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There's something brand new on the
horizon.

Ripping, roaring, bending, twisting, not
to mention,

uh, whatever it is he's doing up there.
It's a little unnerving.

Anyway, this wild ride through the rocky
outcrops of the American frontier

is an express...

train to fun and partners with stops all
around the world big thunder

mountain railroad will make you exclaim
with glee hold on to your hats and

glasses the wildest ride in the
wilderness and really this rail -based

attraction was inevitable for the disney
park this is something that had to come

to be eventually a railroad or train at
the heart of a thrill attraction Because

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad all
started here.

Which is no surprise, because Walt
Disney loved trains.

All aboard!

Trains were part of his whole psyche, I
think. He had his own backyard railroad

with a featured engine, a Lily Bell,
named after his wife.

So when Disneyland opened, it was a lot
about trains, because that was Walt's

hobby. And here in Frontierland was one
particularly curious train.

Live pack mules that you could ride on
in a pack mule train.

No, not the mule train. This train.

All aboard, folks.

A place where two tracks converged with
Walt's love for trains and the history

of America's wild frontier.

He created an area in Frontierland which
was an Old West town.

Rainbow Ridge is a frontier traffic
center. Air stage coaches and Conestoga

wagons arrive and depart just as they
did in the days gone by.

And at the center of it all, this
charming little choo -choo called

Caverns Mine Train.

This was a vast adventure throughout
Frontierland of the desert.

We'll take you through the natural
vistas of the Old West.

And then you would go inside the
mountain, and there were colored

there with stalactites and stalagmites,
and it was really lovely.

And by 1960, it had become even
lovelier. It evolved into the attraction

came to be called the Mine Train Through
Nature's Wonderland.

All aboard the mine train.

They're essentially the same attraction,
but Mine Train Through Nature's

Wonderland was a great expansion of it.

We redesigned the entire desert area.

and expanded it way out to there.

It added all kinds of scenes, including
a treffle that goes over a river through

a beautiful environment where there are
bears.

Many of which came from the imagination
of one of the brightest, funniest, and

newest artists on the Disney roster.

Well, at least new to Imagineering. I
was a man that had been sitting on my...

Hined in for like 25 years as an
animator. But the mind train through

Wonderland was one of his first forays
into Imagineering. And Mark Davis played

a large part in creating this beloved
early Disney immersive experience.

When he first came to Imagineering, he
added a lot of humor.

That critter there, that's Itchy Sam.

He's having himself a time.

But as hilarious and delightful as it
was, the mine train through nature's

wonderland did have a couple of issues.

It was quite leisurely.

It was pokey. It was slow.

And then there was also the pack mules.

Uh, no, the pack mules didn't last long.
Because they try to nibble at you.

Despite the lack of thrills.

Guests very much enjoyed the mine train
through nature's wonderland as it

chugged away along the railroad of time
through the 60s and into the 70s.

But as a new decade dawned, something
far from pokey was on the horizon.

Because Disney parks were about to be
struck by big thunder.

Which you find quite a bit of.

In Florida, where in the late 1960s
Imagineers were hard at work designing

building the all -new Walt Disney World
Resort. The Imagineers wanted some

differences between Disneyland and Magic
Kingdom Park. So one of the differences

was going to be there would be no
Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.

Why take pirates to Florida when they've
been promoting pirates for...

Several hundred years down there.

Exactly. So Walt's creative team had a
different idea for Florida. The idea was

to take the cowboys to Florida and give
them a similar show in the opposite way.

And thus, the plan became Pirates of the
Caribbean of the West. In the East, it

would be one of three attractions in a
massive themed area called Thunder Mesa.

And it was big.

It took up a whole kind of western
section of Frontierland in the Magic

The only thing I can describe that was
that big in today's Disney knowledge

would be the Cars Land, Rockworth, or
Star Wars Galaxy's Edge.

It was a lot of real estate.

Which makes sense, because Walt and Roy
Disney did buy a lot of real estate.

Walt Disney World is twice as big as the
island of Manhattan.

