The Backstories and Magical Secrets of Walt Disney World
Page 19
Paul Bunyan’s gift to the café is a fitting one, his massive axe, which hangs above the doorway that leads into the dining areas. The axe includes an inscription: “To Pecos, from one giant to another. Best wishes, Paul Bunyan.”
Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok was a noted real-life lawman, gunfighter, and gambler in the Old West whose exploits became the basis of many folk tales told around campfires.
Hickok left behind a few of his poker cards for display in the restaurant, which you can find in Dining Room 1.
Buffalo Bill Cody
Buffalo Bill Cody was a famous cowboy known for his skill as a talented entertainer as well as his exploits on the trail.
Bill donated both a picture of himself atop a horse and his star-studded boots, which are displayed with a note reading: “To my good friend Pecos. From one showman to another.” These mementos are displayed high on a wall near the fixins’ bar.
Annie Oakley
Annie Oakley was a famous sharpshooter who joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West travelling entertainment troupe in 1885.
For the café, she left behind one of her famous six-shooters and a few playing cards that appear to have been used in one of her shooting exhibitions as some have bullet holes. These items are displayed on a wall in Dining Room 1.
Kit Carson
Kit Carson was a famous American frontiersman and wilderness guide whose real-life exploits became intertwined with folk hero legend. In 1977, Disney released “Kit Carson and the Mountain Men,” which aired on NBC as a two-part series on the very popular The Wonderful World of Disney television program. In that series, Carson leads an expedition to Mexico.
It appears that Pecos Bill and Carson were very close, as Kit’s map and compasses now adorn the walls of the café in Dining Room 3. The map is labeled “Johnson’s Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.”
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional cowboy hero who wore a signature black mask to protect his identity. The character became immensely popular due to a 1930s radio program and a long running television program in the late 1940s and 1950s. In 2013, Disney released a film entitled The Lone Ranger starring Armie Hammer in the title role and Johnny Depp as his trusted sidekick Tonto.
You can find a case holding a black mask and a single silver bullet hanging on a wall in Dining Room 3. However, the nameplate beside those items is blank, leading park guests to ask: Who was that masked man?
John Henry
John Henry was a legendary black folk hero whose claim to fame was his uncanny ability as a “steel driving man” on the American railroads. Roger Aaron Brown depicted Henry in the 1995 Disney live-action film Tall Tale. He was also portrayed in the less well-known 2000 animated short John Henry.
Because of his close friendship with his friend Pecos Bill, Henry left behind numerous items to display in the Tall Tale Inn and Cafe. A full-size sledgehammer hangs on a wall next to a display case featuring a smaller hammer and a few of Henry’s railroad spikes in Dining Room 1.
Jim Bowie
Jim Bowie, another legendary American pioneer, was famous for his expertise with a knife. Bowie was featured in the Disney film Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier and the Davy Crockett television series.
His famous “Bowie knife” and a few poker cards are Bowie’s contributions to the café’s décor and can be found in Dining Room 1.
Casey Jones
Luther “Casey” Jones was a real-life train engineer who sacrificed his own life to save the lives of his passengers during a catastrophic locomotive crash in April 1900. Jones’ connection to Disney came in the form of The Brave Engineer, a 1950 Disney cartoon short that recounts the story of Jones in a much more fanciful manner. In The Brave Engineer, Jones overcomes numerous obstacles including a flooded track, a lazy cow, dastardly villains, and finally a devastating train crash, to make his delivery “ALMOST” on time. As you probably guessed, the Disney version of Casey Jones survives the crash. Comedian (and Bob Hope sidekkick) Jerry Colonna provided boisterous narration for the film.
Jones left Pecos some interesting mementos for the Tall Tale Inn and Cafe, including a coal bucket and an oil can on a not-so-easy-to-find shelf in Dining Room 3 (the same shelf which holds the aforementioned letter from Georgie Russell).
Other Items
One unlabeled display case that hangs in Dining Room 1 includes a cup, a pair of dice, and an old faded piece of paper (most likely a monetary note of some sort).
