In Frontierland, March 15, 1957
Here's a pair of pretty nice early Frontierland views... at least, early enough to have that charming "rough around the edges" quality that I personally like so much.
There's a Keelboat (which one???) scooting along the river, past the fairly-new Fort Wilderness on Tom Sawyer Island - the Island had opened to guests less than a year before, and it still has a "new construction" look to it. The berm also looks rather bare, with some weedy trees and some rocks and shrubs - you can still clearly see power lines in the distance.
Next is this very nice look at the Friendly Indian Village, before the nearby trees had grown large enough to actually obscure some of the tepees at the edges. I'm noticing that wooden "arch" for the Disneyland Railroad to pass through - part of the structure seems to be holding that hillside in check, but I don't really "get" the point of the arch. Cinderella's Castle (from Storybook Land) and more power lines are easy to spot! Shiny Boy and his faithful pooch have not made their debut yet.
12 comments:
Do we know if Fort Wilderness opened with the rest of TSI? It sure looks like it's still under construction in that first pic. There is even some lumber piled up on that dock.
Major, I think that second pic shows the train tunnel under construction. Since we can only see the arch and we can see the hillside through the opening, instead of darkness, I think only the arch is standing, and not the tunnel itself.....yet. This would be before the placement of the giant corrugated metal "tube" that made up the train tunnels. Once the tube is in place, I'm sure that is followed by the dumping of dirt over the entire thing. So this is a great.....and rare construction pic.
Thanks, Major!
In that first image, I think I see a couple construction workers in the lower right. Construction workers of the old west.
Thanks, Major.
Major-
These are both lovely images. I'm very impressed that Disneyland was ahead of the curve (as per usual) with its well-saturated installation of rural electrification in the area. (Can cable television be far behind-?)
Thanks, Major.
@ TM!-
"Do we know if Fort Wilderness opened with the rest of TSI?"
'My sources' say "Fort Wilderness was one of the original features of Tom Sawyer Island." So - Mike - what say you-?
Major, now I'm wondering if the date is correct on these. Was the date handwritten, or is it the "stamped" date on the mount, from the developers. Not only does Fort Wilderness look like it's under construction, but shouldn't we be seeing the Skyway chalet in that second pic? I think the construction of that tunnel would be the preparation for building up the hill that the Skyway chalet would eventually sit upon. Even though there was a north/south cast member tunnel directly underneath the FL Skyway station, there was a east/west tunnel on the backside of that hill for the train to go through. If you were standing behind the Cinderella's Castle miniature, the two tunnels were right next to each other. (The north/south tunnel is still there. The east/west tunnel was kept, even after the train tracks were moved further north for the construction of IASW, and it remained there until the construction of Wookie World.)
I also like these early Disneyland photos. Especially the Frontierland pictures that, like you said, look so bare and undeveloped. It's like getting a peek 'backstage'.
The teepees look brand spanking new. They're a darker, more saturated ochre color. Although, that could just be due to the camera setting or the slide processing. Besides the missing Shiny Boy and his dog, "Arf", I don't see any papeeses drying in the sun either. Nor the two deer, standing on their hind legs, doing the foxtrot. I wonder if the Indians ever walked over to Cindy's castle to see what that was all about? ;-p This is a really nice photo.
Lots of neat information from the Jr.Gs today! Thanks to everyone, and of course to Major P.
TOM SAWYER ISLAND did open with Fort Wilderness. There’s a possibility there was a soft opening where the fort may not have offered guest access . Obviously from this image neither the Fort or Island are guest ready.
Is everyone absolutely sure the Fort is still under construction? Why would they hoist the colors if it hasn't been completed?
Whenever these photos were taken, we can resolve that it’s early days still.
I was hoping for a glimpse of the early cemetery on the slope below the Fort, but I will settle for the fence stretching out to the river bank that looks to be made of random sticks. That a new feature to me.
Part of why that train tunnel looks confusing is part of a tree exactly aligned with the tunnel opening, I think. The timber lagging is a cheaper way to hold up the hillside, but it’s not as nicely themed as fake rock. I think they settled on timber and a cut-and-cover culvert tunnel since the train routes up there were always planned to be more flexible as the Park grew into that extra land that became Videopolis, Toontown, ans eventually, WookieWorld.
Thanks for these fascinating early views, Major! Endlessly entertaining.
