Tag: Thunder Mountain

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – A Hidden Backstory

by Guide4WDW

by: guide4wdw – Collin

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – A Hidden Backstory 

When it comes to attraction stories, there are very few as versed and intricate as the backstory of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. While the physical history of the attraction isn’t all that long or all that short, the backstory of both the attraction’s creation and it’s physical build is one that gets largely overlooked by a vast majority of guests. Big Thunder Mountain is undoubtedly a true guest favorite attraction and it truly is one of the staples and landmarks of any day in the Magic Kingdom. However, many guests miss out on what’s hiding in plain sight. 

According to Thunder Mountain lore, largely spun by the incredible folks over at Imagineering, Barnabas T. Bullion runs Big Thunder Mining Company. The man himself is obsessed with prospecting gold and believes that it’s his inherent goal in life (as a result of his name) to find a large sum of gold. Thunder Mountain and the gold it holds within is known by locals to destine anyone to failure who attempts to mine the riches within the mountain. However, despite massive failure time and time again, the Big Thunder Mining Co. continues to operate and attempt to harvest the gold within despite massive tragedies and unnatural occurrences. 

 Diving a bit deeper into the story, I man by the name of Jason Chandler lived in the vicinity of Big Thunder Mountain, and created an elaborate drilling machine. One day, when a random cave-in occurred during a mining operation on the mountain, Chandler came to the rescue with his machine saving the lives of miners buried deep within the mining operation. Unfortunately, as the rescue effort drew to a close, and was largely successful, a freak incident proceeded to bury Chandler deep beneath the surface. Surprisingly, Chandler survived the incident and lived on to tell the tale despite never returning to the mine. Instead, Jason decided to move his contraption to a new location in search of a better life and scientific discovery. 


In real life, Jason Chandler’s story, developed by Imagineering, was designed to be carried out in a land called Discovery Bay which was never unveiled to guests at any Disney Park in full scale. The land’s concept was essentially scrapped. However, this simple story adds an element to the Big Thunder Mountain experience that many guests entirely overlook. The unique part about this story is that it is continually progressing as time goes on and establishes a connection to The Society of Explorers and Adventurers at Walt Disney World. 

For those of you who may not know, the Society developed in the rather early days of Walt Disney World, but has been re-emerging in a rather strange and hidden way over the last 5+ years. Personally, I see it as a developing concept the could revolutionize the backstory of not only Disney attractions, but potentially lead to an unexpected surprise in the Disney company in the coming years. But, with that being said, I devoted an entire article to that thought a while back which you can check out in depth – Could The Adventurers Club be Returning in an Entirely New Way?

In the more realistic aspect of the Disney parks, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad has a backstory of how it came to be that is often entirely overlooked as well. Beyond the typical lore of Disney backstories Thunder Mountain has a hidden history embedded in it’s construction and conceptual renderings that vastly out paces the thought process that goes into many attractions today. 


The idea originally developed in a round about way as the large scale plans for Thundermesa were essentially shelved indefinitely when financial problems presented themselves in the conceptual phases of the project. The original Thundermesa concept was developed by none other than the legendary Marc Davis. Building on those early concepts, years later, Tony Baxter brought an iteration of Davis’ original ideas to life in the form of Big Thunder Mountain. While the concept wasn’t entirely similar, and a much more scaled down iteration of the project, it allowed a small part of the Thundermesa project to debut for guest enjoyment. To me, it’s a fitting representation of a culmination of efforts and the results and guest satisfaction truly speaks for itself. Thunder Mountain Railroad has truly stood the test of time, and while the story behind the attraction has varied slightly over the years and iterations of the attraction, it’s interesting to note how prominent this attraction truly is and the legendary status it has grown to encompass.    