As plans for the expansive Floridian
Thunder Mesa took shape.

Size was no object.

You're on this boat, and you're going
through all these Western scenes.

all kinds of shenanigans going on. But
time was.

It was so elaborate, it's going to take
some time to create and build.

Certainly past the October 1, 1971,
opening of Walt Disney World.

And so, with Mark's passion project
slated for Phase II development...

Walt Disney World got on with the
business of its 1971 grand opening. And

thousands flocked to the new park... It
was clear they had a problem.

And that was that the Pirates of the
Caribbean wasn't there.

What the public was saying sent shivers
down the spine of Walt Disney World

management. The public was starting to
become very vocal about, if you're going

to go to a Disney park, go to
California, because the new ride they

there, Pirates of the Caribbean, is way
beyond anything in Walt Disney World.

But they did have a plan.

And there was no plan for making the
Pirates of the Caribbean, so panic.

So they knew they had to build a pirate
ride. which would be a ton of money, and

they had to do it really fast.

Meaning Walt Disney World would now have
Pirates of the Caribbean and a Western

-themed Pirates of the Caribbean.

Well, you can't have two.

That put a spotlight on what are we
going to do with Western River. Well,

weren't thinking about shelving it, were
they?

At Imagineering, there's hundreds of
thousands of sketches. People are

all the time. And half the time, they go
into drawers never to see the light of

day again.

But the living legend Mark Davis had
poured all of his best ideas into this

incredible Western expanse of
entertainment.

The ride was...

Absolutely stunning.

Well, this man should know. He worked
under Mark Davis on it.

Well, my name is Tony Baxter, and I
spent my entire career working for the

Disney Company.

Starting when he was a teenager.

I started with Disneyland as an ice
cream scooper.

And it wasn't that I wanted to scoop ice
cream, but I really wanted to work at

Disneyland.

But it didn't take long for this young
ice cream scooper to realize that the

real action didn't happen at Disneyland,
but at the Walt Disney Imagineering

facilities about an hour's drive up the
road.

I remember one day this kid showed up
with this kind of a gravity machine in

back of a vehicle and set it up and
started to describe why he wanted to

Imagineering. A few minutes into his
demo, I basically told the guys, hire

guy. He's never going to leave us alone.

I guess Bob Gurr was kind of right in
that if I didn't get hired, I would have

pestered them forever.

There are people like that. They have
their heart set on something, and they

will never leave you alone until you
hire them.

And so they did hire Tony. My first job
at Imagineering was working in the model

shop, and that was kind of a training
ground. And then I was sent off to

to work on Walt Disney World. And when I
came back from that, Imagineering was

kind of in a, you know, downscaling
mode.

And so I had to find an attraction.

And so that's where I started working
with Mark Davis.

On Thunder Mesa, which is now about to
get canceled.

Yeah. But that idea was not acceptable
to Tony. I didn't want to ever get in

thing where we're ruling it out. And
besides, there was more to it than just

boat ride. On the front of his
attraction, he had the appearance of a

ride. It wasn't developed enough to know
it was going to be fun and thrilling. I

was very inspired by that, and I knew I
had to... extracted while trying to not

offend mark an intimidating prospect for
a young imagineer who'd been working

under mark davis and now he was
proposing throwing out a bunch of his

work who would do such a thing spoiler
alert this guy with an opportunity to

create his first attraction Tony applied
his trademark persistence.

This guy, he's never going to leave us
alone.

To convince imposing Disney executive
Card Walker that this small part of

Thunder Mesa was a big idea worth
saving. We could build this big Thunder

about a quarter of what the cost would
have been for the Western River ride.

And I think that's where I got the...

corporate -level vote to go with Big
Thunder. And so, thanks to Pirates of

Caribbean, Thunder Mesa was scaled back,
and Tony Baxter needed to dig in and

get his hands dirty on what was now a
mountain of work. I think this was the

first attraction, big attraction, that
was created without any Walt Disney

at all. So Tony and his team were making
handmade models.

