Sunday, December 27, 2009
Six Flags Over Mid-America Injun Joe's Cave Dark Ride
Today's flea market was very cold and not well attended. However one vendor who usually has some photos and other paper ephemera was there. In his boxes was this little group of four pictures from an unusual dark ride. With the photographs was a picture of the St. Louis arch. After a little Internet digging, I believe the images are from a dark ride located at Six Flags Over Mid America with the name Mississippi Adventure. Actually the snapshots are from Injun Joe's Cave. The ride was created by Arrow Development. This Six Flags park opened in 1971 and this was one of the rides at the park. The ride closed at the end of 1979 and rethemed to a time tunnel. The park is now named Six Flags St. Louis and features many roller coasters and other rides.
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20 comments:
Wow...very cool. Would love to know more about this dark ride!
Wow, great find! I've never seen pictures from this ride, and I don't know much about it. It was called Injun Joe's Cave. I've never been to Six Flags St. Louis, but I know the dark ride has changed themes a few times. Now it is a Scooby Doo ride. You can see a picture of the entrance of the original ride at this website:
http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28492
Very rare images!
If memory serves... wasn't the Mississippi Adventure an outdoor river boat ride? If it was, these could indeed be from Injun Joe's Cave - the park's dark ride. The bottom two certainly fit that theme.
Appreciate the look!
Yes this ride is Injun' Joe's Cave which was themed to Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It ran from 1971-1978. The Mississippi Adventure was the park's riverboat ride which was located across from Injun' Joe's Cave. It was replaced by Thunder River which opened in 1983.
Wow - strange stuff! I'd love to learn more about this one...
Wow - I'm really intrigued now. I wonder who designed this dark ride - Bill Tracey? Maurice Ayers? Paging Mr. Jed Blaugrund!
This definitely IS Injun Joe's Cave. I grew up going to Six Flags over Mid America and this was by far my favorite ride there. I remember an iconic scene of a crude animatronic indian climbing a cliff wall.
Good thing someone took photos of this (and you found them) as this would surely be forgotten forever.
The Time Tunnel ride that took its place had something to do with Dinosaurs if I remember correctly.
Good find. Thanks for posting!
I grew up at this park and these are from Injun Joe's cave. This was and is my favorite ride of all time. Thank you very much for these awesome pictures. There doesn't seem to be a lot of stuff left from this amazing ride.
From what I have read Sid and Marty Krofft of H.R. Pufnstuff fame designed this ride. They designed all the dark rides at the Six Flags park and customized them to their region. Missouri got a Tom Sawyer dark ride and Atlanta got one based on the South.
The Time Tunnel was exactly as it was named. It started off with Dinosaurs, Cavemen, Woolly Mammoths, Ancient Aztecs then presided on to the Civil War and then ended in space with a cool scene that had a toy Cylon Raider ship from Battle Star Galactica hanging in it. The Time Tunnel was pretty neat but it couldn't hold a candle to The Cave.
The cave had a bunch of mechanical bull frogs at the beginning, a giant turtle they rode on. Injun Joe stabbing a guy. A skeleton rowing a canoe. A devil looking thing that opened up it's robe and showed you it's guts. The gentleman above mentioned a cliff which was the second from the last scene. It was Injun Joe hanging from the cliff kicking his legs. The last scene was Tom and Becky's homecoming. I was only 7 or 8 last time I rode the ride but I remember a lot from it. I miss it.
We were at Six Flags St. Louis today and talked about this ride! I came home searching for pictures of it. So glad you had these posted!
It was an awesome ride and I always loved it, but as a kid it freaked me out too. If I remember right there were some HUGE frogs in it somewhere.
I remember this ride very well. My youngest brother worked at the park back then in the early seventies. It was one of my favorite rides . I still remember the Moody blues song they used to play as you waited in the line to get on the ride and during the ride. They used the same theme sonng for years.
Jack, what was the song called?
I remember the terror fondly. Sometimes the giant Indian skeleton would open his robe, sometimes he wouldn't. I would pray he wouldn't because you're right on top of him if he did. But if he didn't I would always beg to ride it again.
They tore it out in 2015 this year built something else I wish they would have restored it as the original engine Joe's cave
I rode Injun Joe's Cave dozens of times. St. Louis summers are notorious for their heat. Injun Joes Cave was one of the cool-down rides along with the Log Flume. I think my favorite part of it was the scene with Tom Sawyer sitting under a tree with a fishing line tied to his toe.
At the point where Injun Joe looked like he was hanging from the cliff and going to jump in your boat there was a little hump with a small splash right behind it.
The song! I have been wanting to know what song that was SINCE then!!! It did sound very much like the Moody Blues. I remember a couple lines: "don't be afraid it's all right. It's story, it's story, it's story." I THINK they were saying "it's story" but it could have been something else.
I well remember the smells of asphalt, grease, chicken, and popcorn. the "clank, clank, clank" of the Runaway Mine Train - a relatively short, jerky roller coaster. I am one of the few people who actually rode both sides. For some reason one side was closed down a lot. Then they turned it into a disco - BLECH!
The lyrics were "exploring, exploring, exploring"! The frogs were singing the song. I worked on the ride for 2 years in 1975 and 76. I remember the ride very well and miss it. Spent hundreds of hours inside it in the dark watching people do funny things when they thought nobody could see them!
Anyone know what the song was? I do remember it as "exploring". I loved this ride and would stand in line for ridiculous lengths of time to ride it! And I remember Tom Sawyer sitting under a tree with a fishing line tied to his toe. :)
Yes. Injun Joe's Cave. Six Flags in my hometown. I was very young before they turned the cave into the Time Tunnel (a sort of history from dinosaurs to futuristic space travel at the end). Injuns Cave had Frogs in the beginning. But I seem to remember a water wheel with Tom Sawyer tied spread eagle on it, going round and round. Can anyone attest to this?
Worked IJC 1973-1975. What an experience. I'll try to figure out the theme music. I heard it repeated non-stop for three years and just turned it out.
The Frogs sang "Exxploooring, Exxploooring , Exxploooring....I sat firewatch in that ride for many hours.....
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