Friday, February 15, 2019

Two Beauties - April 1958

Oh yeah, I love a good photo of the old Stagecoaches, and this one is pretty sweet. with that dramatic sky and the late afternoon sunshine casting a warm glow over the scene. That is one of the "mud wagon" types of coaches, as opposed to the "Concord" type (it could exceed Mach II!) that was also in Frontierland. This attraction was closed in September of 1959.


Next I have this pretty neat picture of the Columbia in Fowler's Harbor, in the early stages of construction. This was just mixed in with a lot of otherwise fairly ordinary slides, so it was a nice discovery. It's hard to believe that this pile of lumber would eventually become the graceful and beautiful square-rigged sailing ship that we know today.


Let's zoom in a little. I wonder if real shipwrights were employed for this project, or if movie industry prop/set builders were so skilled that they could do this sort of thing in their sleep? 


17 comments:

MIKE COZART said...

Cool Columbia construction shots. The Sailingship Columbia was drafted by an actual marine architect ( his name escapes me now) he was an expert on martitine ship construction - so it was built very accurately. The gentlemen - who again I will have to research - helped with many historic ship restorations and reconstructions and later was a designer of Shoreline Village in Long Beach California and Seaport Village in San Diego California. Shorline Village was themed to old San Francisco & The Barbary Coast ( like Discovery Bay) And San Diego’s Seaport Village featured three themed “ports” ; “ Old San Francisco”, “Old Monterey” And “Old Mexico” ..... Seaport Village is slated to be demolished soon by the San Diego Pier Commission - the 1980’s are TOTALLY over.

On a side note- the Disney Gallery at one time held a short-run exhibit of the artwork created by the Disneyland Columbia designer - they did this on the Columbia’s anniversary and they sold a lithograph from his concept art, and many pieces of original Columbia art provided by his widow.

MIKE COZART said...

The designer was Raymond Wallace!!

Nanook said...

Major-
Ahhhhhhhhh........

@ Mike Cozart-
Thanks for the swell info.

Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

Major, wow....what a great find! I wonder how much of that wood has been replaced since 1958?

JC Shannon said...

Two beauties is right! Great subjects and great angles. The Concords may have been able to hit Mach II, but I bet those horses ate a lot of runway. You can see my favorite house on the hill, move in ready I'll wager. I can't say enough good things about these snaps. I will enjoy them all day. Thanks to Mike as well. I sometimes forget that someone had to draw out detailed plans for the Columbia, and get it to move about the river. A job well done for sure.

K. Martinez said...

I loved this section of Frontierland. It was the old west part of Frontierland as opposed to the mid-western Mississippi/Tom Sawyer part and it had multiple attractions traveling within the boundaries of the "natural" wonderland. So much variety in a small area. Amazing how over time the area was reduced to a single attraction.

I like that the early Frontierland Station is visible in the Columbia construction image. I'll give bonus points for the parking lot power lines and support tower in the distance. As someone recently said here on GDB, Disneyland was a transportation museum. Both of today's pics illustrate that well. Thanks, Major.

Mike Cozart, Thanks for that wonderful information as always. Your insight and knowledge is greatly appreciated.

Chuck said...

Ken, I think that's the freight house rather than the Frontierland depot. Compare today's photo with this 1972 picture from Daveland showing both structures.

This is a surprise to me, because I thought the freight house was added in 1962 when the tracks were expanded a second time and the depot was moved across the tracks. It also appears to be on the Park side of the tracks as the depot would have been in 1958. Was this possibly added in the 1956 track expansion? And if the other side faced the tracks, what did it look like? Did it have a larger door for loading freight from flat cars or wagons?

I hope Steve DeGaetano checks in today.

Steve DeGaetano said...

Chuck, having checked my own book, I don't have a date for when the freight house was added! Your observations are keen, especially concerning the freight house's location on the Park side of the tracks, and I will have to do further research.

Mike Cozart is correct that Ray Wallace designed the ship--and also the Cordelia K. steam boat at Knott's! It's likely actual shipwrights were employed--they also used period tools when they could in the ship's building.

In the first photo, notice that the horses are in "scale" too! A detail purposely utilized, and one that was written about before the Park opened.

MIKE COZART said...

The Frontierland Station’s freight depot was built as Frontierland restrooms so it had to have been within the DL RR tracks at some point.

stu29573 said...

TM's question about replaced wood reminded me that I read somewhere that literally every part of the Constitution has been replaced, which raises the rather interesting question of is is still the original ship? Grandpa's hammer has has three heads and two handles, but it's still Grandpa's hammer!

Steve DeGaetano said...

Very interesting, Mike. I didn't know that!

Chuck said...

Steve, your book (and some of your Burnsland posts) were my first stop. :-)

MIKE COZART, thanks for the additional info on the freight house. I had no idea it had been constructed as restrooms, but that explains the doors at either side of the long wall.

