Monday, August 15, 2022

Mark Twain & Stagecoach, April 1959

Here are more scans from a large lot of April 1959 slides! First up is this nice angle next to the docks for the Mark Twain and the Columbia - you can just see part of the raised ramp (to the right) that allowed guests to board the Columbia. Beyond the Mark Twain is the Plantation House, where you could not get fried possum, but you could get fried chicken. I don't understand why people have such an aversion to a whole possum, dipped in batter and deep fried, but I've learned to live with it.


Beyond the lush landscaping we can see a genuine Stagecoach trundling through the wilderness. I'm wondering if the photographer was on another Stagecoach? It could happen! Or maybe the picture was taken from the Disneyland RR. Hard to say.


Zooming in, we can see that the Stagecoach was carrying a full load of greenhorns. Hopefully the mountain lions and flying prairie dogs would pick them off one by one, leaving the folks inside the Stagecoach unharmed. On September 13th, 1959, the Rainbow Mountain Stagecoaches closed forever.


20 comments:

JB said...

The young lady in yellow has a classic sort of beauty. She reminds me of someone, but I'm not sure who. Some actress?
Major, you could also not get fried squirrel or fried rat-on-a-stick. One has to wonder how the Plantation House stayed in business for as long as it did with such a limited menu.

I guess folks just held on for dear life, those up on top of the stagecoach. They're not strapped down, are they? I'm getting all anxious thinking about it. But I'd probably be up there, too. It's the best spot!
The flying prairie dogs are nothing compared to the jackalopes. Especially the Mountain Jackalopes, which are much bigger than the Plains Jackalopes. First they impale you with their antlers, then they rip you to shreds with their huge nasty teeth. That's how the T-Rex went extinct. They were no match for a herd of jackalopes!

We don't often see the Disneyland stagecoach; thanks, Major.

JG said...

That’s an unusual angle of the River, and a pretty girl. Great combo!

That stagecoach view could have been taken in a real wilderness, pretty amazing that landscape is less than four years old.

Major, ever try a chocolate-dipped possum?

JG

DrGoat said...

I agree JG. That landscape looks very mature for being so young. Only in Disneyland. We never did do the stage coach. Sorry we didn't. We had a movie set / park called Old Tucson, where we rode the stage a couple of times so I guess my parents steered us away from it. I was only 9 so I probably wouldn't have remembered it anyway.
Thanks Major.

K. Martinez said...

Love the Stagecoach in the Frontierland wilderness.

Love fried corn possums. Better than corn dogs. Just hold it by the tail, add some spicy mustard and start munching. Hot, crispy and juicy. Mmmmmmmm!

Nice pics today. Thanks, Major.

Melissa said...

"Our fried chicken contains no more than 20% possum. Processed in a facility that also processes flying prairie dogs. May contain trace amounts of greasy, grimy gopher guts."

Such lovely spring dresses for a lovely spring day in California.

The Stagecoach is near the top of my list for things I wish I'd gotten to ride. Maybe someday I'll get lucky like DrGoat and find another tourist spot that has one. I just remembered that Benny Hill used to do a character named "Orson Buggy."

Melissa said...

Oh, and I would scramble for a seat on top, jut like JB!

Major Pepperidge said...

JB, I think that young lady just has that “girl next door” look, she reminds me of girls I went to school with. Rat on a stick is an acquired taste… all those little bones. Give me a big meaty possum any day! As far as I know, the only thing keeping the people from falling off the Stagecoaches were little metal railings that people could hold on to, sort of like a luggage rack on top of a station wagon. No straps or “seatbelts”. Crazy! Sadly I’ve never managed to see a jackalope in the wild, though it is one of my dreams to see two males fighting over a doe.

JG, that’s the Frontierland I love, when it really could pass for “out in the middle of nowhere”. Yes, there’s more to do now, but I need LESS to do! I did once have chocolate-dipped possum, at a wedding, they had possums and one of those chocolate fountains. So elegant!

