Mine Train at Yesterland

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Werner Weiss

Mine Train through Nature’s Wonderland

“Howdy, folks! Welcome to the little mining town of Rainbow Ridge: the gateway to Nature’s Wonderland. As we head for the wilderness, a couple of suggestions: please stay seated at all times, and keep yer hands and arms inside the train. The animals get mighty hungry. And, uh, no smokin’ please, ’cause we don’t want to start a forest fire.”

“Them other two falls they call the twin sisters—I reckon that’s cause they’re always babblin’.”

“We’re comin’ into Bear Country now, folks, and, while we’re crossin’ the old trestle, ya gotta sit real still. No tellin’ how long she’s gonna last.”

“Ya know, bears are one of the most playful animals there is. Lazy, too. All they want to do is lay around and scratch and fish and swim... that is when they ain’t sleepin’.”

“Now ahead of us, folks, is a giant saguaro cactus forest. The desert heat sometimes gets to ya and makes these here cactus take on strange shapes, like animals and sometimes even people.”

“Aha! Look down there on yer left. Them wild pigs has caught up with ol’ Mister Bobcat. He’s in kind of a sticky situation!”

“This is geyser country, too. Uh-oh, there she blows! Sure glad ya all brought yer raincoats. But look out, now! We never know when she’s gonna go off. That’s why we call her Ol’ Unfaithful.”

Welcome to a great attraction in the tradition of the Jungle Cruise—only this time it’s the environment and animals of North American wilderness areas instead of those of the world’s jungles.

Inspired by Disney’s True-Life Adventure nature movies of the 1950’s, Nature’s Wonderland is home to two-hundred lifelike, animated mammals, reptiles, and birds. As your train travels through Bear Country, Beaver Valley, the Living Desert, and Rainbow Caverns, you see:

Mighty waterfalls cascading off Cascade Peak
Industrious beavers building a dam
Brown bears swimming and resting—and even one scratching his back on a tree
Saguaro cacti that look strangely human
Balancing rocks that may just lose their balance as your train car passes by
Devil’s Paint Pots—bubbling pots of mud in all kinds of colors
Old Unfaithful Geyser shooting water high into the desert air
Colorful, glowing waterfalls inside Rainbow Caverns.

Here’s a secret that not many people know. If you board the Mine Train around 8:50 p.m., the train will stop on a hillside above the Living Desert. You’ll be treated to the best view of the fireworks anywhere in the park. Each pyrotechnic burst in the sky illuminates the otherwise almost-dark Living Desert. No crowds. And no noise, except for sound effects from the Living Desert and the explosions in the sky.

The Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland opened in Disneyland in 1960 as an expansion of the Rainbow Caverns Mine Train (1956). The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad thrill ride replaced the Mine Train in 1979.

But not all is gone. The buildings from the little town of Rainbow Ridge stills grace the hills above the waiting area. And as you walk long the trail across from Big Thunder Mountain Railroad towards Fantasyland, you’re walking through what’s left of Beaver Valley.

Until the end of Summer 1998, the waterfalls of Cascade Peak continued to roar into the Rivers of America. Cascade Peak is now completely gone. Years of water damage had taken their toll on the man-made peak’s structural integrity. The problem was solved with a bulldozer.

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Updated May 9, 2007.

Photograph of train in Rainbow Ridge: 1974 by Werner Weiss
Photograph of train and waterfalls: 1969 by Werner Weiss
Photograph of bear with fish: 1975 by Dennis Caswell
Photograph of lazy bears: 1975 by Dennis Caswell
Photograph of cacti: 1975 by Dennis Caswell
Photograph of Mister Bobcat: 1975 by Dennis Caswell
Photograph of geyser: 1966 by Werner Weiss
Excerpts from Mine Train narration based on transcript by Dennis Caswell.