Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Gems from 1959: Frontierland



Continuing on with a Frontierland theme this week, I am debuting a few gems from 1959. Even though the Matterhorn, Monorail and Subs were all the rage, some people actually spent time in the Wild Wild West, soaking up the rich heritage of our untamed past. I really love the gate into Frontierland; there's no mistaking that you are entering a different world here.

I have no idea who this cast member on the left is supposed to be. Wearing a black hat and vest, I can assume that he is supposed to be a villain. It was suggested to me that perhaps he was a villain for the shootouts that occurred in front of (and on top) of The Golden Horseshoe. The guest on the right had no qualms about posing with a bad guy!



Back to The Mine Train attraction, as we get a view of a group of passengers being loaded up for a journey through the splendors of the desert and more.



These point of view shots are the best; it really makes you feel as if you are there, riding on the now defunct Mine Train.



At first, I was pretty ho-hum about this particular image of Tom Sawyer's Island. Overall, the color of this batch was awful and each slide had a lovely honeycomb of mold. It took a lot of restoration to bring them back even to this level.



Then I zoomed in; hoo boy! Signage, cast members, a raft...this slide just went up in value in my estimation!



Ditto on this one of the Columbia docked in Fowler's Harbor. Not very exciting.



Doing a trademark Daveland zoom, you can see some kind of machine draining the water out of the Harbor while the Columbia is docked. Maybe a technical person can enlighten us on this contraption!



See more vintage & current Disneyland Frontierland attraction photos on my Frontierland web page.

3 comments:

K. Martinez said...

I love your Zoomland pics.

Was the raft landing on the other side of the Old Mill known as Huck's Landing? I don't think I've ever seen a sign on the other landing to know for sure.

Anonymous said...

Interesting MT shot. Operator has hand on main brake for the tender. KS

Kevin K. said...

Regarding the Columbia photo, it appears that she's being serviced in the dry dock. The contraption is a pump that looks like it's there to either finish pumping out the water from the dry dock or it's being used to refill it. If you look closely, you can see there's no water in the dock.