The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (46 page)

One thing is certain:  Guests who missed
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
in 2013—particularly out-of-state and out-of-the-country Guests who are able to visit
Disneyland
only once or twice every few years—will line up in droves to experience the upgraded attraction during 2014. 
Big Thunder Mountain
—one of the most anticipated rides “in the wilderness”!

* * *

Before it was home to a thrilling rollercoaster, the substantial
Frontierland
acreage that
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
covers had many different incarnations.

It began life on opening day as a simple wilderness area where Cast Members
guided Guests riding on mules in real
Mule Packs
.  The mules, stubborn and difficult as they sometimes could be, continued to carry Guests until the 1970’s, but the terrain through which they rode changed substantially around them.

Walt
had made it clear from the park’s earliest days that
Disneyland
was to be a living experience, never completed and always evolving.  Attractions that never took off or lost their luster would be improved, or eliminated.  Exciting new attractions would be introduced over time.  Even attractions that were successful would be tweaked and enhanced, because in the world of
Walt
and his brilliant
Imagineers
, no matter how good something is, you can always
plus
it, an
Imagineering
term meaning to make something even better, more fun, and more interesting.

The rather bare
, plain mule trails were upgraded over time with increasingly impressive critters, an increasingly fanciful landscape of wonders, and a mine train following a route personally designed by
Walt
.  In
Nature’s Wonderland
, Guests watched mechanical bears play and mechanical elks lock antlers, and mine train riders were dazzled by the glittering, rainbow hues of mineral caverns.

That boarded-up tunnel still visible
from
Big Thunder Trail
, the tunnel that cuts through the hillside and opens onto the eastern shore of the
Rivers of America
?  That was part of the old
Nature’s Wonderland
complex, a wondrous and richly rendered western landscape which included distinct themed areas such as
Beaver Valley
,
Cascade Peak
,
Bear Country
, the
Living Desert
,
Rainbow Mountain
, the
Rainbow Caverns
, and of course, the “little mining town of
Rainbow Ridge
”.

There were fish jumping in ponds
(and there still are; watch the remaining pond carefully!), beavers building dams, raccoons, bobcats, foxes, jack rabbits, eagles, horned owls, and even a dinosaur graveyard.  Geysers steamed, the earth bubbled, and coyotes howled.

W
riter Bill Bryson has remarked upon the wonderfully evocative place names of the American West, and the
Imagineers
followed this tradition when they named locales in
Nature’s Wonderland
, from
Rattlesnake Gulch
to the
Bridal Veil Falls
and the
Witches Cauldron
.

On the whole
,
Nature’s Wonderland
was a heck of an expedition, thrilling, comical, educational, and spooky; many Guests, the author among them, wish we could find a time machine and head back to the 1970’s for a journey through this attraction.  Lucky locals who lived in
Anaheim
at the time can use the “time machine” of their memories.

In the
late 1970’s, an unrealized
Marc Davis
design for
Walt Disney World
was tossed into the mix for
Disneyland
.  What, if anything, would
Imagineer
Tony Baxter
and his team make of the design?  How could they adapt it for
Disneyland Park
?  The result was
Big Thunder Mountain
Railroad
.

The 1970’s saw an explosion of
ever-more thrilling and daring roller coasters in amusement parks across the country. 
Disney
wanted to ensure that Guests at the
Disney Parks
had thrilling coasters to ride as well, but even more imaginative, jaw-dropping coasters than other parks were building.

As
Disney Legend Marty Sklar
is always at pains to emphasize,
Disney Parks
have
never
been about “rides”. 
Disney
attractions do more than spin you around or rocket you along a track;
they always tell a story
, and make you, the Guest, an important part of the story, a participant, not just a bystander or audience member.

In keeping with that spirit,
Disneyland Imagineers
ran with the brilliant
Marc Davis
concept for
Thunder Mesa
, a highly ambitious attraction
Davis
originally developed for
Walt Disney World
.

Gargantuan
Thunder Mesa
would have presented a complex blend of live-action performances, an action-packed river expedition, and a runaway mine train experience.  Economic considerations and a focus on developing other
WDW
attractions (such as a Florida version of
Pirates of the Caribbean
, and the creation of
Space Mountain
) scuttled
Thunder Mesa
, but elements of it were extracted and adapted for a thrill ride for
Frontierland
in the
Disneyland Park
.

P
articularly under
Imagineer
Tony
Baxter
’s leadership,
Imagineers
spent close to seven years drafting, revising,
plussing
, and building
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
, which finally launched in 1979.

Instead of
Guests experiencing the landscape of the old West from the back of a mule or the safety of a sedately chugging locomotive, Guests hurtled through history, clinging for dear life to the lap bar of a runaway mine train!  It was all scrupulously engineered to be safe, but artistically designed to look dangerous.  It thrilled Guests on a visceral level, but it embedded historical and educative elements, elevating the experience well above the typical thrill-coaster.