DrGoat, I’m guessing that SoCal had wetter winters back then, and plants here really go nuts if they get some regular water. I think (but am not sure) I might have had a photo or two from Old Tucson, I’m glad you got to go to it. I think I remember hearing that a lot of it burned to the ground due to a wildfire.

K. Martinez, man, your description of corn possums is making me hungry! Especially the spicy mustard. Much better than those darn turkey legs!

Melissa, sometimes when I used to go to KFC I would get a piece of “chicken” that was unrecognizable. And my friends would joke that it was cat, or possum, or possibly even human. Who cares, it was delicious! Wow, I’m amazed that you remember anything from Benny Hill other than the old guy who kept getting his head patted.

TokyoMagic! said...

I really like that photo of the Stagecoach. Maybe the roof had holes in it for people to put their legs through, for a more secure ride on top? Of course, then they would be inadvertently kicking the heads of the people riding inside the coach.

I remember visiting a Japanese restaurant that had the traditional "low" tables positioned over a large hole in the ground. That way, you could sit on the ground and let your legs hang over in the "pit" underneath the table.

Personally, I prefer my fried possum cubed, skewered, and dipped in fondue.

Dean Finder said...

The lady in yellow has a Priscilla Presley quality to her look.
I think the problem with fried possum is that people dislike the tails left on the plate at the end. Only the finest French restaurants figured out how to make them edible.

Stu29573 said...

Of course the best way to enjoy possum is in a good ol' possum/strawberry smoothie! The trickiest thing about eating possum is that you're never really sure if they're dead. That can be quite a shock, I tell you what!

It seems the stagecoaches closed on my birthday...three years before I was born. Therefore, I disavow any responsibility for the closing. You ain't gonna pin it on me!

Nanook said...

Major-
I do have home movies from our 1956 visit to DL; and I know there are shots of the stagecoaches - presumably with yours truly. Maybe some day I’ll spend the money to see them, but…

Thanks, Major.

Chuck said...

I feel kind of left out. The only marsupial I’ve ever eaten is kangaroo.

Anonymous said...

Nanook, I’D spend the money to see YOUR home movies from then!

Major, could Chief Wavey have taken those pictures??

Am getting hungry for lunch....

Thank, Major.

—Sue

Bu said...

I have an old cookbook with an entire chapter on how to prepare squirrel. I suppose somewhere during the depression it was a "thing" so it is included probably to indicate that it is "OK" to eat Chip and Dale...oh wait...they are chipmunks...I have to look and see if there are also chipmunk recipes. Chipmunks are all over my yard, and are the cutest little things...although they have voracious appetites. All of the wildlife around me is very well fed. I think I got one apple out of 6 apple trees. Speaking of wildlife: Frontierland looks like it's a hot bed of wildlife. People on top of Stagecoach: why did we remotely think that would work? I mean...I'm all for it of course, but the liability of such a scheme...wow...as Walt said (perhaps, maybe) "if you can't sit on top, then there is no ride...take it out." Could it be Eastertime? With Marge and Madge there in their lavender, and serious student in pearls and "butter" dress. Is Dodgers with her? WERE there Dodgers in LA when these were taken? The Dodgers ended for me with the completion of "The Garv's" career. Steve was always a friendly face at Disneyland with his favorite TG's. Although Piazza was a contender as a Garv replacement, he didn't quite have the show biz quality- and ultimately chose the Mets to represent his career in the hall of fame. If you don't follow circa 1980's Dodgers this probably sounds like blah blah blee blah blue. I'm wondering why they didn't incorporate the Plantation House into New Orleans Square- move it or something like Ron Dominquez's house. Seems like a major building to bulldoze, but I suppose it could have been put together in an expensive way and wasn't worth saving. Who knows. The little bridge leading over to it was quite pretty. To think that this was an orange grove only a short time before this is mind boggling. Thanks for the photos this morning!

Major Pepperidge said...

Melissa, I would push small children off the top so that there would be more room for me.

TokyoMagic!, I like the idea of the Stagecoach roof having holes in it. Genius! No worries about kicking the heads of the people inside, just give them football helmets. That Japanese restaurant knew that Americans don’t want to sit cross-legged for an hour (or more), that was a good solution. Fondued possum, just like they do in Paris??

