Another view of the Rainbow Ridge mining town seen at the loading area of Natures Wonderland and recreated for Big Thunder. This photograph shows the Rainbow Ridge Clarion Newspaper building along with the Last Chance Saloon with the Dentist on the second floor. Once again a great example of detailing to create the illusion of reality to allow guest to suspend belief and to acheive the mood to believe the ride is real including cactus in the shape of things, mis-timed geysers and Rainbow caverns. No other theme park ever created such immersive environments and even today at Disneyland there is not as much of a concentration of immersive environments. The last effective ride has been Indiana Jones with theming and environment. That is one of the reasons that California Adventure fails. One can hope that new rides are designed with better themed environments.
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Rainbow Ridge might have felt a bit like a ghost town without the wonderful sounds coming from the saloon and barber shop. I was pretty thrilled the first time I heard the isolated tracks!
First up, thanks for your blog. I'm 21 years old, so I missed out on a lot of the "golden years" of Disneyland that you post here. My memories, however, are slowly being erased just the same. I remember the cabin on Tom Sawyer's Island being on fire. I remember the video on the television screens at Space Mountain, (I have not been in the renovated Space Mountain and I am rather scared to. I can't find any actual confirmation that the Dick Dale music is gone and I fear I may burst into tears if it truly is). But, not to get all sappy and off topic, thank you for this blog. It really is a treat. I did not think, prior to your blog, that I really held any sort of fond feelings for Disneyland, but now I find myself hankering to go back sometime. Thank you for that.
Onward...
You are so right about Indiana Jones. I remember when it first opened, I was pretty young at the time, and even though the wait in line was ridiculous, me and a bunch of other kids had so much fun playing with the various things scattered in the queue line, along with checking out the decor. To this day I still have to stop my walk through the queue, even when there is no line, and fiddle with the various things. I wish they'd build more rides like this.
An amusement park should not just be something you run through (like Six Flags for the most part), it should be something that can be experienced and savored. Disneyland used to be like that for me, and parts of it still are.
More parks need to take the mentality that a queue line can further the experience.
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