While it was not photographed as much as the nearby El Dorado hotel, Disneyland’s Pioneer hotel was a formidable contender for visitors to Rainbow Ridge! The sign says “Nice Beds,” but are the sheets free? Or do they charge like the El Dorado? Inquiring minds need to know! Right next door you can eat at the Horse Shoe Cafe.
Another shot from my collection from June 1960; this one gives an overhead of view of this stretch of Rainbow Ridge and the El Dorado.
This section of buildings would disappear to make way for Big Thunder Mountain. In fact, they are in the approximate location of where the actual mountain was built.
What? Can it be? THREE hotels in Rainbow Ridge? Looks like it! The Rainbow Ridge hotel really got the shaft when it came to location. Tucked away in a back corner. They probably didn't even have sheets.
This previously posted shot of Rainbow Ridge and the Pioneer Hotel is from the 1950s:
Through the miracle of Photoshop, I stitched the previous shot in that batch of slides and got a semi-decent panorama view of the area, Matterhorn and all:
And in case you haven’t had enough Rainbow Ridge…here’s one of the Pioneer Hotel under re-construction when Nature’s Wonderland got a major renovation in 1960. Could they define “reasonable”?
See more vintage Disneyland Nature's Wonderland photos at my main website.
4 comments:
I suspect the Rainbow Ridge, Pioneer, and El Dorado were later named the WDW All Star motels, but they kept their motto of "nice beds" and "sheets extra." Great job on the stitching, thank you. That's a great pic even if the guy in orange now has a twin. It took me a while on that last shot to realize that wasn't the Matterhorn under construction but Cascade Peak.
Wow, that stitched-together panorama is beautiful!
Dave...I have posted that pano on our ORH site on Facebook for the other Miners to enjoy. You get the credit. I can hear the MT's whistle in the background and the sun's warmth on my back. KS
Several sets of panorama twinsies today, and possibly even a set of triplets. I always enjoy that effect when playing with Photoshop.
That image does a great job of really conveying what that corner of the Park looked like, which can be hard to do looking only at pictures of the part of Rainbow Ridge by the MTTNW load area.
Thanks!
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