Monday, January 19, 2009

Stukas Over Disneyland

Here's an interesting one, in spite of it's numerous defects! It is undated, but I am giving it a tentative guestimate of 1960. I can only presume that this photo was taken from one of the helicopters that ferried lucky or wealthy (same thing) passengers between LAX and Disneyland. Magical Disney smog lends an azure hue to the scenery. The horizontal scratches were either the result of a faulty camera or a careless developer. In any case, I thought about trying to clone them away, but then I told myself to ignore them, just like I ignore the voices inside my head.


The foreground "finger of doom" seems to be pointing at the Plantation House ("Let's eat there again, pop!"). Holidayland and the "world's largest candy-striped circus tent" are outside the berm, but not for long. Beyond that.... farmland!!

You can see the Mark Twain, the Columbia, Tom Sawyer Island, the Friendly Indian Village, and other parts of Frontierland. I always enjoy getting a sneak peek at the backstage areas of Fantasyland, full of service vehicles. You can see the Skyway Chalet and even a few buckets if you look closely.

But my favorite thing of all is the aerial look at Nature's Wonderland! There's Cascade Peak, and the trestle through Bear Country. And we get a great view of the Living Desert, the saguaros and colorful paint pots and geysers and rock formations. Follow the loop of track around and you'll see a tiny Mine Train entering the tunnel that led to Rainbow Caverns.

8 comments:

TokyoMagic! said...

OMG....this photo is too amazing for words!!!

Nancy said...

this is so cool....

such a good perspective on where things arent any more, esp for those of us who werent around Disneyland back in the day

Thufer said...

what an amazing shot.

Katella Gate said...

If you draw a line between the red & white striped Carnation Plaza tent on the left and the mine train on the right, there's a large industrial building. Is this the old show building for the rainbow cavern fountains?

Major Pepperidge said...

Katella Gate, I believe that Rainbow Caverns stayed in the same spot when Nature's Wonderland was added. I'm not sure what that structure is... possibly just offices, storage, stuff like that. If anybody out there knows for sure I hope they chime in!

Anonymous said...

I'll weigh-in on the above. Yes, that was for both the Caverns and storage for the 3rd train set. I sure enjoyed using the open space above and between the "lands" as a break area. Felt miles away from the park.

keeline said...

Yes, most definitely the building that housed the fountains and waterfalls of Rainbow Caverns. A view from this direction is most welcome and different from ones I have seen before.

The photo has some streaks on it. Is that from the slide or part of the modern processing which didn't work as well as it could?

I would love to get a max resolution version of this image for our model research (HOn30 scale) of Nature's Wonderland.

James Keeline

Chuck said...

I read this years ago and completely missed the post title. It's stuff like this that keeps me coming back for more.