Dean Finder, with enough garlic and butter, almost anything is delicious.

Stu29573, possum smoothies are good, but you need a big industrial blender, you can’t use your 1960s Sunbeam blender. Believe me, I tried. As for you having no responsibility for the Stagecoach closings, methinks thou dost protest too much.

Nanook, yeah, the one time I digitized some home movies (given to me by Mr. X), it cost a lot more than I’d expected, and the movies weren’t that great after all that time and money.

Chuck, have you ever tried monotremes? So good!

Sue, first you have to digitize Lou’s movies! Chief Wavy could have taken those pictures, but I think he preferred to take artsy black and white images.

Bu, hey, if you’re hungry enough, a squirrel probably makes for some good eatin’. My dad loved to tell us about what they ate when he worked on the farm in Minnesota. I think he was actually wistful for some of those “delicacies”. Chipmunks are cute, but I have heard of them getting into people’s attics and doing tons of damage. Out here we have ground squirrels everywhere; at the local park they are a real nuisance. My friend said that they need to release gopher snakes into the ground squirrel burrows, which actually seems like a good solution to me, but you know that anybody at the park who saw a snake would lose their minds. I think lots of other amusement parks had stagecoach rides, so Walt was probably using those as his model for Disneyland. I sure remember Steve Garvey; I used to love baseball, but for some reason I sort of fell out of love with it. It’s still fun to go see a live game, or occasionally I’ll watch one at somebody’s home, but I rarely just watch one on my own. It would have been great if they’d repurposed the Plantation House, but I’m sure it was a lot cheaper to just tear it down.

DrGoat said...

Major,
Old Tucson rose from the ashes and they really fixed it up. In the 40s through the 70s they filmed so many westerns in Old Tucson that I can spot it pretty quickly. They have a locomotive with a station and a pretty long stretch of tracks which is a also in a lot of westerns. Almost every John Wayne western had at least some if not all the scenes filmed there.
It is now a tourist attraction and does pretty well.

Melissa said...

Possum: Consider the Possumbilities!™

(This message brought to you by the Possum Growers' Association of America)

Anonymous said...

Dr. Goat, we visited Old Tucson once in my youth.

I remember the gateway to the "High Chaparral" ranch but not much else, Dad was a big fan of that show.

Major, chipmunks are amazingly destructive. There are so many at the Philmont Scout Ranch, the boys called them "mini-bears". I've heard of hikers unknowingly wrapping them up in their gear and finding at the end of the day, all their food has been damaged from the inside.

I have an old cookbook with a recipe for cooking bear meat, I only recall that it involves a good deal of soaking in milk to get rid of the strong "wild" flavor. I don't recall if it has squirrel or possum recipes, but I can research it.

JG

JB said...

I think we've depleted the internet's allowable usage of the word "possum" today. I just searched the entire web and couldn't find any other possums anywhere! We used 'em all up! I tried googling it and got "try again tomorrow".

(If you believe that, then I've got a mountain in Anaheim to sell you.)

Major Pepperidge said...

DrGoat, I thought that I’d heard that Old Tucson had been rebuilt, but wasn’t entirely sure. I’m glad it seems to be thriving! The locomotive alone sounds worth the trip, have you been on it? I wonder, did they rebuild it just the way it was, or did they make improvements?

Melissa, that’s possumbly one of the best puns ever!

JG, whenever I think of chipmunks, I recall going to the L.A. Zoo. We were admiring some rare rhinos, but some kids near us only cared about the chipmunks that were running around eating dropped popcorn and other junk. I mean, they lost their minds, they were so excited! The good thing about soaking bear meat in milk is that you can then use the milk for a delicious ice cream.

JB, I’m like Tom Cruise in “Top Gun”, I don’t make the rules, I BREAK the rules! Sure, I’m a loose cannon, but when you need someone to make a mid-level blog, I’m your guy. Hint: there is a big supply of possums in Oxnard.