Rivers of America
It's time for another installment of Frontierland scans, courtesy of the Mysterious Benefactor! All of these fall under the general description of the "Rivers of America"; scenes along the shore and on the water.
Uh-oh, a storm's a-brewing. I hope there aren't any twisters! That raft is so loaded, it can only mean that the guests on Tom Sawyer Island were fleeing for the mainland in search of the nearest root cellar. The ducks don't seem concerned, but what do they know? They have duck brains! The river looks glassy and smooth, but that's always the way before fierce weather.
We're looking across the water toward the Old Mill at the south end of Tom Sawyer Island, and even though this is pre-Fantasmic!, there is some sort of stage-like platform blocking some of the view. Did Dixieland bands perform there on warm summer evenings? Or was it just a landing for the rafts? If so, it seems like overkill.
There's a different landing for rafts, also on TSI, with a few guests waiting patiently. Little do they know that the rafts aren't using that landing! One guy is getting hungry, when he looks at other guests, they turn into giant turkey legs.
Speaking of being hungry, that boy is going to devour the Fishing Pier; he has developed strong and prominent incisors much like those on a beaver.
Maybe the theme of today's post should have been "Raft Landings for $100, Alex". In this case a Raft sits unused, and there's nothing sadder. Well, maybe some things are sadder, but let's not think about it. I'm glad to see that the fishing pier was rebuilt after that kid ate it.
And finally, a nice view of Huck's Landing over on the west side of the island, not far from Merry Go Round Rock and Fort Wilderness. There's just something about an island that makes me want to float over and explore!
MANY THANKS to the Mysterious Benefactor.
13 comments:
Major-
"... there is some sort of stage-like platform blocking some of the view. Did Dixieland bands perform there on warm summer evenings?"
Actually, this was the first loading dock for the Disney Cruise Line.
These images are certainly inviting.
Thanks to the M B.
In the first pic, I love when the water is all glassy. That texture just appeals to me for some reason. We can see the Columbia comin' round the bend.
Clearly, beaver-toothed boy isn't getting enough fiber in his daily diet! I really can't imagine what's going through his head, gnawing on that wooden pier. I bet it tastes fishy.
Kind of atypical photos from the Mysterious Benefactor today. Not the usual happy, happy, blue sky, arty pics. A change of pace! But still nice.
Thanks to whoever the photographer was, and to the M.B. for sharing them with us. And to Major for publishing them. And for bringing beaver-boy to our attention. :-p
It's a twister, it's a twister! Auntie Em, Auntie Em!
Maybe someone should introduce the sad raft to the sad Carnation truck, from yesterday. Maybe they could be happy together. And how is the weather?
LOL, I got that, TM!
While all of these are quite fine, photo 4 really hit me with a blinding flash of memory. I really remember running up that dirt slope to the fort. Pine needles on the ground, weird rocks, etc. funny how a picture can do that, and why that picture and not one of the others?
In general, the rustic trash cans, the crude signs with letter “s” drawn backwards, the handrails made of limbs, all so familiar.
The crowded raft with the CM hanging on the outside, we can see the bench lockers holding life vests.
Great things today, Major, thank you and the MB too.
JG
Sue and Major, I left some responses to yesterday’s post, you might want to see.
JG
Such nice pictures of the River. So idyllic, one could pass them off as being taken in the mid-west. The original Disney folks knew how to pull off such perspectives. Would be nice to get a time frame as to when these were taken. Sorry to be a downer here on a Monday, but the female CM in the first shot has the look and pose of Diane W whom we lost a couple months ago. KS
Nanook, based on that loading dock, those early Disney cruises were everything I hoped they’d be.
JB, sometimes you just get a craving to eat fence posts or other lumber, it’s a well-known medical condition. Some say that our bodies know that they are lacking in certain nutrients. Like… um… pine sap? I’d imagine that several photographers were responsible for these pictures, I used to know a guy who was one of Disneyland’s official photographers; I tried to convince him to let me use some of his pictures (such as inside the dark ride portion of the Submarine ride when it was drained), but he was reluctant.
TokyoMagic!, what the heck is Auntie Em supposed to do about that twister, anyway? Shake a big spoon at it? Today must be the first Turtles reference. Or maybe not?
Lou and Sue, I got it too!
JG, I wish I had childhood memories of Tom Sawyer Island, but I didn’t go there until I was an adult. Yet another thing that my family never did, for some reason. We always did the same things, and always skipped the same things (such as the Tiki Room, another thing I didn’t do until I was all grown up. I really do think that TSI does not get the respect it deserves, it’s so beautifully designed.
JG, OK, I’ll take a look soon.
KS, I agree, I think it would be very easy to convince a random person that these photos were taken in Missouri or someplace like that. As time passes, we lose people, it’s sad but we can just be grateful that we had them in our lives!
