Photo by Charles R. Lympany, courtesy of Chris Taylor

These days, Disney theme parks rely on popular IP to attract guests — Star Wars, Cars, Frozen, and Avatar, to name a few.

Yesterland has the hottest IP of all — at least if the year is 1954 or 1955. Walt Disney made five television episodes about Davy Crockett (1786 – 1836), the celebrated frontiersman, storyteller, congressman, soldier, and folk hero. The mini-series propelled unknown actor Fess Parker to stardom. It seems that every child in America wanted a “coonskin cap” because of this “Crockett craze.”

Whether you saw the original broadcasts of the Davy Crockett eposodes in black-and-white on the Disneyland television series (ABC) in 1954 and 1955, or Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (1956) (stitched together from two episodes, “Davy Crockett’s Keelboat Race” and “Davy Crockett and the River Pirates”) in glorious color at your local movie theater, or later re-broadcasts on Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color (NBC), you’ll remember that Davy Crockett and Mike Fink raced their keelboats down the river to New Orleans.

Photo by Charles R. Lympany, courtesy of Chris Taylor

Mike Fink’s boat, the Gullywhumper

Davy Crockett won the race, but Mike Fink has the honor of having his name on this attraction.

Take a seat on the Gullywhumper, the legendary keel boat of Mike Fink, King of the River. You can recognize the Gullywhumper by its simple, barn-door-like shutters.

Photo by Charles R. Lympany, courtesy of Chris Taylor

Davy Crockett’s boat, the Bertha Mae

If you’re partial to Davy Crockett, you might prefer a seat on the Bertha Mae, the legendary keel boat of the King of the Wild Frontier. With louvered and decorated shutters, the Bertha Mae is fancier than the Gullywhumper.

Photos by Allen Huffman, 1997

Keel Boat Landing in its final years

Photos by Allen Huffman, 1997

Gullywhumper in its final years

Photos by Allen Huffman, 1997

Navigating around Tom Sawyer Island

Photos by Allen Huffman, 1997

Inside seating, although most guests prefer to sit on top

Photos by Allen Huffman, 1997

Live narration from your captain

Your captain won’t be Davy Crockett or Mike Fink, but your captain will be skilled at steering your boat — which is not on track or rail — and will treat you to witty narration and ad libs, much like that of the Jungle Cruise skippers:

“This here’s the Gullywhumper. That’s right, the Gullywhumper. This here’s the exact same keelboat that old Mike Fink used to race Davy Crockett up and down the wild Ohio River. But we ain’t doin’ no racin’ today, so kick off your feet, put up your shoes, and we’ll spend the next three hours together explorin’ the Rivers of America.”

Mike Fink Keel Boats premiered in Disneyland on December 25, 1955 — the park’s first Christmas. Over the years, the attraction usually operated on a seasonal basis, primarily during the summer, but sometimes also on busy weekends.

The original boats were the actual ones used in the filming of the Davy Crockett episodes, refurbished with windows and bench seats for park guests. Around a year after the attraction opened, these boats were replaced by purpose-built ones with fiberglass hulls. The newer, longer Gullywhumper had three windows on each side, instead of two. You can see both versions in the photos at the beginning of this article.

The second set of boats may have been replaced by a third set. New boats were built for the 1971 opening of Magic Kingdom Park. By some accounts, there was a replacement set built for Disneyland at the same time, but this was never publicly announced by Disney.

Copyright 1964 Walt Disney Productions

Keel Boats on the 1964 Disneyland Souvenir Map by Sam McKim

When it came to tickets, the Mike Fink Keel Boats ride was usually a bargain compared to the other vessels of the Rivers of America. For example, in 1972, Disneyland guests had the opportunity to circle Tom Sawyer Island for a mere “C” ticket on the Mike Fink Keel Boats. In comparison, the Columbia Sailing Ship, the Mark Twain Steamboat, and Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes all required a “D” ticket.