And you just poured over that going, oh,
my gosh, look where the train's going

to go. Look what it's going to do. This
is going to be so exciting. It's so

neat. And finally, after developing,
creating, working, and reworking.

There were nine different models made,
and they were very intricate, very

detailed. In fact, they were using Q
-tip for the rail track in these models.

Oh, but not for long.

Because on January 15, 1975,

Tony Baxter was able to witness the
opening of... We proudly present Space

Mountain! Oh, that's the wrong mountain.
What happened there?

About halfway through my design on Big
Thunder, all of a sudden there was this

other thing. We had landed on the moon,
and NASA was right near Walt Disney

World. Ignition. And we knew people were
going to...

Visit us and then go over to the cave.

Liftoff. And suddenly one of Walt
Disney's ideas came out of the drawer.

And they again looked back through the
Walt book and there was this thing that

was temptively called Space Mountain
that was enduring Walt's time. He saw

John Ange had drawn it, and they began
to refine it. And the next thing you

knew, both Big Thunder and Western River
were up against something that was

topical, tremendously exciting, and
doing a roller coaster in complete

was unheard of.

Soon, people all around the world would
hear of Faith Mountain.

And with only enough budget for one
mountain... Big Thunder was put on the

shelf. More likely, an actual drawer.

And that's where our story might have
ended.

That whole thing crumbled.

But all hope hadn't eroded just yet.

Because back on the West Coast in
Disneyland...

The mine train through Nature's
Wonderland was still chugging away, but

looked like it might be coming to the
end of the line.

Nature's Wonderland was getting a little
bit tired.

It wasn't thrilling, and the animation
by even their standards after Pirates

first grade versus college level.

Howdy, Hootie. Did we wake you up?

Their big measuring stick was how many
clicks does the turnstile do in an hour?

And when it gets down to a certain
point, you'd say, this is not a

attraction. And those turnstiles told a
story of what people really preferred.

Guests, especially young guests, were
seeking thrill attractions.

Right. like Space Mountain back in
Florida.

Now it seemed the tables had turned,
where once Florida had pirate envy.

The Pirates of the Caribbean wasn't
there. Now California had an adrenaline

deficit. So something had to be done.

So once again, Tony Baxter's employment
future looked bright. When Disneyland

finally opened, well, they put Space
Mountain in as well.

But that was in Tomorrowland, of course.
On the east side of the park, the west

side of Disneyland, the Mark Twain, you
had the Columbia ship, you had the

island. It's all great.

It's a little slow.

And Disney management knew exactly what
to do. We need a thrill attraction at

Disneyland in Frontierland to take the
place of Mine Train through Nature's

Wonderland. racking their brains big
thunder and searching imagineering

for ideas big thunder once more tony
baxter steps in tony baxter stepped in

they said well we really liked what you
were doing in florida for that thing

called big thunder could you make that
work at disneyland and i was so thankful

that there might be a way to keep it
going rather than shutting it down while

Space Mountain happened, that I said,
well, yeah, sure.

And so, finally, the train had left the
station, albeit a little late, thanks to

the rerouting through Florida. But not
to worry, because all the hard work was

already done.

All Tony had to do was take his plans
and bring in the bulldozers. Oh, that

one other little thing.

I never realized it was going to require
completely sending all the blueprints

through backwards because the only space
at Disneyland was over where Nature's

Wonderland existed, and that was on the
other side, so all the dips and turns

and everything had to be totally reverse
-engineered. In imagining Big Thunder

Mountain Railroad for Disneyland, Tony
Baxter and his team drew inspiration

Bryce Canyon in Utah.

Very whimsical looking.

And it was gargantuan in scale.

When the Imagineers were building Big
Thunder Mountain Railroad, it was one of

the largest undertakings and largest
developments to occur at Disneyland in a

long time.

I mean, it took up a very, very big
footprint.

While the park is open and operating, by
the way, and where Big Thunder sits, it

sits basically in the middle of
Frontierland.

So you're trying to build this mountain
while you're having an operating park.

happening around you. So it was a big,
big deal. A big deal and a big

attraction. Big Thunder Mountain
Railroad made some big promises.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is perhaps
one of the most thrilling and

imaginative adventures of all.