Seeing the Tom Sawyer Island OLD MILL in these pictures is very appropriate this week. In the 1990’s to create a new island performance area for FANTASMIC , Disneyland demolished the Mill. There was actually some uproar from guest , imagineers and some Disneyland cast. Disneyland came up with a fake story that it was “accidentally” demolished . They did eventually build a new “old mill “ that was very similar to the original and that’s the one that stands today. The interior mill wheels are mostly static now and were cobbled together from pieces of the original . As I told Major … and many of you know now , the original Frontierland/ New Orleans Square Freight Depot was demolished last week. The local reporting has called it the “radio house” because employees of the Disneyland Railroad used it as a break room and security radios used to be charged there as well.
The Frontierland Freight Depot ( Baggage Depot) was built in the late 1950’s as Frontierland restrooms when the manager of the Chicken Plantation Restaurant complained to many non dinning guests were crowding the restaurant to use the 2 small restrooms. Besides the baggage depot restrooms , a restroom facility was also constructed in the Indian Village .
Frontierland Freight Depot history continued:
When New Orleans Square was completed the Baggage Depot restrooms were no longer needed and along with the Passenger Depot were moved across the tracks and were no longer accessible to park guests. The baggage depot even appears in the “Two Brothers” Civil War sequence at Epcot’s American Adventure and in the 1984 and current versions of Great moments with Mr. Lincoln. Not long ago the structure had some fire damage and after being prepped for repair … disneyland decided to demolish it. Another “jewl” in Walt’s Disneyland crown to be lost … likely forever . Or until a new “baggage depot” can be ordered from Home Depot or Sheds R Us.
Back on the GDB Feb 4 post, we talked about a Frank Lloyd Wright story involving pink paint. Some Junior Gorillas wanted me to post the whole story, so here goes…
In the 1980’s I worked in an architect’s office with a guy whose father was an HVAC contractor in Bakersfield. His Dad won the contract for the HVAC for a house there, one of the very last designs by Frank before his death in 1959. This story comes from my co-worker.
The house was mostly concrete masonry and stained finished wood, with a few painted trim or surfaces in some interior spaces, including the bathrooms which faced east toward the Tehachapi Mountains.
The Master passed away before selecting colors for any paint other than the bathroom. The bath wall color was to be a kind of “brick pink” called “Tehachapi Dawn”, (or a similar name, my memory may be failing by now) this was a custom shade determined and named by Wright, like all colors and finishes on all his designs, all custom, all unique.
The Taliesen team (Wright’s office staff) was so shaken by his death, and so accustomed to only executing whatever the Master decreed, that no one could select any other colors for the project paints. So every painted surface on the project, wherever located, was painted that same brick pink. Made a somewhat eccentric final product, and of course, no one knows what might have eventually been selected otherwise, but the team couldn’t bring themselves to select anything else on their own.
This is what was told to me, I don’t know if it’s true, but it is consistent with other tales told of that office after the Master’s death. Similar to stories about WED after Walt’s death.
The George and Millie Ablin House, located at 4260 Country Club Drive, Bakersfield, CA is notable for being part of a Frank Lloyd Wright home tour and is described as a hexagonal-Usonian design. You can see the pink walls in the photos at this link.
https://www.bakersfield.com/news/bakersfields-ablin-house-part-of-statewide-frank-lloyd-wright-home-tour/article_6c38c716-a29f-11e9-bff4-53139b7cb2bd.html
That’s the story…
JG
Mike Cozart, I feel like, at this point, any uproar about anything is completely ignored by Disney. The “true believers” love ANY change, no matter what. Bright, ugly colors? Awesome! A big ugly tuff-shed from Home Depot? Incredible! And they know that the casual Disneyland fan might not like what they do, but ultimately time will pass and the younger folks will forget that it was any other way. I’m not wild about the new “old mill”, I guess it’s better than nothing, but it’s too big, and lacks the charm of the original. The destruction of the Freight Depot is awful, part of me wonders if they plan to rebuild something like it in the same location, but that seems doubtful. I can’t help wondering if the “accidental” fire wasn’t so accidental!
Mike Cozart, I always wonder about those “Walk in Walt’s Footsteps” tours, besides Main Street, and maybe a bit of Fantasyland, there is not much of Walt left in the park. I truly wonder about the decision to raze the depot, was it purely a matter of money? Things like that, and the removal of the river in WDW, really distress me, because nothing is sacred, anything can be torn out at any time.
JG, wow, what a thing it would be to work on a FLW house! I’ve watched some videos that have shown various additions and alterations to other homes, and it seems like blasphemy (almost), but we know that Wright didn’t always consider the actual needs of the client, and the way people actually live. I would assume that Wright’s students at Taliesen had a general idea of the colors that the man himself would have likely used. As you said, it sounds like his closest associates would always be second-guessing any choices, much like the old “What would Walt do?” conundrum. Nice brick pinks, reds, ochres, and so on, are warm and pleasant, so I have no doubt that the “Tehachapi Dawn” hue worked well. It’s so interesting that FLW became so enchanted by the hexagonal design, and those spiral layouts. I’ll have to check out your links later, but I thank you for sharing the story!
Sadly, I see no reason to return to Disneyland, although my kids will drag me back at some point, since I made it a big deal to them back between 1994-2010 when they were growing up and I was being nostalgic. So sorry to hear about the Frontierland Train Station being demolished. They have successfully removed most of the charm of the place at this point.
Thanks Major!
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