Frontierland

Here is Part Two of the Frontierland – Patriotic Disney Post by Dave from yourfirstvisit.net. In this second pare Dave walks us through Frontierland noting fun things to do on the way. Thanks again to Dave!

If you missed Part One Check it out

FRONTIERLAND BEGINS IN LIBERTY SQUARE

The structures of Frontierland–rides, shops, and dining establishments–are all on your left as you walk from Liberty Square to Big Thunder Mountain, and the water–representing the great rivers that tied together the frontier, and especially the Mississippi and the Ohio–are on your right.

If you focus on the left, Frontierland begins at the Diamond Horseshoe Saloon, as the boundary between east and west. However, if you focus on the right…Frontierland begins in Liberty Square.

The Liberty Belle riverboat boards and docks in Liberty Square. While such vessels could be found in the east, they were key elements of the west. The Imagineering Field Guide to Magic Kingdom calls the Liberty Belle an example of a “staple of early frontier life,” and calls it a “transitional element linking [the] two lands.”( 72.)

The role of the Liberty Square waterfront in beginning the theme of Frontierland was even clearer back in the day when the long-gone Mike Fink Keelboats still loaded from this waterfront. Keelboats, while found on any navigable river, were essential features of the Ohio, the Mississippi and their sources.

The water itself–”Rivers of America”–is also meant to represent the Ohio, Mississippi, and the other great rivers of the western frontier, even in Liberty Square. This too was even clearer in the past when the “Indian Canoes” still ran from Frontierland, so that the waterway at any given moment could show canoes, keelboats, a riverboat, and the rafts used to access Tom Sawyer Island.

So Frontierland begins on the left at the Diamond Horseshoe Saloon, but on the right at the waterfront of Liberty Square.

THE RIDES AND ATTRACTIONS OF FRONTIERLAND

Frontierland has two major “E” Ticket rides–Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain–and a number of minor attractions of limited appeal.

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FRONTIERLAND: A MUSEUM OF DREAMS

As promised here is the Patriotic Disney Guest Post from Dave at yourfirstvisit.net. I really appreciate Dave’s taking the time to write it and his allowing me to debut it here. I hope you enjoy it!

First, consider birth and death years of three great Americans:

• 1734-1820: Daniel Boone
• 1835-1910: Samuel Langhorne Clemens (that is, Mark Twain)
• 1901-1966: Walt Disney

With just one 15-year gap, these three lives stretch from before the French and Indian wars to the Space Age.

Daniel Boone and Mark Twain both lived and mythologized the American frontier experience; Walt Disney then re-mythologized the frontier into Frontierland, combining the myths of his boyhood with the pioneer and western imagery created by Hollywood.

As Margaret J. King noted, the result is a kind of “museum” for “the most nostalgic images and dreams of a nation.”

The introduction to Frontierland in  is worth quoting in detail:

“Frontierland celebrates the American pioneer spirit. It is the perfect embodiment of the wonder of the unknown and the quest to discover it…Frontierland is often referred to as the most distinctively American statement in all the Magic Kingdom. It lives as a tribute to the pioneer spirit that drove Americans westward…a subject that was as near and dear to Walt as Main Street, U.S.A. and equally connected to the fondest memories from his childhood.” (51-52)

THE GENESIS OF FRONTIERLAND

Frontierland at Walt Disney World is based on the original design of Frontierland at Disneyland.

The idea of Disneyland grew as a series of concepts and sketches.

At the beginning was a train; next came Main Street; further developments of the idea included “an old farm, a western village, an Indian compound…[and] a riverboat.” (Gabler, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination 481-485.)

Elements of these early designs became Main Street and Frontierland; what many think the quintessential elements of Disneyland and Disney World–Fantasyland and Tomorrowland–didn’t emerge until later.

This confusion of quintessence comes from our viewing the parks from the eyes of our own childhoods, and not Walt’s.

In the early planning, Walt “described the park as providing a lesson in American heritage” displaying “the kind of bedrock values…that were especially salient with the onset of the Cold War. ‘There’s an American theme behind the whole park,’ ” he said. (Gabler, 499.)

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