It's in keeping with Disney tradition.

An experience.

A show with runaway mine trains that
whisk guests through dark tunnels and

shafts. Past raging waterfalls and into
deep canyons. Face -to -face with an

avalanche. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
will be an adventure that's as

downright wild as the reckless days of
the Gold Rush.

Currently under construction for both
Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

What? Walt Disney World?

Well... It turns out Card Walker and
Disney management thought, why not learn

from our mistakes?

The Park of the Caribbean wasn't there.
And just decided to do both parks at the

same time. So Tony Baxter re -reversed
his plans.

At Anaheim, you do a ton of right turns.
In Magic Kingdom, you're going to take

a lot of left turns. They are just two
mirrored images of each other.

The movement might be the same, but the
vistas are slightly different because,

well, they wouldn't want to make this
too easy for themselves.

In Florida, the Imagineers' echoing wall
didn't want to just repeat themselves,

so they gave it a different environment
based on Monument Valley in Arizona.

So very similar rides, but they still
are unique and different from each

However, they were exactly alike in one
important way.

I love our story. I think it's so
different than a lot of other stories.

The big Thunder Mountain Railroad story.

Because there had to be a reason for it
taking off and going crazy.

There really did.

And so, what is the story?

It's not just about a bumpy, twisting
coaster.

Oh, but don't worry, there's plenty of
that.

There were mine train rides at other
parks, but Disney, of course, was not

to do anything like other parks had
done.

Stop putting you into a story world,
which is, in this case, an Old West

company and a mountain.

And some greedy miners who dug too deep.

If you dig deeper, the spirits of Big
Thunder Mountain are going to come after

us and curse us. And with this curse
comes devastation.

We experienced cave -ins.

Mining equipment disappeared.

Trains started to drive themselves.

And goats started to chew on dynamite.
But this isn't just any goat.

At least in California, I think the star
of the show is our surprising little

goat with a dynamite stick.

The name of our goat is Billy.

Well, unofficially, at least. I don't
think we would be Big Thunder Mountain

Road without Billy.

And it's grown its own subculture.

He's kind of the symbol of who we are as
a team, kind of our team leader.

But the question everybody wants to know
is, why?

I don't know.

Well, Julie knows.

A lot of our guests love riding our
attraction because of the goat trick.

That's right, the goat trick. The goat
trick, where they stare at the goat

they go around a tight curve there,
which makes it seem like you're going

fast. As soon as you see the goat...

Turn all the way to your right, and
through physics, it almost feels like

are spinning faster than what you are.

It's grown this cultural thing where
people will ride it and be obsessed on

goat, you know? So the goat trick has
come into its own. And we have goats on

all of the rides, but I think the
position at Disneyland, for some reason,

lifted it.

out of being just another character
along the track into notoriety.

Don't look in its eyes. Or do.

Anyway, the menagerie of mechanical
animals, in many ways, was Tony Baxter's

tribute to his mentor and the original
beloved attraction.

That, Tony had jumped both of them. The
goat kind of came to life as an homage

to what Mark Davis would have done. I
have to say that if we'd been able to

it to Mark, it would have been tenfold,
probably more.

You can see classic Mark Davis moments
in the attraction.

I have always loved Mark's love of
critters and animals.

And here you are on Big Thunder Mountain
Railroad.

Wow, we're going really fast, and the
train's running away, and we're in this

mine, and there's an explosion here. And
then...

There's a possum sort of swinging in the
tree, and you're like, huh, that's

weird. Well, they are possums and
definitely don't look into their eyes.

Anyway. There's something brand new on
the horizon. On September the 2nd, 1979,

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad finally
opened at Disneyland.

And then, about a year later, in Walt
Disney World.

And guests flocked to these exciting new
attractions.

And as for that old measuring stick?

How many clicks does the turnstile do in
an hour?

Well, we'll let the turnstile do the
talking. Oh, and this reporter.

