Cottonwood Creek Ranch

After the excitement of the Gold Rush dried out, large swaths of land around Thunder Mesa was turned over to agriculture. One such farm is the Cottonwood Creek Ranch. The whole community is invited to come over today for the big Cowboy Cookout Barbecue being hosted in the main barn on the ranch. Inside, it's clear several families have pitched in by bringing tables and chairs from home. None of them match!

If you head out to Cottonwood Creek Ranch, come for the barbecue, but stay for the details. The ranch gets its name from the cottonwood trees growing along the banks of the creek. Cottonwood is a variety of poplar tree that produces fluffy, cotton-like tufts on which to carry its seeds.

Also along the creek is the ranch's old windmill. It may look like an appropriately aged Disney prop, but this is actually an authentic piece from about 1880. Frontierland's chief designer, Imagineer Pat Burke, acquired it from a gentleman in exchange for nothing less than a new TV!

Throughout the farm, you'll find loads of real equipment, gained during scouting trips across the west. Collectively, these antique props not only fill the scene, but give a setting like Cottonwood Creek Ranch a sense of believability. This looks and feels like a real, working farm (with the possible exception of the outhouse, which thankfully is a modern reproduction).

When Disneyland Paris opened back in 1992, Cottonwood Creek Ranch featured the Critter Corral, a small petting farm with real animals. The pigs, goats, rabbits and other critters moved on in 2007, when the area became Woody's Roundup Village.

Today, the horse stables are still there, but most of the critters you'll find wandering the ranch are of the animated variety.

Not far from Cottonwood Creek Ranch is the Chaparral Stage, where local cowboys might gather to put on a rodeo and show off their skills. It's another venue in this stretch of Frontierland which hasn't always been in use. Recently, though, the Chaparral Stage has come back to life with a production of "The Tarzan Encounter" (yes... Tarzan... in Frontierland... well, it is kinda close to Adventureland).