Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Keelboat Celebration!


This week, Bryan Carlson reached out to me to send a graphic in honor of the Keel Boat Anniversary. What’s a Keel Boat you ask? With this YouTube video, you can… re-live the glory days of the most, um, . . . actually, second, uh no, . . . more like one of the top five most popular vehicles to ever traverse the Rivers of America at Disneyland - the Mike Fink Keel Boats. Former skippers re-enact their spiel while showcasing the vistas of their backyards.


As a special treat, here are some vintage images from the Daveland archives showcasing the beloved Keel Boats, starting off with this Summer/Fall 1956 image:


Undated 1950’s:


Wonder what these trucks were there for?



An early color view:


June 1964:


A corner of the Keel Boat shows up in this one showcasing the Fowler’s Inn area:


Final one for today is this beautiful sunset view:


A passenger train and both Keel Boats? Sheer heaven!


See more vintage Disneyland Keel Boat photos at my main website.

3 comments:

  1. I know I comment all the time and it probably becomes tiresome to other readers but seriously, this is all pure gold. I didn't know about 12/25/1955 being the keelboats first day, I just learned something. I got to ride on the Gullywhumper once. I wished I'd done it more now. Looking at one of those color shots where everyone's riding on the top, all I can think is Tony Baxter saying "safety first" during one of his D23 appearances.

    Until now I had no idea there was a Main Street Shooting Gallery. I knew about Frontierland and Adventureland, but never Main Street.

    It's neat to see the closed loch doors on Fowler's harbor in that B&W shot. There's something I don't see often. ...or ever.

    That yellow passenger car on the train is great. So rare to see that passing through Frontierland. ( Back when that stretch of land was Frontierland. )

    Merry Christmas to all, Happy New Years and anything else that was missed.

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  2. It doesn't tire me, and it's my blog, so keep on commenting! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you as well!

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  3. Fun post and great pictures, Dave! I especially love the former skippers doing their spiels - you can really tell they loved their job.

    Merry Christmas!

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