I counted them and we came up with a
number for you, umpteen thousand. But

seriously, judging from their comments,
Big Thunder Mountain is a very big

success. It surely was.

There is so much going on during the
ride that you can't possibly see it all

one trip. Our shows create an interest
to go back again and again, and that's

kind of the magic of Disney World and
Disneyland.

Having brought Big Thunder Mountain
Railroad to its wildly successful

destination in two parks, it was time
for Imagineers to put their feet up and

relax. No.

Actually, it was back to the salt mine.

in this case, the gold mine.

After Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was
a tremendous hit at both Disneyland and

Walt Disney World, of course, they
wanted one at Tokyo Disneyland.

And in 1987, that's just what they got.

Tokyo is similar to the one in Florida.
That's Monument Valley.

But it's similar to both its
predecessors in one very special way.

The unbridled optimism of its cast
members.

Out of all three Asian resorts, Tokyo
Disneyland is the only one to feature a

Big Thunder Mountain.

Well, at least if we're going strictly
by name.

Because in 2012, Hong Kong Disneyland
installed what could best be described

Big Thunder's spiritual cousin.

It's called Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway
Minecart.

While it is not a Big Thunder
attraction, there are many similarities,

and mountainous terrain, and certainly
the Frontierland Western theme.

And the area called Grizzly Gulch is
reminiscent of Big Thunder Mountain.

It's also reminiscent of the old mine
train because it's populated with bears.

Grizzly, get it?

And they're very reminiscent of the
bears that Mark Davis had designed way

when for the mine train. So it's kind of
a fun mashup.

And as the story goes, the settlers of
Grizzly Gulf struck gold on August 8,

1888. There's a lot of eights in that.
So with the auspicious number eight

holding a lot of importance in the local
Chinese lore, They think that's a very

lucky number. Four, on the other hand,
is an unlucky number. So instead of

down shaft number eight to see where all
of the gold was found, you go down to

the dangerous shaft number four.

There's a mine and all of that, but the
difference here is really the thrill.

You're going forward, and you look like
you're going to climb a large mountain,

and suddenly...

it all reverses, and you're something
going flying backwards for half the

So I think it's a very different kind of
experience there.

But getting firmly back on the Big
Thunder Mountain Railroad track, when it

comes to versions around the world, we
simply must talk about this one.

In 1992, it got probably its most
exciting incarnation.

And that is Big Thunder Mountain
Railroad in Disneyland Paris.

But Big Thunder Mountain is based around
the American Wild West, which you

wouldn't think is of particular interest
to the French. No.

But what is, is the cinema.

And thanks to those same films that
inspired Walt Disney, it turns out...

love the Wild West and they love what
John Ford has shown them in movies and

John Wayne and they know Monument Valley
and they know the Grand Canyon.

And so, with an enthusiastic audience,
Tony Baxter suddenly found himself in a

position to make the biggest Big Thunder
Mountain of his career.

You know, it's very seldom that a
designer gets to do a redesign of the

project four times.

But in Paris, not only would the
attraction be bigger... Every other

was added after the park was already
built.

So in Paris, I was determined we're
going to put it front and center.

Actually, he was even able to do a
little bit better than that. It's on an

island.

In the very center of Frontierland.

Because it changes the experience. You
board land side, you get in the vehicle,

and it's, how am I going to get out
there?

And so the attraction begins by plunging
you down into darkness as you're really

traveling beneath the river and then
coming up into the attraction.

And then at the end of the attraction,
after you think you've had all the

thrills you could possibly imagine.

We plunge you down beneath the river to
give you a great finale and bring you

back up. So it not only changed the
placemaking of the attraction and how

wonderful it sits as the centerpiece of
Frontierland, but it really amped up the

thrill of the attraction as well.

For sure, Vixen Mountain is a perfect
mix between sensation and the scenery is

absolutely breathtaking.

You get these beautiful, handsome colors
everywhere. You feel like you're in the

middle of Monument Valley.

I mean, it's absolutely gorgeous. It's
my favorite by far.

But it's not just its good looks that
separate this big thunder from the rest.