Your Thoughts
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The Story of Being Chosen as "First Riders" at Magic Kingdom

by Guide4WDW

The Story of Being Chosen as “First Riders” 

by: guide4wdw – Collin
twitter: @guide4disney 

instagram: @guide4disney

Every once in a while a simple day in the parks turns into something that you’ll never forget. Sometimes it’s the simplest details that make the biggest difference, but other times it’s the unexpected that truly creates a lasting impression. On one particular occasion, a moment extraordinarily surprising created a memory for my family that will last forever.

Quite a few years ago, long before fastpass+ and online booking systems, we entered the Magic Kingdom on an early entry day and planned on riding as much as we could before the crowds filled in for the morning. The day started out great and we got to experience a variety of attractions with virtually no wait. However, as many of you may know, not all of the attractions open for early entry. On this particular day, Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain didn’t open until the park officially opened for non-resort guests. So, since we had finished about all we wanted to accomplish of the attractions that were already open, we went on around to the back side of Fantasyland that leads into Liberty Square in order to wait for that portion of the park to open (when the main park opens, a rope blocking off the area is removed and the rest of the area is opened for the day). Thankfully, we were near the front of the pack and were happy that we may be able to walk on to both Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. Little did we know, minutes later we would be finished riding both attractions and one of them twice!

As the rope was removed and the crowds slowly made their way over to the two main attractions, cast members led the way to help manage the crowds (as they usually do). Unfortunately, a few rowdy guests decided to charge ahead and ignore the patient requests of the cast members. After all, they can only do so much with a crowd of people trailing behind them. However, that’s when things made an interesting change.

The cast member directly in front of us turned around and quietly whispered, “Would you like to be the first riders?” At first, we didn’t really understand, but we went along with it anyway and the cast member (who’s name I wish I could remember) simply said, “follow me”. So, we went ahead and followed along and off we went to the attraction. Once we got to Thunder Mountain, after leaving most of the crowd behind due to the fast pace at which we were ushered along, she proceeded to lead us through the exit onto the attraction. Once we got there, in a state of confusion, the other cast members pointed to an empty train and said pick your favorite row. We headed to the last row and off we went as the only people aboard the train.

To be completely honest, it was a strange experience to be on the attraction all by yourself. As you travel around the tracks you hear things and experience things that you don’t always pick up on when there’s a train full of excited guests. It was undoubtedly a unique experience.

As we arrived back at the station we were met with an array of expressions as the train pulled in and guests lined the queue. Half were confused, the other half were irritated and they all asked the same question, “how did they get here before us?”

As we went to disembark, the same cast member came over and told us not to get up. She simply closed the lap bar and off we went again, this time with a train full of passengers. After that second ride, we expected the exciting morning to be complete, but the same friendly face was waiting for us when we returned to the station. This time, all she asked was if we liked Splash Mountain.

As you can imagine, we said “yes”, and she pointed to a guy at the end of the exit and said follow him. So, off we went and to our surprise the same process played out over at Splash Mountain. When we finished up there, they basically wished us a great rest of the day in the park and as you can imagine our day was made.

It was an incredible experience to say the least! We never thought it could happen, never expected it to happen, and now it’s one of our many wonderful memories of Walt Disney World. It’s something we’ll absolutely never forget. Now, I’ve been to Disney probably hundreds of times, and I’ve only seen or experienced this happening once and to be honest, I don’t see it happening again any time soon. However, it was just one of those things that you’ll only ever experience at Disney. No other theme park would go out of their way to make a guest feel so special, no matter how simple the experience they provided may be.

Disney may not get everything right, but the guest experience and the unexpected events that have become synonymous with Disney are something that will hopefully never change. To be honest, I don’t know if this happens every day, once a year, or we just happened to be in the right place at the right time for a memory of a lifetime, but always expect the unexpected from Walt Disney World. It’s hard not to think that’s what Walt Disney wanted every single guest to experience at some point throughout there time in a place only he could have imagined.

Thanks for reading! Do you have a story like this or an experience that truly surprised you in the Disney Parks? Let us know about it down below in our newly redesigned comments page. Hopefully it’s easier for everyone to comment and interact with the new system.