Ken Martinez's collection of postcards from Six Flags over Texas has been especially popular, so today he has part four from that park! Here's Ken:
Six Flags Over Texas - Confederate Section
So far I've posted about the themed sections of Mexico, Spain and France and today will feature postcards of the Confederate section of the original Six Flags Over Texas. This section represented the Confederacy from 1861 to 1865.
With this postcard, I'll let the BOC (back of card) speak for itself. "COLONEL AND HIS LADY - - Confederate Section - Here in the Confederate section the colonel and his lady relive the romantic charm that was the Confederacy at Texas' fabulous $10,000,000 entertainment center."
Featured here is a Confederate drill team. The park would put on daily performances of civil war reenactments including the execution of captured Yankee spies. The Confederate section focused heavily on military themes. Interestingly, this section and the Texas section contained a lot of reenactments of public executions. In my next article for Six Flags Over Texas I'll share postcard images of these reenactments when I post about the "Texas" section.
Here's the famous Spee-Lunker's Cave, often referred to as the "Cave Ride" by locals. Passengers would board circular tubs and float down a river into a cave featuring the legendary spee-lunkers. The original spee-lunkers were evicted from the cave in 1992 so the Warner Bros. characters could move in. Today the cave ride is known as "Yosemite Sam and the Gold River Adventure".
Like Disneyland, Six Flags Over Texas had rafts that took park visitors over to an island with various physical activities that kid visitors could focus their extra energy on. Not quite Tom Sawyer Island, but it probably entertained the kids just the same.
This grim grinning skull watches over Skull Island at night. It appears that a giant slide has impaled his jawbone.
Today this section is called the "Old South", is combined with the "France" section and is represented by the Southern Palace Theater and Runaway Mountain indoor coaster. I'd say it isn't quite the same and that the Confederacy theme has been all but removed from this theme park.
Information Source material:
Funland U.S.A. copyright 1978 by Tim Onosko
www.Parktimes.com
Oh, I especially love that spooky skull! All parks need giant skulls, in my opinion. Thank you as always to Ken Martinez for sharing his collection and writing this fun article!
Ken-
ReplyDeleteWe love these images from Six Flags Over Texas. That first image could easily be the 'Texas' equivalent of Disneyland's Spaceman and Space Gal-!
Thanks Ken and The Major.
"The romantic charm that was the Confederacy"??? Reenactments of public executions? Okaaaay. I'm sure some people out there wouldn't find that theme so romantic. It's probably best that they removed that section of the park! Other than that, the rest of the park looks like a lot of fun! Too bad though about the little Spee-lunker's being evicted from their home! Thanks again for sharing, Ken!
ReplyDeleteThat quirky little Spee-Lunkers' Cave was one of my favorite things about SFoT in the '80s - completely unexpected, completely original, and completely air conditioned. I think I've told the story before, but on a high school visit with my church youth group I managed to convince the too-cool-for-that group I was with to ride the thing multiple times. The quirkiness managed to sell a couple of the girls on a repeat viewing, while the air conditioning alone sold the rest. I was the lone theme park geek, geeking out over the design and trying to figure out 1) what weirdo ever greenlighted this thing and 2) why I liked it so much.
ReplyDeleteWhile the ride experience was completely different, the ride basket design would be recycled for Injun Joe's Cave at SFoMA.
For an in-depth description of the ride, check out http://www.dafe.org/articles/darkrides/spee-LunkerCave.html.
I found a short, oddly-transferred silent clip that briefly shows both Skull Island and the Cave (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocUgcQCjnhs). You can see the original ride vehicles, which would slowly spin while floating through the ride.
Also - I found an interesting item related to today's post that recently sold on eBay. It's a charm bracelet from SFoT that features not only a Spee-Lunker, but also the skull from Skull Island: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Six-Flags-Over-Texas-Souvenir-Charm-Bracelet-Spee-Lunker-Sky-Hook-Skull-/301853838071?nma=true&si=k%252FmcFiB0efFgeI%252FGXCB1QeZnR2g%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
And I am remiss at thanking both J. Nartubez and the Major for bringing us yet another wonderful postcard installment. Thanks again, fellas!
ReplyDeleteWhile I remember the Confederate section of the park well, I certainly don't remember any execusions! Maybe they just played those up for more exciting post cards? The Plantation sold really good fried chicken, by the way...6FOT was wonderful back in the day. I remember riding over to Skull Island on the raft, roaming around INSIDE of the skull and riding the Tree Slide (not the slide in the skull, but another spiral slide inside of a tree!). The Spee-Lunkers were just the right combination of silly and creepy and that cave was DARK! They destroyed it when the Warners moved in and the lights went up. This park had so much promise....Sigh...