Frontierland at Disneyland Paris is
wholly different from...

the magic kingdom or disneyland in the
sense that it has a very definitive

storyline we tried to connect all the
stories within the land and oh what

stories it's about a gold baron henry
ravenswood who owned the mine whose you

know very elaborate house is up there on
the hill and it's fallen into disrepair

that would be phantom manor their
version of the haunted mansion

And that, in turn, changed, of course,
Phantom Manor's whole finale act, where

going out into, rather than the
graveyard, you're going out into the

town. So tying it back to what you're
seeing in Frontierland. So all of those

elements are very cleverly, I think,
story -wise, integrated at Disneyland

Paris. Which brings us back to the
storyline of the original attraction.

With plot twists like... Goats started
to chew on dynamite. Yeah, that's pretty

much the highlight.

Yeah.

When the attraction opened, it was
really about the wildest ride in the

wilderness, this runaway train.

This here's the wildest ride in the
wilderness!

And of course, there's nothing at all
wrong with that.

But in Disneyland, it was a story that
had, well, remained

unchanged since 1979.

Hey, this thing needs some love. Just
like your house at home, you need to

repaint it, you need to rebuild
something.

The Imagineers had to rebuild the entire
track, actually.

Things just wear out over time.

Luckily, things had come a long way. For
Bent Deal Roller Coasters... The track

back in the 70s was all hand
-fabricated.

In the rehab, it was all done digitally,
and then computer machines bend the

track because computers figure out all
the geometry and all the forces, and

were able to do it seamlessly.

But redoing an entire track sounds
neither quick nor easy.

Which meant a complete closure of the
attraction.

And it was decided that anything else
that needed attention at that time was

going to be done, too. Which, of course,
included the story.

We went and looked at, okay, what can we
do in there that would be fun and

exciting and different?

And here's what they came up with.

Barnabas T. Bullion is the proprietor
and owner, if you will, of Big Thunder

Mining Company.

He established a town called Rainbow
Ridge right next door.

But hold on one second. There's
something about that face.

Who happens to look, by the way, a
little bit like Tony Baxter.

I have certainly seen the rendering they
have done, and I felt the facial

expression on that painting was pretty
severe.

Eh, maybe it's just a coincidence.

Well, whoever he's modeled after,
Barnabas T. Bullion was a big deal in

Thunder Mountain.

And he's also a member of an
organization called FCA, Society of

Adventurers. This exclusive
international society is comprised of

characters featured in Disney
attractions around the globe, like

Oceaneer, Dr. Albert Fall, and Harrison
Hightower III, to name a few

recognizable ones. Yeah, that is a
thing.

But don't be fooled by the pleasant
demeanor of this mining baron. He's not

necessarily the most, um...

uh you know positive character in the
fact that he's uh he went into a

that maybe he shouldn't have he wants
that gold he doesn't care how it gets

but he wants that gold and he wants the
money for himself but as tony baxter oh

sorry barnabas t bullion lords over the
mountain It's Ray here who, like the

great Tony Baxter before him, needed to
dig in and get his hands dirty.

As a creative director, I'm the guy
who's kind of looking at and herding

everybody to a common goal.

But Ray wasn't just directing traffic on
the Big Thunder refurb. He was also

timing it. I had to ride the ride maybe
15 times a night, every night.

after the park closed to adjust the show
timing.

And Ray took his sweet time perfecting
the timing.

We had time.

But what they didn't have was an ending
to the attraction.

The finale was not operating at that
time.

Well, if you're looking for ideas, a
good place to start would be the drawer.

Hundreds of thousands of sketches go
into drawers never to see the light of

again.

For one particular idea, the light would
shine again.

And it just so happened to be one of
Ray's old ideas.

I'd done a bunch of sketches a few years
before that.

And they were really quite dynamite.
Literally dynamite. There's always been

kind of this danger, the rocks and caves
are falling in on you. Now we decided

to go with some exploding dynamite
effect.

