Birth of a Mountain

As we established at the end of my last post, I spent some time working the mine at Big Thunder way back in the day. How far back? Well, the photo above is the view I had as I moseyed out to the mountain each morning. Notice something missing? Here's the view looking back the other direction, about a year or so later:

This was 1990-92, and that's the original Frontierland Railroad Station, just across a grassy field where Splash Mountain sits today. As a young Cast Member and Disney Parks fan, it was great fun working at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad during this period and getting to step out and watch the newest mountain in the Magic Kingdom grow right out of the ground.

The first piece of the Splash Mountain project to be built was the bridge along the Rivers of America, put in place so Guests could still access Big Thunder during construction. Once the bridge was complete, the construction walls went up, featuring colorful cartoon artwork that invited folks to come back and join Br'er Rabbit in his Laughing Place in Fall 1992.

Similar in many ways to the construction of Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain slowly grew from steel superstructure to rockwork cages to finished cement. In the photo above, you can make out the beam that would ultimately support the old tree up on Chickapin Hill. Below (photo ©Disney), the rockwork cage for the tree is in place, officially "topping off" the structure. The topping off ceremony, a key milestone in any major construction effort, put the orange Mickey flag on top of the mountain.

Although technically referred to as "rockwork," the technique of sculpting cement over cages of bent rebar and chicken wire was used here to create just about everything, from the clay hillsides of the mountain to the fallen logs and other "wood" elements. Building it in this way helps Splash Mountain hold up to the constant barrage of weather and water.

To make it all look more natural, the mountain is designed with tiers of planters built into the rockwork, allowing real greenery to cascade over the hilltops.

As with any new Disney attraction, once Splash Mountain was built, everything needed to go through rigorous testing. Of course, most attractions are contained within buildings. The logs of Splash Mountain had to make their rounds in full view of the park's Guests. This became especially awkward when Cast Members began previewing the attraction, another important step in testing that helps the operators work through loading and dispatching processes with real people.

The wait was finally over in October 1992, when Splash Mountain had its official grand opening, forever becoming a part of Frontierland at the Magic Kingdom.

One last note about the opening: On the morning of the scheduled opening event for the press, it rained. Disney was prepared as always, with boxes of umbrellas and ponchos ready to hand out so the show could go on. The crew was then invited back two days later, complete with hot air balloons and pyrotechnics, to re-stage the entire event for the cameras, creating the official photo (©Disney) you see above.