handshake, only you spit in your palm first!
Soylent and the WDCo...a powerful partnership. It is art imitating life? or the other way around? Something to ponder on a Thursday, the day where you say "it's already Thursday?" "Where did the week go?". The Mark Twain took a brief detour to Cenex Casting: that's the non-union branch of Central, and now it's all one thing. There's lot's going on with that crowd, and too much to say here without multiple postings. There's nothing that says "The Finest in Family Entertainment" more than a dead body and a house fire. That cabin if it weren't on fire, gives me kind of "Old Yeller" vibes. To this day I can't watch it again. Poor Tommy Kirk for "that scene" and what continued in his life. That's a lot to unpack right there, so lets move on to "Elk Land", now "Wookie Land".....how very peaceful it was back there in that "switch back" with the River. Shiny Boy and Elks....oh ....and more dead bodies, but they were ceremonial, so I guess it's OK. "Monorail Brown" stirs up other thoughts, so I am going to leave it all right there. Thanks Major!
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