Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Deteriorating Remnants of Disneyland's Past

VintageDisneylandTickets asked about a companion photo (to my Small Update post) showing the rotting Gullywhumper keel boat.

It doesn't look so bad from the river level, because you can't see all the water inside! You can, however, make out plant growth just below the shutters. I took a few dozen photos of the former Cascade Peak area (does it have a name now? Cascade Knoll? Non-Cascade Non-Peak?) on June 28; below are a selection.

This would be a classic view of the waterfalls. I never saw the Mine Train pass by here, but I can well imagine all the activity on a busy summer day at this crook of the river--a busy island, keel boats, canoes, the Mark Twain and the Columbia, the water animation of the peak, and the mine trains filled with Guests! I think some of the most interesting parts of the Park are where Guests experience attractions while also seeing other Guests getting a different experience. Tomorrowland's "A World on the Move" design perhaps expressed this best, but you could also see this in Fantasyland near Alice in Wonderland (the Alice attraction itself, the Matterhorn Bobsleds, the Mad Tea Party, the Storybook Land Canal Boats, and the Skyway) and on Main Street, U.S.A., with the train and Main Street Vehicles. The everything-but-the-kitchen sink rendering of the Indiana Jones attraction that incorporated the Jungle Cruise, the Disneyland Railroad, and several Indy attractions would have been spectacular.

In this photo you can see two closed attractions and one operating one!

The engine has seen better days.

The coupling has seen better days.

The ore cars have seen better days.

The track has... oh, you get the idea!

9 comments:

Major Pepperidge said...

I assume the other Mine Trains were destroyed... do you have any info on that, Jason? I know that other vehicles like the Rocket Rods were scrapped.

Westcot2000 said...

I don't know about Mine Trains, but Disney loves to scrap things. Tens of thousands of the original readmittance passes for Indiana Jones were shredded. Why? The text on the pass had trivia about the Indiana Jones movies, including Raiders of the Lost Arc. What's more adventurous than compasses and protractors?

Jason Schultz said...

I hear... "All gone. They sat lined up in the north service yard for a few years and were destroyed sometime in the mid to late eighties." If they were there for ten years, somebody should have photos!

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

Thanks! Nice photo of the tracks too! How many times did you circle the river??

Jason Schultz said...

I didn't circle the river at all! The photographs were taken from several locations along the northeastern bank of Tom Sawyer Island.

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

Cool! What kind of camera do you have? My little baby Olympus needs to be closer to get shots like these...

Anonymous said...

That isn't plant growth on the Gullywhumper, but a carefully Imagineered WALL-E Character Photo Spot!

Ryan P. Wilson said...

I remember seeing that engine during my honeymoon, and first trip to Disneyland, last fall and thinking what it would have been like to see this area and this train in its heyday.

Mike said...

Drats! The demise of the Keel Boats and Cascade Peak have greatly lessened the theming and appeal of the Rivers of America. Accountaneers win out sometimes and the results are tragic. Then there are times when Disney spends tons of dough and throws the theming out the window! A light show and "Villain" extravaganza? Hey! Let's put it in the middle of the Rivers of America, on Tom Sawyer's Island, just across from old New Orleans! Can we use a dragon in the show while we're at it?? Oh, and Tomorrowland, let's repaint it, rip out most all of its attractions and open up Innoventions!! Yes, and we move those darn rockets down onto Main Street where they belong! And could we lose the Mary Blair mural? Who wants art when they can have Buzz Lightyear!

Officially climbing down from soapbox now.