Today's photos are kind a snooze, but hey, they can't all be winners. Still, maybe they will transport you back to 1959's Frontierland, looking out on that impressive river that dominates the landscape.
There's a canoe heading around the southeastern part of Tom Sawyer Island, near the suspension bridge (and probably as seen from Rainbow Ridge). That's a whole lotta people in one canoe.
One of the rafts to the island is unloading right near the Plantation House, while two other canoes are visible in the distance.
More river craft come and go, with yet another raft about to head back to the mainland. Hopefully the kids have burned off some steam running around the island, and are now ready for a burger break.
What is that one canoe doing on the right side of the second pic? Did the canoes ever have a second loading area? It looks like it might have just come from underneath the Frontierland/Adventureland footbridge.....or would the photographer have been standing on the footbridge? Now I must know.
ReplyDeleteThese images are great! I love the muddy brown river.
ReplyDeleteAfter paddling the canoe I'm hungry for a plantation burger.
TokyoMagic!, It looks like the canoe is rounding the bend in the river past the Old Mill. I'm pretty sure there has only been one canoe landing.
I can just hearing the water lapping up the side of that canoe full of people. This is what made Disneyland so wonderful - it all seemed so real. Here we were in a canoe in a good-sized river with an island, a water mill, etc. etc. . in the middle of Anaheim. Disneyland was so well built, you forgot all about the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteI think I see a pink oleander bush in that second photo. We had one in our backyard in La Mirada...and of course along the freeway. Here in southern Indiana they'd look at you funny if you said freeway...it's the "interstate" here.
Thanks for the memories...
There was a dad in our canoe that seemed to think it would be funny to splash the entire boat with a misplaced paddle in that brown water...and then say "now you'll have a story to tell when you get home!". Guess you were right Dad, and I'm still telling the story.
ReplyDeleteBill in Denver
K. Martinez, Thanks....I see it now. I was thinking the photo was taken from a spot further to the east and that we were looking at the mill across the way instead of Fowler's Harbor. (I should have been in bed when I was viewing this post last night.)
ReplyDeleteTokyoMagic!, I noticed that canoe in picture #2 as well, it looks like K. Martinez explained it pretty well!
ReplyDeleteK. Martinez, thanks for clearing up the canoe mystery! And I never had a chance to eat at the Plantation House… but I wish I did!
Debbie V., I agree, the early Frontierland really did take you out of Anaheim, it was amazing. Now it feels a bit more "amusement parky". Not that it's bad, it has just changed. I just helped my mom dig up three gigantic oleanders from her backyard, UGH. Talk about work!
Bill, I would want to punch that guy in the face and explain to him that he now has a story to tell folks when he gets home!
I am kind of surprised that the canoes are still running in this day and age. Simple attraction. Low thrills etc...Don't get me wrong. I love the canoes.
ReplyDeleteI went on the canoes on my last trip two weeks ago. Now I have forearms like Popeye :)
It seems they dyed the river more of a mud brown in the 1950's and 1960's. It is a definite emerald green now.
Imagine working those canoes 8 hours a day in the summer. OK, there were breaks...how about 6 hours a day then? A 16 passenger load was not unusual. Was it hard? Not really once you got the hang of it. Then again, there were a few college football jocks working in the summer months that your could partner with. One of my partners was Jim Zorn who made it a career in the NFL.
ReplyDeleteAs we would tell the guests..."You better paddle for me or I'll paddle you!"
I never paddled a canoe there, hoping to do it the next time we are there!
ReplyDeleteSo peaceful but love hearing the kids laughing and running around there too.