I know that there is now a door on the short side facing the Frontierland depot. Was that original, or is that a post-move addition when it was converted into a crew break room? Is there a corresponding door on the short side facing the tunnel? And what the heck does the side facing the berm look like? Is it like the back side of water?

Anonymous said...

Wow, this is a great post. Lots of good lost info in here.

I recall vividly from my days driving stagecoach that runway behind you is useless, and those Mach-capable horses required higher-octane av-gas, although the smaller ones were more fuel-efficient. In-flight fueling is still a challenge and exhaust components require special handling.

Extra points for the facts about the freight warehouse, all of this is new to me. On a recent visit, I saw some of the musicians from the French Market (I think) carrying their instruments across the tracks heading to one of the buildings east of the station (the ones with the clotheslines). Is there a break room or other staff facility back there? I just assumed it was all false fronts. I wanted to just tag along and see where it led, but my costume was all wrong for the era.

I know Steve D has posted the pedigree of the little station building, which I believe was based on a real station design. My favorite little building in Disneyland, just too cute for words. I did download the pattern book with the drawings. Fascinating stuff.

@Stu29573, I still have my grandfather's bladeless axe, but it has no handle.

There is an odd sense of continuity in some historical restorations of buildings, especially very famous ones. Some measures are taken to distinguish replacement "fabric" (in the sense of any building material, not cloth) from the original, even if only by photography, so future restoration architects can see what was added or replaced and when. I wonder if the same was done with the "Constitution"?

Major, it's good to see that the "Columbia" was constructed using only real shipwrights and not the cheap imitation kind, use of which leads to premature baldness and tooth decay. Thanks to you and everyone commenting for this very interesting post.

JG

Major Pepperidge said...

Mike Cozart, thank you for that great info! I am not surprised that a real marine architect was used, the old Columbia looks so authentic. Fascinating that somebody with those skills still had avenues for plenty of work in the late 1950’s and beyond. I’ll have to look up Shoreline Village and Seaport Village, I’m not familiar with those, though I have a mystery slide from Long Beach that might be from Shoreline Village (I always wondered what the heck it was).

Mike Cozart, awesome!

Nanook, hear hear.

TokyoMagic!, I was wondering the same thing.

Jonathan, listen, when you need to hit Mach II, there are some technical aspects that just can’t be ignored. The heat that built up on the hides of the horses was considerable. And those sonic booms were a nuisance. I’ll bet that in 1958 your Rainbow Ridge house still had that “fresh lumber” smell.

K. Martinez, I am ashamed to admit that my true appreciation for Frontierland didn’t manifest itself until I was an adult. Sure, I liked it, but I didn’t think about what they had achieved on the site of the former orange and walnut groves. And yes, the glimpse of the old Frontierland Station is nice.

Chuck, I guess I sort of considered all of those structures as being part of the station, myself. And I hope Steve DeGaetano checks in too, because I don’t know the answers to your questions!

Steve DeGaetano, hey, we were just talking about you. Were your ears burning? Uh oh, it sounds like it is time for a NEW addition of your Disneyland RR book! Very cool that Ray Wallace also designed the Cordelia K, I guess I just assumed it was a Bud Hurlbut design. As for the horses, I especially notice the smaller animals when they are pulling some of those Main Street vehicles.

Mike Cozart, that is a good point…

stu29573, I remember reading a similar thing about Abe Lincoln’s axe. When I was a kid it blew my mind!

Chuck, all these questions! I’ll just sit back and enjoy the conversation I guess.

MIKE COZART said...

Ray Wallace also oversaw the construction of period watercraft for Tokyo Disney Sea in the American Waterfront, New England Harbor and Explorer’s Fortress/Landing areas.

Major Pepperidge said...

Mike Cozart, amazing that Wallace worked all the way from the Columbia to Tokyo Disney Sea!

Chuck said...

The freight house in its original position must be the least-photographed, publicly-accessible building in early Disneyland history. I have founds five or six photos both here and at Daveland like this one that were obviously taken next to the freight house restrooms, but none that were taken of the freight house restrooms.

You can barely make out the roof from this 1960 aerial photo from Yesterland, which places it just after the NW end of the Frontierland siding. You can see it again, just below the baseball diamond in this shot (also from 1960), and just below and to the right of the tip of Tom Sawyer Island in this photo from around the same time, but no trackside details.

Then, when I'd just about given up finding anything closer up, I stumbled on a color photo at GDB with the building hiding in the trees in the background. Unfortunately, it's the side we have all seen from the current Frontierland/NOS platform and doesn't answer any of my questions.

I watched the entire aerial intro segment of Disneyland, U.S.A. (1:19-3:04) and the flyover of Frontierland (8:45-11:35) but was unable to find it. The POV shot from the train as it heads into the tunnel after departing the Frontierland depot (18:15) starts just after passing the restrooms.

I then dug up some home movie footage shot from the train in 1956. There's interesting on-board footage starting at about the 3:00 mark of the freight train leaving Frontierland...from the left side of the train.

The back side of that building just doesn't want to be photographed!