Silver Dollar City, August 1960
I have somehow wound up with a series of slides from Silver Dollar City (in Stone County, Missouri - near Branson). Doing a little research, I discovered that SDC opened on May 1st, 1960, so these photos are from only a few months later. It is owned and built by the Herschend family, which had already been in charge of the local tourist attraction, Marvel Cave: The Herschends built the Ozark frontier town on the land surrounding the site of the cave. Silver Dollar City originally was the site of five shops, a church, a log cabin, and a street production reproducing the feud between the Hatfields and McCoys several times daily.
The name was inspired by Ozark Jubilee script writer and publicist Don Richardson after the promotional idea of giving visitors silver dollars in change. The scenic designer for much of the original attraction was Andy Miller, who had been the set designer for the Jubilee in nearby Springfield. Opening day, May 1, 1960... In its first year, Silver Dollar City drew more than 125,000 people, four times more visitors than the number that toured Marvel Cave. "We discovered we were in the theme park business," Pete Herschend said.
Heading in!
I can't help wondering if Knott's Berry Farm, which had been a success since the 1940s, was an inspiration at all? Here we see a hotel (ice cream parlor), with a doll shop next door. Because you will want to buy a doll and immediately give it ice cream to make it feel welcome.
An old-fashioned firehouse also seems to be in order; this one has a primitive fire wagon for the Volunteer Water Bucket Brigade. It's hard to be sure, but there might be a fancier firetruck inside the station.
Aha! An actual ride! This was the "Flooded Mine" attraction. One description says: This classic boat ride takes riders through a flooding mine, past pumping stations and explosions. Riders can shoot targets which trigger some effects when hit. You can find photos of the interior, with scenes that recall the Calico Mine Train and the Timber Mountain Log Ride at Knott's!
Postcards, we love vintage postcards.
I have a few more slides from Silver Dollar City, so stay tuned!
10 comments:
Major-
I must protest the date of the slides, as the 1st image is sporting a 1962 Chevrolet Nova station wagon (probably in Ermine White). And in the background we can see a 1962 Chevrolet Impala (probably in Surf Green).
In the 3rd image, it appears the sign painter stopped mid-job, as potential lodgers are left in the dark when it comes to just what extras one receives when plopping down "a whole dollar": Magic Fingers®, perhaps-?
Thanks, Major.
I think the SDC trashcans are 'home made'; they look too 'rustic' to be off-the-shelf.
In the Firehouse photo, I like the style of the Green Kid on the right: Green shirt (with green trim), green shorts (sort of), and green socks. His sneakers aren't green though; he need to take a long walk through some wet grass... that'll fix it.
I like the craftsmanship of the "A. Wilson" sign.
The Flooded Mine: Surely they didn't fire actual pellets at the targets!? Did they have those infrared-shooting guns in 1961?
I gotta say, your image of the Flooded Mine looks a lot better than the faded postcard. Although the postcard shows us more of the surroundings.
Interesting place that I never heard of before today. Thanks, Major.
.....potential lodgers are left in the dark when it comes to just what extras one receives when plopping down "a whole dollar": Magic Fingers®, perhaps-?
Nanook, I noticed that, too! With....what? Magic Fingers® would be nice, but Butterfingers would be even better. You know, under the pillow.....instead of a "mint."
Someone definitely had been to KBF, multiple visits, and maybe even Disneyland as well. The designers saw the benefit of themed trash cans too.
Silver Dollar City sounds like a place name from Paint Your Wagon.
I’m curious how that “shoot ‘em up” effect would have worked, sounds like fun!
I’ll hazard a guess that the dollar room includes bath “en suite” but who knows? Might have just included sheets on the bed? Or color TV?
Thanks Major, a fun excursion today.
JG
Nanook, it looks like I made a typo when I created my initial draft, typing “1960” instead of “1970”, and then things just went sideways from there. I blame society.
JB, not only that, but those trashcans and very narrow, they don’t look like they’d hold very much. Those teenage summer hires are going to be busy constantly changing out the bags! I wondered about the “target shooting” aspect of the Flooded Mine too, and didn’t find any details. I assume there must be more information out there, but it’s not easy to locate.
TokyoMagic!, I noticed that mysterious “with” on the hotel as well. Imagine how long that was there, and nobody fixed it! I want to climb up there and paint “Dolly Madison Zinger”. It just feels right.