ReplyDeleteWhile I remember the Confederate section of the park well, I certainly don't remember any execusions! Maybe they just played those up for more exciting post cards? The Plantation sold really good fried chicken, by the way...6FOT was wonderful back in the day. I remember riding over to Skull Island on the raft, roaming around INSIDE of the skull and riding the Tree Slide (not the slide in the skull, but another spiral slide inside of a tree!). The Spee-Lunkers were just the right combination of silly and creepy and that cave was DARK! They destroyed it when the Warners moved in and the lights went up. This park had so much promise....Sigh...
ReplyDeleteThat Cave ride sounds so cool! So did you actually attend this park Ken? Was there a time when you lived in Texas?
ReplyDeleteWhen Six Flags Over Texas started, its theme was very historically-based. It wasn't just another Disney-clone, but it was themed around true history... so, that's why there was (at least, during the first several years) more history-based enactments, such as the enlistments, marching officers in different parts of the park. In the Confederacy section, you had the Confederate soldiers, while in the Spain section, for example, there were Conquistadors. In Texas, there were gunfights. I think that, for better or worse, the gunfights are all that remain of the historic enactments. I do admire the original SFOT's 'warts and all' depiction of history, as it was so authentic. While some of these enactment scenes might have been only photo-ops (for post cards), there were in general, history 'stories' enacted on a regular basis in keeping with the 'Six Flags' theme.
ReplyDeleteIn the summer of '76, we rode the barge across the 'canal' over to 'Skull Island' and had a great time climbing up the Skull and sliding down. Also, there were several tree houses, along with a few large hollow (concrete) 'trees' that featured spiral slides inside. I believe there is a postcard of this. Here's a less-seen view of the spiral staircase leading to the top treehouse of one of these hollow tree/slides. http://library.uta.edu/digitalgallery/files/original/96edbf4262900db89438d0d55a1d1135.jpg
Here's an awesome shot of La Salle's Riverboat Adventure as it enters the cave (showing the parting of the waterfall). Also visible is the Astrolift, overhead. http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/six-flags-over-texas-new-tourist-attraction-featuring-history-of-the-picture-id50413175
Thanks for sharing these excellent post cards, Ken!
By the way, here are a couple of additional photos of the Astrolift, as it appeared under construction, at SFOT.
ReplyDeletehttp://library.uta.edu/digitalgallery/files/original/85d536046368c39db5d69cc608ceb630.jpg
http://library.uta.edu/digitalgallery/files/original/6d22865bb9b4343b39dd527fe56d53aa.jpg
Also, the floating barrel bridges...
http://www.kencollier.org/sixflags/SixFlagsPostcardFortfolioNoDate/FloatingBridge.jpg
Nanook, glad you love these. Speaking of Space Man and Space Gal, I wonder if they had costumed characters for the USA modern section of Six Flags over Texas. I'll have to see what I can find when I do that section.
ReplyDeleteTokyoMagic!, I did find that BOC description “interesting” to say the least and that is why I used that instead of trying to explain the card. I think I would’ve loved the reenactments of the public executions and military drills though. Public hangings, executions by firing squads and military drills, it’s all a part of the history. I’m sure today the Six Flags Corp. wouldn’t consider it inappropriate for family entertainment. I am a fan of historical reenactments, both violent and non-violent, especially military related.
Chuck, it’s good to hear that your too-cool-for-that friends went for multiple rides. Spee-Lunker’s Cave really was one-of-a-kind. Too bad they replaced it with a Warner Bros. character based cave attraction. I do have images of the Injun Joe’s Cave which I will share in future. Thanks for the links. I have seen those before. What a cool find on eBay! It’s even got the El Aserradero Log vehicle and Astrolift vehicle.
Chuck again, J. Nartubez says you’re welcome and always appreciates your awesomely told stories. Thanks!
Stu29573, If those events did occur it would’ve been very early in the parks history. I agree that it changed for the worse when Warners moved in, but even before that the park lost several of its classic attractions already and much of its originality along with it.
Monkey Cage Kurt, I visited Six Flags over Texas in the late 1970’s and lots of the early stuff was already gone by the time I got there. Spee-Lunker’s Cave was still there, but Fiesta Train was just removed when I got there. No, I never lived in Texas but I traveled quite a bit of the South back in the late 1970’s when I was 18 years old.
Clyde Hughes, Glad you chimed in. I’ve read a lot about the early history of Six Flags over Texas and I find it fascinating that they recreated the historical aspects of Texas for the new theme park “warts and all” as you said. I have quite a bit more in postcards and images of Six Flags over Texas I’ll be sharing in the future. Lots of interesting stuff there.
Clyde Hughes, Thanks for the links to the awesome images of the Astrolift terminal construction. And now thanks to you, I have a new digital archive to go to.