In June of 1956, Walt and his wife, Lilly, were driving around Colorado Springs when Walt saw a sign to the side of the road that read, “Petrified Trees For Sale.” Walt parked the car and, after assuring Lilly he wouldn’t be long, walked to a farmhouse near the sign and met the owner. They walked around the property, looking at the different pieces of petrified wood until finally Walt found the one that caught his eye. After making the arrangements to have it sent to his home, he returned to his car to a seething Lilly. He had left her in the car for an hour. But, light on his feet, Walt said, “Lilly, I just bought you a wonderful anniversary present - a petrified tree!” The tree, which weighed approximately five tons, arrived at their house for their 35th wedding anniversary on July 13th, where it spent nearly a year in Lilly’s garden before being put on display in Frontierland (which is where Walt wanted it all along.)
Walt Disney (center) showing Orange County officials plans for Disneyland's layout, December 1954. Check the link for a look back at this blog's tribute posts -
Disney History Walt Disney Disney Legends Happy Anniversary to the Happiest Place on Earth! Look how beautiful Independence Hall looks with a freshened paint job! Not quite sure what's going on at KBF and the new management team....namely Knott's latest round of strange budget cuts. Knott’s Berry Farm has cut over 5,000 man hours and that’s just in the foods division. Other odd cuts are no aluminum foil wrapped baked potatoes, no ribs from Fireman’s and rumor has it, Fireman’s is also losing chicken. The new $50 parking lot is open and the park is still not accepting cash… And Knott's has increased the price of a slice and a whole pie. September 2022, the same slice was $4.50 and a whole pie was $18. NOW a slice is $7.25 and a whole pie is $22! That's a HUGE increase! Old Betsy Is back after a freshening up too!!! The Fiesta Village makeover is looking GREAT!!! Lots of new walls up around Camp Snoopy.
Its unclear what will be replacing the Camp Bus or Timberline Twister. Both rides have been removed from the website, as well as the park map on the Knott’s app. Did you know that when they were designing and building the Jungle Cruise, Walt wanted to have real live animals to be a part of the attraction? He decided against it, however, when his imagineers told him that most of the animals would be asleep during Disneyland’s operating hours. That's why they ended up using animatronics
One day, while riding the attraction, Walt noticed that all the gears and inner workings of the ride and many of the animatronics were visible in the water, which is why the river was purposefully made to be a murky color, in order to create the illusion of real animals in a jungle river. Even the smallest details didn’t escape Walt’s notice. |
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