A second display case features a whiskey bottle, a tin cup, a 1,000 dollar bill, and numerous coins.
An unlabeled case with a pair of spurs hangs on a wall in Dining Room 1.
In addition to the folk-hero mementos found throughout the Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe, the restaurant includes several other fun hidden details:
A Cure for Whatever Ails You. You can find a sign hanging outside the restaurant advertising “Herrick’s Vegetable Pills,” which are used to treat “Dyspepsia, Colic, Sick Headache, Constipation, Diarrhoea, Worms, Fever and Ague, Indigestion.” The price for this medical miracle: only 25 cents a box!
Chinese Laundry. Just past the Town Hall portion of the building façade is a small window labeled “Chinese Laundry,” a clear reference to the impact of Chinese immigrants on the westward expansion, the establishment of the transcontinental railroad, and the California Gold Rush.
Real History
A Pecos Bill-themed restaurant has been a part of the Magic Kingdom since the park opened on October 1, 1971. At that time, the establishment was called the “the Pecos Bill Cafe,” and did not include the “saloon” portion of the current restaurant with the distinctive blue façade. Adjacent to the Pecos Bill Cafe was a Western-themed watering hole known as the Mile Long Bar. It also opened on October 1, 1971. The Mile Long Bar, which served a variety of light food options and drinks, garnered its name from the use of mirrors on both sides of the bar that made it seem as though it were “a mile long.” Another signature feature of the Mile Long Bar was its three audio-animatronic animal heads behind the bar: Melvin the moose, Buff the buffalo, and Max the deer. Melvin, Buff, and Max would sing and talk to guests as they exited from the adjacent Country Bear Jamboree. The Mile Long Bar closed on January 5, 1998.
The Pecos Bill Cafe underwent a major refurbishment in 1998 that included a name change to the “Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe.” As a part of this refurbishment, Pecos actually consumed (pun intended) the Mile Long Bar in the process, greatly expanding the square footage of the restaurant. The audio-animatronic heads of Melvin the moose, Buff the buffalo, and Max the deer that formerly adorned the walls of the Mile Long Bar were relocated to the adjacent Country Bear Jamboree. The refurbished Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe reopened in May 1998.
chapter ten
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Howdy partners! For your safety, remain seated with your hands, arms, feet, and legs inside the train—and be sure to watch your kids. If any of you folks are wearin’ hats or glasses, best remove ’em—’cause this here’s the wildest ride in the wilderness!
—Safety announcement, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is a runaway mine-train roller coaster that races around, over, and through an intricately detailed Monument Valley landscape in the Frontierland section of the Magic Kingdom. Disney Imagineers created an immersive backstory that includes greedy miners, sacred spirits, natural disasters, the Apple Dumpling Gang, and a ruthless gold baron. It also features one of the most intricately detailed queues in all of Walt Disney World, filled with an almost countless number of storytelling details, props, and magical secrets.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad holds a special place in the hearts of many Walt Disney World fans. In fact, the sentiment and love for the attraction is so deep that most guests don’t realize that Big Thunder was not an opening day attraction. Far from it. Big Thunder traces it roots back to the greatest Walt Disney World concept tha
t never was: Thunder Mesa. As you will see, both the true story of how Big Thunder Mountain came to be in the Magic Kingdom and the fictional backstory told by Imagineers truly make Big Thunder Mountain Railroad the “wildest ride in the wilderness!”
Backstory
Initial Inspiration and Original Versions of the Backstory
The backstory for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad draws inspiration from real legends told in the Southwestern United States. According to Imagineer Tony Baxter, the man chiefly responsible for bringing Big Thunder Mountain to life, he and other Imagineers drew inspiration from the Superstition Mountains in Arizona and the Lost Dutchman Mine in developing the backstory for the attraction. In these legends, a German immigrant discovered a massive gold mine during the early 1800s. Unfortunately, the miner took the secret location of the mine to his grave. Although many have claimed to have discovered the Lost Dutchman Mine, none of those claims were ever substantiated. According to Native American legend, the Superstition Mountains and the Lost Dutchman Mine are cursed and guarded by a “Thunder God,” while other legends hold that the passageway into hell is located in the Superstition Mountains.
Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind-the-Dreams Look at Making the Magic Real (1996), includes an early version of the backstory for Big Thunder Mountain from 1975 entitled “The Miner Details of Big Thunder”:
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad dates back to the wild and woolly boom town days when every prospector west of the Rockies was looking for gold. The following is the tall tale heard tell by one of those prospectors who got it second-hand from old Sam, the last of the Big Thunder miners:
Yessir, it is 1840, and around these parts, things got prit’ near quiet as the hangin’ tree on Sunday after the Big Thunder Mine tapped out. One day there ain’t none richer, the next, even a ghost wouldn’t have much innerst in her.
Things got mighty busted up and rusted down inside Big Thunder, so Sam told me while sluggin’ from a dusty bottle of Old Imagineer. He was the last prospector inside that mine. Fact is, poor old Sam took a spill and done landed belly up in one of them ore carts. Next thing he knows, the car takes off like a skinny coyote after a plump hen!
Off he went, a headin’ fer the mine. Seems like that old ghost mine came to life for Sam. He swears the rusted winch engine was a pumpin’ and a wheezin’ and just when he was thinkin’ he must have bats in his belfry, there was bats! Then he sat up to see what he could see in the dark, and there was pools of rainbow water and waterfalls, and plenty of them rocks the schoolmarm calls “stalactites and stalagmites.”
The walls of the canyon kept comin’ in closer and closer at old Sam and he yelled until he couldn’t yell no more. All of a sudden, the car thunders into a pitch dark tunnel, with Sam holdin’ on fer dear life. Comin’ back out the other side, he spots a couple a danged skunks foolin’ with blastin’ powder, like to blow the top off a whole derned mountain! Little ways away, danged if’n there ain’t Billy goat chawin’ on a stick of the stuff! But Sam didn’t have no time to worry about that, ‘cuz next thing he knows he’s whippin’ down Spiral Butte and headin’ right back down the Big Thunder Mine. Sam figgered he was goin’ in and never comin’ out this time, with all that rumblin’ and shakin’ and rocks comin’ down all around him. He closed his eyes tight but the next thing ya know he was outside and high-ballin’ down on the track again, right over the Bear River Trestle Bridge.
That ore cart finally squealed to a stop right smack dab in the middle of Big Thunder Town. Sam just sat up, brushed off the dust and said, “I ain’t had this much of a whoop and holler since the Grub Gang hit town. I just barely got out with my hide!”
Sam’s amazing ghost story was told and retold over the years, and because of it, no one was ever brave enough to even set foot near the mine—until the day a bold young Imagineer heard the tale and thought it might be fun to take a ride on old Big Thunder himself. Sure enough, he did, and the train ride turned out to be so much fun he decided to officially re-open the mine. Folks soon heard the news about Big Thunder and began to arrive there to take their own wild ride on the legendary runaway train.
This backstory was most likely tailored for the Disneyland version of the attraction. Unfortunately, no further information has been provided about this backstory in terms of when it was considered (other than its date of 1975), how it was used, and how it evolved.
A later version of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad backstory was set during the 1850s:
[G]old was discovered in Big Thunder country in the 1850s, shortly after the Gold Rush began near John A. Sutter’s Mill in California, leading to the formation of the BTM Mining Company. But the locals believed Big Thunder Mountain and the land around it to be sacred, and a protective supernatural force dwelt deep within the mountain to protect it from anyone who might deface it in the pursuit of profit. At first, the mining operation went along without incident, but as the miners began using explosives to blast deeper and deeper into the unforgiving rock and laying tracks for the mine train they’d use to retrieve its golden bounty, the mountain’s ancient fury was unleashed. Strange noises emanated from a newly opened mineshaft. The spirits of long-dead miners could be heard tapping on the boarded walls of abandoned tunnels. Cave-ins became common occurrences. And then the narrow-gauge engines began rolling out of the station with no human hands at the controls. Entire trains, most times packed with unsuspecting passengers, would race driverless, at breakneck speed, along the spiraling steel and wooden track. The miners began to concede that perhaps the locals were right all along. Maybe the mountain—and their mine—was cursed. They abandoned their posts, the BTM Mining Company went bust, and soon Big Thunder became just another ghost town dotting the Old West.