JG, I’m sure that both Knott’s and Disneyland had many lessons for amusement park designers - and they still do. The shooting aspect of the Flooded Mine ride is really intriguing. Nobody in those floating mine cars is holding any sort of weapon. Maybe guests spit at the targets. The perfect solution!
That “fire tank - bucket wagon “ thing is made from a railroad baggage cart - I don’t think that would be very efficient to pull during a fire!
Awh… let’s give SILVER DOLLAR CITY a break - they are trying! Even Disneyland and Walt Disney World recently fixed a bunch of mistakes and errors on the Main Street Window credits …. And only fixed because of research being done for last years Main Street window book - some were mistakes like misspellings or things left off by sign painters over the years .. and one in Florida was a added name they could not locate in the Disney company records …. And turned out it was a relative of a sign painter .
Silver Dollar City + Marvel Anne Caves....didn't know Marvel Anne had a cave, but where angels go...trouble follows. I gotta slide in a nun movie reference wherever I can. It seems rather simple here at Silver Dollar City...and honestly, I would have visited knowing that they give change in silver dollars. Kind of a cool gimmick...was there a "Marvel Anne Casino and Wax Museum" nearby to plunk your silver dollars back into the community? I have a "not so great" story about silver dollars...but on the happier side: it was nice to hear the "clink" of them in a bucket: they had quite the tonal quality that a bucket of pennies just doesn't come close to. The flooded mine looks very ..."safe". Let's put the biggest guys in the back...that will balance everything out. Just as an FYI: when "snagging" a seat in the exit row of an airplane: think before you select. Often times, the biggest guys will choose those seats because "they have more room!"....well...think it through: 3 seats with 3 linebacker style shoulders...or even two of those guys...well...hmmm....you have been warned. Back to the Silver Dollar City and cleaning up after Debby with a "Y"....she was a messy girl. I missed yesterday DTD (due to Debby) but Happy Birthday Haunted Mansion and Haunted Manson. Very eerily they share the same dates in 1969. Thanks major for the trip to Branson Adjacent! I friend of mine lives in "Encino Adjacent" which I remind him: "bro: it's Reseda...." Reseda isn't all that bad, and I think the "Karate Kid" had his screen courtyard apartment in the Valley in Reseda, and Tomatoes grow there like weeds.
I wrote half of a comment before leaving the house this morning, but it appears that I was distracted by laundry and forgot to finish.
Happy to see the original Silver Dollar City (the second one is now Dollywood). At least as of 2008 (the date of my only visit), it still retained the charm you see here. A friend described it as reminding him of Cedar Point's Frontier Trail before the roller coasters took over that park, and I think that's accurate. There are also similarities to early KBF as well.
Admission to SDC includes tours of Marvel Cave, and it's a pretty impressive show cave. It's also a wonderful respite from the heat and humidity of a summer day in Southwest Missouri. We had two-day tickets, and it was so hot my mother-in-law went back to the air-conditioned RV before lunch the first day and waved off visiting the park the second day. Mrs. Chuck and the then-7-year-old gave up the ghost in the mid-afternoon of the second day, leaving me and the then-5-year-old to have an absolute blast without those whiners dragging us down, getting back to the RV about 11 that night.
Today's picture shows the Flooded Mine before they added the "shooting gallery" effects. As surmised above, they use infrared guns and targets.
If these photos are from 1970, they predate Fire in the Hole (1972), which was a lovably eccentric dark ride/rollercoaster (think Timber Mountain Log Ride, but with more vigilantes). That was a hit with both the 5-year-old and me, and we rode it three or four times in a row after it finally opened late in the day. Sadly, it closed at the end of last year.
That dollar premium room may have just included walls and a ceiling. I know I'd pay extra for that.
Been to SDC in 1979, but all I can recall is being in one gift shop, and the cave—which was impressive. I definitely would’ve ridden on the rides—but my memory doesn’t recall any. Scary.
Thanks, Major.
Originally, the flooded mine didn’t have guns & targets. They were added sometime in the 90’s. Most of us who grew up here liked it better before the guns caused everyone to focus on shooting instead of all the prisoners who worked trying to get the water out of the mine. The guns always have had electronic targeting, never pellets
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