Stuff is literally exploding at you.

dynamite going off all around you in a
very precise manner of course we were

able to scan digitally all of caverns we
were able to scan all the spaces we

were able to texture map everything and
so we were able to create these crazy

effects and crazy projections that
weren't possible back in the 70s

well with a dynamite ending and a brand
new track

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad had never
been better.

Putting a smile on the faces of guests
and imagineers alike.

In fact, it incited so much joy that the
attraction soon

inspired a comic book honoring the great
creator of Big Thunder Mountain

Railroad. There was a series of comics
on Big Thunder in which I appeared to be

the villain.

I was looking at it in line at a
restaurant one night with horror, and

person that was with me snapped a photo.
And when he sent it to me, they both

looked identical. And he said, so what
was it you were saying about not looking

like the way the character is drawn?

I don't know whether he likes it or not.

Tony Baxter has been rightly
immortalized into Disney history.

So I kind of accepted it.

But of course, Tony Baxter's character
is by no means Big Thunder's G -O -A -T.

The literal greatest of all time is, of
course, the goat.

And in fact, a fan made this for me
because she was so

enamored of Billy. It's beautifully
done. It looks better than the real

And just like the attraction itself,

Billy the Goat's legacy is born of a
rich history, stretching back to right

here, where earlier mine trains once
meandered.

And the legacy of Mark Davis can be seen
to this day.

I think Big Thunder is a great handoff,
really, between the first generation of

Imagineers and the second. You know, you
think of Mark Davis and his original

thinking of a Western -themed land and
all the attractions that would be in

that. and how Tony was inspired by that
and really brought some of that thinking

into the idea that became Big Thunder
Mountain.

Yes, going to Disneyland today can be
remnants of Mind Trains Through Nature's

Wonderland.

That's right. In an homage to his
mentor, Tony reused parts

of the very first thing that inspired
Big Thunder Mountain.

The biggest element that we were able to
salvage was the little town of Rainbow

Ridge.

The entire little town of Rainbow Ridge,
which is at the end of the ride, it

used to be the dispatch point for the
little trains that were on that

attraction. So some of those things were
held over and reused in Big Thunder

Mountain. It's amazing to think that
they are there to this day.

It surely is.

They are still there to this day.

Right, Ray?

All of the buildings in that little town
of Rainbow Ridge were rebuilt.

They were termite damaged.

But never fear, because Ray knew exactly
where to go. The drawer, of course.

So we dug out all the blueprints from
Imagineering, and we went through,

with the carpenters and the crews, and
recreated those buildings from the

up. With Ray's faithful reproduction.

The spirit of the mine train through
nature's wonderland lives on, as it also

does in Walt Disney World. We have this
beautiful painting of Big Thunder

Mountain, kind of the Thunder Mountain
range.

And so as you look at this painting, it
has the original Western River

Expedition Mesa. You then see Magic
Kingdom's Big Thunder.

And behind that into the clouds, you see
Disneyland, you see Tokyo, and you see

Paris with its distinctive arch in the
water. All of that and the whole kind of

Big Thunder range, including the range
that never got built, is there on

in the park today.

But if you want to know how Disney Park
fans across the world feel about Big

Thunder, there's only one thing that
really counts.

Well, it's the turnstile, obviously.

Because to this day, Big Thunder
Mountain Railroad is one of the most

attractions in the four Disney parks
where it operates.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is an all
-time Disney classic.

It's an attraction that people just
cannot get enough of.

And really shows how much all the work
and imagination the Imagineers put into

it paid off.

for that young, ambitious, former ice
cream scooper. He's never going to leave

us alone.

Big Thunder Mountain secured Tony
Baxter's legacy as a leading imagineer

decades to come. Sometimes you will meet
people and you can just tell. I had no

idea where he would wind up and look at
all the things that he did for Disney

thereafter.

I worked my entire career for the Walt
Disney Company, primarily at

Imagineering, and worked my way up to
senior vice president in the creative

development department.

Oh, there's more to come from Tony, but
for now... Okay, big thunder.

Done it. Home run. In fact, you could
probably say that Tony hit the bullseye.

Uh, goat's eye.

Goat's eye.