The Backstory Evolves
Through the interpretation of props found throughout the queue, storytelling elements found in the actual attraction, and good old-fashioned fan speculation, the backstory for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad continued to morph, evolve, and grow. According to this revised backstory, prospectors flooded (pun intended) into Big Thunder Mountain when gold was discovered, all looking to make their fortune without much consideration given to the effect that mining would have on the mountain itself. With this influx of prospectors, the town of Tumbleweed arose at the foot of the mountain.
The prospectors did not care that the mountain was home to a Native American burial ground, or that the mountain “rumbled” each time mining operations took place. Even worse, the miners continued to disrespect the mountain spirits by drinking, dancing, and partying all hours of the night in the nearby Gold Dust Saloon.
Eventually, the “spirits” of Big Thunder Mountain became annoyed with the rowdy miners and their disrespect for the mountain. Strange things began to happen: mining equipment began to mysteriously fail, and frightening, ominous noises emanated from the bowels of the mountain. One day, a mine cart raced around the mountain clearly out of control, driven by supernatural forces. Notwithstanding these frightening warnings, the miners’ continued to disrespect and desecrate the mountain due to their lust for gold and quick riches.
The spirits of Big Thunder Mountain had finally had enough. Although the town of Tumbleweed is located in a dry and barren desert landscape, a catastrophic flash flood was unleashed on the town. Moments later, Tumbleweed was also beset by a devastating earthquake. With those natural disasters, Tumbleweed was effectively destroyed, and the town, trains, and mining operations were soon abandoned and left in shambles.
On the Liberty Square riverboat, narrator Sam Clemens provides a similar (although not identical) version of this backstory for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad:
Look off to the portside there. Every now and then the water under that crest of rock comes to a natural boil and spurts out all over the place like a tea kettle left on the fire too long. Indians around here used to tell me these geysers were actually unfriendly spirts upset by uninvited tresspassers traipsing all over their sacred huntin’ grounds. Be that as it may, t
hat’s Big Thunder Mountain poking up in the sky over there. The Indians named it that because of the sound the falls used to make when the big rains game. Then the miners and prospectors and get-rich-quick speculators showed up and the name stuck because of the sound of blasting powder going off every few minutes. There’s not so much blasting these days, just ghost stories about a runaway mine train loaded down with simple-hearted terror filled folks like you.
An Updated Backstory and a
Ruthless Gold Baron
On November 19, 2012, The Disney company announced an entirely new addition to the backstory for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which picks up decades after the old backstories concluded. The disastrous end of Tumbleweed has been forgotten and faded into myth and legend, and a new powerful figure, a greedy gold baron from the East Coast, has moved into the cursed town looking to expand his already vast fortune. The official Disney backstory is as follows:
Barnabas T. Bullion is the founder and president of the Big Thunder Mining Company. The long-time mining magnate comes from a powerful East Coast family and considers gold to be his very birthright by virtue of his oddly appropriate name; in fact, he considers the ultimate gold strike to be his destiny. And that is why he is having so much trouble with Big Thunder Mountain. According to superstitious locals, Big Thunder Mountain is very protective of the gold it holds within, and the unfortunate soul who attempts to mine its riches is destined to fail. And so far that prophecy is coming to pass. The mine has been plagued by mysterious forces and natural disasters ever since. And yet the Big Thunder Mountain Co. is still in operation. In fact, Bullion is discovering new veins of gold and digging new shafts every day, offering a closer look at the Big Thunder mining operation than ever before. But a word to the wise for anyone attempting to visit the mountain: watch out for runaway trains.