A Small Treasure in Walt Disney World: The Calliope

     One of my favorite things to do in Walt Disney World is to run around in search of places and items with historical significance. These little treats are littered everywhere around Disney property, and only require you to do a little research. This time, I want to talk about the calliope at Tri-Circle D Ranch at Fort Wilderness Resort.
     Fort Wilderness is a monster. It has a bus and boat system to get you there, and a bus system to get you from the resort to anywhere else in the resort. It's big. However, it is well worth the effort to visit the Tri-Circle D Ranch (named aptly for the tri-circled emblem of the Disney company). If you wander your way around the Ranch, you will first see many of the horses Disney uses on Main Street USA at the Magic Kingdom, as well as some famous animals from shows and movies. But this time I want to focus on the giant musical instrument/parade float/train car that you will find in one of the buildings. Here it is:

     This is a calliope, or a pipe organ played by moving the vehicle. It functions similarly to an old player-piano, with sheets of metal and holes and pins. This calliope holds significant historical value for Disney. Created in 1907, it was used initially in England as part of a circus. Later, Walt saw the calliope outside a small amusement park in Los Angeles in the 1940's and purchased it "as is" from the owner. Once fixed up, it joined several other calliopes to form part of Disneyland's Mickey Mouse Club parade upon the opening of Disneyland in 1955. It served briefly there, and then functioned mostly as decoration.

     Eventually, with no further for so many calliopes, Walt donated all of them to museums in 1962, except for this one. The dragon calliope since has appeared in a few Disney movies, and in 1981 was moved to Walt Disney World to be part of the tenth birthday celebration of the Florida park. Since then, the calliope has served in a few parades, and rolled down Main Street as recently as 2013. 

     The calliope today acts mostly as a connection to Walt himself. It inspired him and his daughters in their dream of building a park where families could go together. In disrepair, they bought it and made it something beautiful for Disneyland. And one might say that Walt's vision came to life in his parks. 

     Want to see a fun homage to this very calliope in Disneyland? Check out the second car on the Casey Jr. Train ride next time you're there. It was modeled after this very instrument:

http://gocalifornia.about.com/od/toppicturegallery/ig/Disneyland-Rides-Fantas
yland/Casey-Jr--s-Circus-Train.htm

Thank you so much for reading! Follow and subscribe for more!

-William

So... River Country?

     Here is my obligatory occasional post about Disney mystery and urban exploring that I have very legally taken part in. During my last trip to Walt Disney World, I was on a kick of learning about some abandoned places in the World. One of high intrigue for me was River Country, located over by Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground. I would like to first emphasize that I did not trespass on any property on which I should not have been! Everything I learned and saw was part the resort where guests are welcome to be!
    River Country opened in 1976, five years after Walt Disney World. It was the first water park made by Disney, and was themed as a down home in the south kind of family adventure locale. It used water from Bay Lake to feed the slides and pools, and therefore felt very natural and part of the landscape; cool! Well in 2001, Disney closed the park. There are many theories as to why this is, but the one I believe is that Florida passed a new 'Water Use Ordinance' which required all water for water parks to come from man-made and filtered sources. This kind of ruined the whole idea of River Country. Consequently, Disney closed River Country, and later announced that it would not reopen. The weird part, however, is that Disney did not demolish the park... at all. In fact, the lights at the entrance to the park still light up and look alive each night. Even weirder is the part of River Country that I saw and explored.

     If you head from the boat dock at the Wilderness Lodge toward River Country, you arrive eventually at a BBQ area, surrounded by a green fence. This is clearly a place where guests are welcome, but it is an eerie place. First of all, there is no music playing in the background. Second, I saw no cast members or movement of any kind in any direction from where I stood. I very much got the feeling that Disney didn't want people over there.
     Now there are two ways to experience a little bit of River Country today. First, you can use the restroom! The restrooms still have the faded and creepy "pool rules" posted on the outside of them. You can walk in, look around at the facilities, and I almost guarantee you will not see anyone else there during the day. Second, you can look at River Country. If you exit the restroom and stand on the rock in the garden area, you can get a nice view of what is left of that pool. It is very... apocalyptic and looks like something out of a zombie movie. If you're into that kind of thing, take a look!
     River Country was a big part of my childhood, and it is very surreal to go there today and look at what is left. Posted in "Will's Pics" is a picture that I took from on top of the above-described rock. Do you have any River Country experiences? Tell me about them below!