The story is simple: 
You are headed to the
Big Thunder Mine
, established in 1880.  Guests board a mine train just outside the little town of
Rainbow Ridge
.  The train turns out to be completely out-of-control (one of the trains is actually named the “
I.M. Loco
”), and takes you on the wildest tour of the wilderness you’ll ever experience.

From the first instant of the journey, the train catapults
Guests at high speed along tracks that look (only look) dangerously worn, tracks that make sudden dips and tight turns, and it feels as if at any moment the train must crash.

Somehow, it doesn’t, and after giddy, entertaining glimpses of
the old West, the train races back into the station, and Guests, always laughing with delight and wobbly kneed with relief, detrain.

Because of its popularity t
his is a
FastPass
attraction, though it seldom accrues the insanely long lines of
Space Mountain
or
Indiana Jones
Adventure
.  On off-season days and weekdays, lines can be as short as five minutes.

On extremely crowded days, wait times can exceed 30 minutes; that’s when you’ll want to take advantage of the
FastPass
.  2014 will likely be a time of long lines, in the wake of the railroad’s lengthy refurb.  The
FastPass
dispensers for this attraction are located just southeast of the entrance, at the edge of
El Zocalo Park
.

To ride this attraction,
Guests queue just northwest of
El Zocalo Park
, passing under a wooden arch and descending into narrow copper-orange slot canyons that wend their way northwest, east, northwest, and southeast, until you are looped back to the rustic train station near the entrance.

Time passes quickly while you’re in line, not only because this is a fast-loading and efficient attraction,
often launching trains from two loading zones, but because the queue area is so interesting.

The canyons are lined with authentic mining
equipment, everything from huge, rusted cogs and gears to mine carts, lanterns, picks, shovels, saws, pressure gauges, and ropes.  You pass ponds, streams, waterfalls, a water tower, and outbuildings whose doors are painted with dire warnings to “Keep Out” due to explosives and blasting materials.

As you wait
to board your coaster train, you listen to popular songs of the frontier, not pop updates but standards played on the instruments and sung with the diction of the old West, including haunting renditions of “Listen to the Mockingbird” and “Beautiful Dreamer”.

This music drifts to the queue from the
little town of
Rainbow Ridge
, which sits on the bluff northeast of the queue.  The town is a charmer.  It will take several trips through the queue before you have time to note all the names of the little frontier shops, hotels, saloons, and offices.

Not only music, but also snippets of conversation drift f
rom the buildings, the corny jokes of a frontier comedian, the imperfect piano playing of a frontier entertainer.

A sign on one of the saloons
announces that they’re seeking a bartender, one who “must shoot good,” prowess with a firearm outweighing good grammar in importance on the frontier.  Laundry flaps on a line strung above a creek between two buildings.  A sign at the Assay office promises accurate and honest chemical analyses.

Rainbow Ridge
was a part of the original 1950’s attraction; just as
Imagineers
never hesitate to create something new and amazing, they never fail to retain anything old and amazing. 
Rainbow Ridge
, although humorously presented, is a delightful three-dimensional snapshot of an old mine town, and gives kids and parents a lot of material for fun historical discussions while waiting in line. 
Rainbow Ridge
is one of a number of original elements that
Imagineers
preserved from past attractions and incorporated into the new thrill ride to give it substance as well as zip.

West of
Rainbow Ridge
and due north of the
Big Thunder
train station is
Dinosaur Gap
, boasting a semi-exposed dinosaur fossil.  The skeleton’s gigantic ribs thrust from the orange stone like pincers that always seem about to close on the racing mine trains that blaze through them every couple of minutes.  The fossil is another artifact from the former attractions on this site, a replica inspired by real-life western archeological digs.

By the time
Guests climb the steep stairs to the train’s loading platform, they are immersed in the flavor of the old mining days, and fully prepped for their western adventure.

Usually this attraction
loads on both sides of the station, south and north (left and right).  Cast members will ask you the number of Guests in your party, and then direct you to one of 15 loading areas by number.  The numerals are picked out on the floor in front of rusted metal loading gates, but if you’re confused or unsure, check with the Cast Member.  Two or three Guests can fit in each of the 15 rows on each train.

The train engine itself is unoccupied; no one sits in it, and it doesn’t even have a seat, so don’t bother to ask
if you can ride in it.  Many Guests like to sit in the first row, not only of the
Big Thunder
trains but of most attractions (some Cast Member, if asked, will try to place you in the row of your choice).

This is your last chance to hit the exit if this attraction isn’t for you.  As with all
of
Disneyland
’s thrill rides, warnings are posted along the queue and at the loading area, outlining who shouldn’t board the attraction, e.g., pregnant women, people with bad hearts or bad backs, those prone to motion sickness, and so forth.

Although this is one of the milder
Disney
coasters, and there are no steep drops, there are a lot of sudden drops, bone-rattling jerks, and corkscrew turns.  If you’re concerned for your health or safety, sit this one out.  Don’t be embarrassed to leave the loading area, just catch the attention of a Cast Member and tell them you’ve decided this adventure isn’t for you.  They’ll show you how to exit and put another Guest at the loading gate.