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Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Construction- Magic Kingdom

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It's January 20, 1980. Let's hop aboard the Admiral Joe Fowler Riverboat to see the the construction of Walt Disney World's latest E-Ticket attraction.

Wait a minute... TWO Riverboats?? Yes.

Look! A totem pole.

These wonderful photo were taken by Dan Hiller aboard the Riverboat in 1980. The attraction opened ten months later. Disneyland's Big Thunder opened 14 months prior to Magic Kingdom's Big Thunder.

We often hear that the track layout of the Magic Kingdom Big thunder is almost a mirror image of the Disneyland Big Thunder. How true is this? Below we see both mountains side-by-side. The Magic Kingdom layout is, indeed, almost a mirror image, but with bit of added track.

Here we see the Magic Kingdom version flipped horizontally and placed over the Disneyland version.

Big Thunder Mountain history goes way back and is extremely interesting. From Mine Train Thru Nature's Wonderland to Marc Davis to Thunder Mesa and Western River Expedition to Tony Baxter and everything since.

Thank you, Dan, for talking these photos back when few people thought of photographing theme park construction.

If anyone else would like to share their old photos of the Disney theme parks, share them with us via our PHOTO HUNT.

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Friday, March 21, 2014 at 12:56PM | |

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Monday

Feb172014

Meet the Man Who Built Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdoms

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We recently discovered this lost interview deep within our ImagineeringDisney.com home library. This rare discussion with one of Walt Disney's right-hand men was conducted at Walt Disney World in 1988 in front of a live audience. Join Admiral Joe Fowler (1894-1993) as he tells his story of building Disneyland, working alongside Walt right up until the night before Walt's death, and carrying out Walt's plans for Disney World*.

• Hear how Walt Disney hired Admiral Joe Fowler without him knowing it.

• Join Joe as he shares unique Disneyland construction challenges you’ve never heard before.

• What was Walt’s opinion about roller coasters?

• What’s the real story behind the water on the Matterhorn?

• Hear about some of Walt’s wackier ideas, including freezing Disneyland’s Rivers of America during the winter.

• What was the real relationship between Walt and Roy?

• What was Joe’s involvement with Audio Animatronics?

• What’s the real reason the Stage Coaches closed at Disneyland?

• Hear about escaped circus animals running through Disneyland.

• Joe tells us why he thinks Walt could have beaten any candidate for President in the late 1950s if he wanted to.

• Learn how almost every country in Europe tried to persuade Walt to build a Disneyland on their continent and why Walt refused.

• Hear the reason Walt backed out of his plans for an indoor Disneyland in St. Louis just hours before the papers were to be signed. (The park was to be called Walt Disney’s Riverfront Square).

• What was the “best-kept secret ever known in this country”?

• What was Walt’s travel alias when he was searching for property in Florida?

• Hear the touching story of Walt and Joe spending two of Walt's last 24 hours talking about Walt's plans for Disney World.