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The
Original Frontierland Railroad Station
Extinct
Attraction Component
Location:
Frontierland,
Magic Kingdom
Opened: c. May 1972
Closed: November 1990
Contributing Disney
Personnel:
Howard Brummit,
Chuck Myall,
Walt Preston
Descendant of:
Disneyland's
New Orleans Square Depot
Space Later Became:
Part of Splash Mountain site
Remnants:
Water tower moved north to second Frontierland station
Influences evident in:
Disneyland Paris'
Frontierland Depot
Photos courtesy
Robert Boyd, Steve Burns, Bill Cotter, Disnehpix and "Uncle Bob" from Flikr.
All images copyright
The Walt Disney Company.
Text copyright 2009
Mike Lee
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Last Update to this page: April 25, 2009
For the first eight months or so after the Magic
Kingdom's opening, the Walt Disney World Railroad had only one station serving
park guests. During that time, a "grand circle trip" was mandatory unless
you jumped off the train when no one else was looking. Having parted with a D
ticket to board, most guests preferred to stay put. As they rode along the
edge of Frontierland, riders passed by a wooden
shack and water tower that marked the future location of the line's next depot.
Right around May 1972, the Frontierland Railroad
Station opened a few feet northwest of the Pecos Bill Cafe. It marked the
westernmost point of Frontierland for nearly nineteen years, stealthily
weathering extensive development in the surrounding vicinity. It also provided
the only alternate point for boarding or disembarking the trains until 1988,
when a third station opened in what was then called Mickey's Birthdayland, now
Mickey's Toontown Fair.
The old Frontierland station was a tiny building
with
toy-like features - most notably the gingerbread molding on its rooflines and
scrolled woodwork on its facade. Most
guests accessed the station by ascending steps that raised them about five feet
above Frontierland street level. Wheelchair guests entered along a winding exit
pathway connecting with the north end of the structure. The building's interior
consisted of a single open-air room in which a short series of benches
accommodated guests waiting for the next train. A set of posters on the walls
perpetually denoted that the service was "on schedule."
Plenty of hatchets and
red water barrels marked "Fire Only" were on hand in the event of incendiary
outbursts.
A covered loading platform extended south of the station toward Caribbean
Plaza. The train approached the station from the tunnel built into the berm that
segments the two Pirates of the Caribbean show buildings. That was the
true western end of the Kingdom's guest areas. Guests waiting for the train may
have wondered what lurked beyond the climbing pines on the hill. The reality
was probably not in keeping with anyone's suppositions, as the other side was
the collection and incineration point for the park's vacuum-operated (AVAC) trash
system.
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The grassy area in front of the train
station was the first setting for the Frontierland Stunt Mens' robbery and
gunfight exposition. This brief show revolved around the Frontierland marshall's
apprehension of Cactus Jack Slade and his thieving lackeys after they robbed the
depot's safe. After some fist pounding, knife slashing and rifle blasting, the
marshall triumphed over the bad guys and recovered the money. This summer season
spectacle began in the mid-1980s. By the summer of 1988 the show had moved down
the street, where it was staged in front of the Trading Post and Country Bear
Jamboree. That migration allowed for the execution of fight scenes on the
rooftops. The final showdowns took place in 1994.
Just north of the railroad
station was a vast expanse of grass sandwiched between the train tracks and the
Rivers of America. This land, dotted with pine trees and a few totem poles, was
for several years the intended location of the
Western River Expedition.
When plans for that attraction fell through, the northern part of the land
became the site for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which opened in 1980. The
grassy plain between Thunder Mountain and the Frontierland station remained
untouched for a seeming eternity. Its sole functioning occupant was the twisting
roadway that allowed the Kingdom's parades an exit from the park.
That new station, incidentally, was built directly over the portion of
grassland that contained the parade's old exit road. The new parade exit
route was relocated south, directly through the center of what used to be the
old station. In all probability, that means absolutely nothing. More meaning
could perhaps be found in the company's positioning of Splash Mountain itself,
which is something of a southeastern U.S. red clay monster, between the Pecos
Bill Cafe and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, both part of a once thematically
unified vista depicting the southwestern U.S. And if you ever
thought, as I did, that the original Frontierland station felt more like Kansas
than something further west ... below is a photo of a Claremont, California depot from 1906,
which is a mere 30 miles east of Glendale. I don't know if it was the
inspiration for WDW's station or not, but it wouldn't surprise me. A train
full of cowboys and Indians pulling into town and dancing on Splash Mountain to
Burt Bacharach songs would surprise me.

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