Today's Frontierland images are not really that bad when compared to the usual rubbish that you might find here on a Sunday. They're clear, and have good color. They're just not quite ready for prime time.
Tom Sawyer Island was riddled with caves - mysterious and potentially dangerous, especially if Injun Joe was in there. No self-respecting boy or girl could resist exploring these passageways with their dead-ends and bottomless pits. Risk be damned! This outcropping shows one of the cave exits. I think the lantern to the right is interesting, held in place with some rusty chains. The island closed at dusk, so I'm not really sure why they needed lighting, unless it was for CMs. Any idea what that wooden structure is in the upper left?
Here's a pretty scene - though it would get prettier when the plants on the island filled in and got green (I wonder if this was taken during a hot, dry summer?). A pair of elk stop for a cool drink of water, next to a peaceful Indian encampment.
TSI was fun! I loved exploring those caves, and also playing tag all around those caves, with my cousins, when we were around 10 years old.
ReplyDeleteDo those poor elk have the mange??
Thanks, Major - fun pictures!
Sue
That wooden structure is Injun Joe's Outhouse.
ReplyDeleteThat cave is the emergency exit for the outhouse above, of course. That’s why it’s “exit only” !
ReplyDeleteI love everybody's creative ideas, but that structure was actually the pump house for the streams that ran down Indian Hill from under the tree supporting Tom & Huck's Tree House (although the treehouse wasn't yet built when these photos were taken).
ReplyDeleteThe lantern was probably there not only for CMs cleaning or doing maintenance but also to create mood and provide something to see for guests riding the Mark Twain after dark.
Thanks, Major!
I have very fond childhood memories of the cases on WDW's Tom Sawyer Island. They were just scary enough to be exciting. Rides can be scary, but as long as you're in a vehicle on a track, you can be sure on some level that you're going to be OK. But when you're just wandering through a dark cave on tour own, your brain feels like anything could happen!
ReplyDeleteAre you sure that's the friendly Indian camp? You can never be too careful...
ReplyDeleteTSI in the early days was perfect for kids and adults as well. And the ride over and back was like another attraction built in. I know my dad enjoyed it too. He couldn't keep up with me, though.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Major and commenters. Not Meh at all,
dz
Lou and Sue, that one elk does look a little odd to me, but I’m no elkspert. I loved TSI’s caves too, in fact I loved the whole place!
ReplyDeleteTokyoMagic!, even evil killers have to “go”. One of the hard facts.
Budblade, I’m trying to imagine why an outhouse would need an emergency exit - an I’m sorry my brain went there.
Chuck, somehow I would have expected a bigger pump house for all those streams (I think there were three or four of them?). I wonder if it made a racket, like an old generator? You make a good point, people would still look at TSI after dark, even if no guests were allowed.
Melissa, as a kid, any dark tunnel was enough to scare me. At Knott’s, there was a tunnel. Just a relatively short, “nothing” tunnel - to the “pan for gold” area, and I really didn’t want to walk into it. My mom had to practically drag me! But then I realized I was being silly for a 20 year-old.
Andrew, if the elk can stand there and not be turned into elk burgers, it’s probably pretty safe for us too.
dzacher, some parks have other areas where kids are supposed to run and explore (like DCA’s “Redwood Creek Challenge Trail”) but somehow none of them have the complete world-building like TSI had. And you’re right, having to take a raft over to it made all the difference.
@ Chuck-
ReplyDeleteAlthough I can't say what it is, that structure isn't a pump house (Perhaps it's the 'receiver' to distribute the water-?) - but the house would be located down near the RoA - I just don't know its exact location. THIS is the pump house. [Thank you Daveland].
I love the caves (and escape tunnel) on WDWs TSI. I took my grandson through them and he was just as excited/little bit scared as I was at his age! They are perfect for creating that feeling! Once again, even with all the new technology, the simple stuff still works.
ReplyDeleteI take it this was taken early in the park's history, what with the overall barren landscape. Perhaps its just me, but I'm accustom to TSI being sprawled with flora. Really offers a true sense of rugged wilderness.
ReplyDeleteTSI was closed at dusk, yet there was lighting on the island to enhance the ambiance of the land around it as well as adding some mystery. And if I'm not mistaken, some of the lighting was natural gas lanterns. I wonder if that's what is attached to the cave exit. KS
ReplyDeleteThe tunnels and caves on TSI were always a lot of fun when I was a kid, and when our kids were small, they loved them too. The 'tight' spaces and curviness and mystery were a real kick. And the mine tunnel to the gold panning at Knott's was the same thing, dark, narrow and low and sorta scary. There was also a 'tunnel' of sorts along Knott's El Camino Real that had some of the dioramas of the California Missions spaced out along it. Some were in a type of underpass where the stagecoach went overhead. (If my memory serves) After dark, it had pretty much the same effect on young me.
ReplyDeleteGood stuff today.
W
Nanook, I was going off memories of a previous post. Unfortunately, my memory was off; I had forgotten that I had merely guessed that the building was the pump house rather than found some sort of definitive proof. Maybe that's just a tool shed above the cave.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that the door to the pump house is open in that Daveland photo. You'd think they'd want people to stay out for their own safety, but maybe they weren't so worried about that in the days before anyone had ever heard of Augustus Gloop.
Injun Joe's Cave was very real to me as a kid. One of my first books was a very short kid version of Tom Sawyer and all the island locations seemed as familiar as the real world. Since I grew up with a river front on the edge of the farm, all the river stories were very believable and part of my experiences. Our river was too shallow for rafts or steamboats, but we had willows, sand bars, fish and so many other things right out of the books. There was nothing better.
ReplyDeleteThanks for these splendid photos, Major.
JG