JG
"A Palm Tree grows in Frontierland"....I'm inspired for to write that one...those trees must have been in a farmers front yard or something: wonder where they are now? Shiny boy, Doggie and Pappese were the perfect addition to the village, as well as the dead people wrapped up and drying like salmon and deer. And what about a bloody corpse next to a burning cabin? Hard Facts: it's real. I do like seeing tunnels and such. Tunnels are fantastic. I went spelunking in Carlsbad....and today I can't even imagine doing that again. So brave when I was younger: some of those caves "just fit", even for a svelte young buck that I once was. I'll stick to riding a train through a tunnel thanks so much. In Norway they were going to do giant tunnel (Stad skipstunnel) for ships to go through: I think I could handle that too. It's been put on hold as the budget ran amok. Lot's of tunnels in Norway...that go on for miles. The switch backs up and down the mountain were and are perilous. Back to Anaheim: It's kind of magical to see Cindy's castle there in the distance. The scale makes it looks like it's miles away. Guess that is the point from this perspective. I worked with a Cindy in Disneyland...except she was super goth (before it was a thing) and her name tag was SIN DEE. Guess her parents gave her the name as it was beyond verboten to have anything but your given legal name on your name tag. Unless you know the name tag guy (which I did) and he would make anything for me. "Shennanigans". To Anonymous: I think the flag could very well be "the boss" kind of thing: I could see WD saying "Let's get the flag up and show them it's almost ready: give them something to see, like the fort isn't finished but the men are there already...." I also think back in the 50's if it was "finished enough" they could have given guests a sneak peak...especially if it was off season, and there weren't too many people going to TSI. The people on the Keel Boat certainly are very interested. I can see how the Keel Boat overturned when it did....odd that it took so long to happen, but perhaps it was due to the "expansion" of humans in the US....could be. Talk about Splash Mountain. I wouldn't mind seeing THAT video. Flash Mountain doesn't do it for me, but it was right up my shennanigan alley. Thanks Major!
TokyoMagic!, to my knowledge, the fort opened with TSI. I admit that there is construction going on! Maybe I got something wrong. Thank you for the info about that train tunnel, I guess that makes sense. Too bad we can’t see the big metal tubes, that would be extra cool.
Lou and Sue, those are FBI agents *pretending* to be construction workers.
Nanook, the ads with Reddy Kilowatt really did the trick for those settlers!
Nanook, I can’t imagine TSI opened without Fort Wilderness being open to the public.
TokyoMagic!, these had hand-written dates on them, though of course it is possible that I mixed up some slides and attributed them to the wrong batch. I don’t think I did, though! Would the Skyway Chalet be visible in that second pic?? If anything I’d think it would be out of frame to the right. But I sure don’t know.
JB, sometimes these 1956-57-58 photos have an indescribable feel to them that I find very appealing. As you said, it’s almost like getting a peek backstage. I think there might be one papeese? I’m not sure. Definitely not the pair we’ve seen in horrifying closeup.
Mie Cozart, well jeez, now I feel like I did mess something up. Or the person who labeled the slides did.
Anon, hmmm, good point!
JG, do you mean those two grave markers that were right along the shore? If so, I looked for them too. That stick fence is kind of charming. Talk about rustic! I’m assuming that the future tunnel would not be generally very visible to guests from the Mark Twain (or whatever), so they didn’t bother with fancy rock work.
Bu, ha, you fooled me, I looked for a palm tree, and didn’t see any. Though I suppose in parts of the Southwest you might find some? Maybe not in those days, I don’t know if palms were introduced by settlers. I like Shiny Boy (etc), but it’s kind of nice seeing the scene without them. I also miss the dead Settler and the burning cabin, but I guess both of those things were not PC. When you say you went spelunking in Carlsbad… do you mean the kind of spelunking that involved squeezing through narrow openings in the rocks? If so, NO THANK YOU. The idea gives me the willies. The tunnels in Norway are much more impressive, since they were carved out of mountains, instead of done the Disneyland way. Whoa, “Sin Dee”, those parents were just asking for trouble. Like you, I could imagine that the flag might be flying even if the fort was not open to the public, but it does seem a bit weird too. I still think that they could have added ballast to the Keelboats if tipping was an issue, but what do I know??
Also remember that’s raft docks and landings changed and relocated many times … this could just be a rebuilding of one of the existing docks …. Likely enlarging it.
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