In 1994, at the end of the summer, the Mike Fink Keel Boats closed for the season. All through 1995, the Keel Boats never reopened. Had they closed forever? No! The Keel Boats reappeared on the Rivers of America at the end of March 1996.

Then came… The Accident. At around 5:30 p.m. on May 17, 1997, the top-heavy Gullywhumper began rocking from side to side while on a routine trip around the island. The Gullywhumper tipped over, dunking a boatload of guests into the Rivers of America. Several guests were treated for minor injuries at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange. Following the accident, the Gullywhumper was removed from the water for inspection.

Neither the Gullywhumper nor Bertha Mae operated for the rest of the 1997 season — or ever again.

Photo by Werner Weiss, 1983

The Gullywhumper at the Magic Kingdom Park in Florida

The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World had its own Mike Fink Keel Boats. Circling the Rivers of America from a dock at Liberty Square (and later from a dock in Frontierland), the two boats had the same names as their Disneyland counterparts. Originally launched when the park opened on October 1, 1971, the seasonal attraction closed April 29, 2001.

Photo by Chris Bales, 2017

The Coyote docked at Disneyland Paris

When Disneyland Paris (originally Euro Disneyland) opened in 1992, the park had its own keel boat ride, River Rogue Keelboats, with two boats, the Raccoon and the Coyote.

The Paris version closed in 2000. In 2007, after a seven year absence, River Rogue Keelboats returned to service. It was once again a seasonal attraction — but guests seldom found it operating, even on busy days. At some point, the attraction disappeared from the Disneyland Paris website’s “full list of open and closed attractions.” The Raccoon and the Coyote could be pressed back into service if they’re needed, but that seems quite unlikely.

Photo by Karen Weiss, 2004

Disneyland’s Gullywhumper serving as a prop

Back at Disneyland in Spring 2003, the Gullywhumper returned to Rivers of America — not to transport guests, but just as a prop. The Gullywhumper was moored at Tom Sawyer Island, providing another thing to see from the Mark Twain, Columbia and Canoes. Despite efforts to make the boat look like a historic artifact, it was obvious that it was a defunct ride boat.

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2007

Disneyland’s Gullywhumper suffering from neglect

As the years passed, the condition of the Gullywhumper deteriorated. It was supposed to add life to the Rivers of America, but the boat looked rather dead.

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2015

The new Gullywhumper, looking like an actual keel boat

As part of the 2010 refurbishment of Disneyland’s Rivers of America, the cabin that was once the Burning Settler’s Cabin became Mike Fink’s Cabin. His boat, the Gullywhumper, was nearby, looking like a real 19th century keelboat. Without windows or seats, it closely resembled the boat of the same name in the Davy Crockett episodes of 1955.

While the Gullywhumper stayed at Disneyland, the Bertha Mae had an entirely different fate.

Four stills from Finding Kraftland, courtesy of Richard Kraft

Richard Kraft showing off the Bertha Mae in the film Finding Kraftland

The Bertha Mae showed up on eBay’s Disney Auctions site in December 2001. Disneyland pocketed $15 thousand, and a mysterious collector wound up owning half of the two-boat fleet of the Mike Fink Keel Boats. Who could it be? And what happened to the boat?

The answer was in Finding Kraftland, a father-son bonding documentary originally made for a single birthday party showing, but that went on to become a surprise hit on the film festival circuit of 2007 and 2008. It turned out the buyer of the Bertha Mae was Richard Kraft, the father in the film. Kraft runs a talent agency that represents a who’s who of great film and theatre composers.

Here’s an excerpt from an interview originally published by MiceAge/MiceChat in August 2007:

WEISS: The Bertha Mae, one of the actual keelboats from Disneyland’s Mike Fink Keel Boats ride, appeared on eBay’s Disney Auctions site in December 2001. The description said that the boat “is not actually a seaworthy craft. It is suitable for display and/or storage on solid ground only…” Someone paid $15 thousand. Now that I’ve seen Finding Kraftland, I finally know who bought the Bertha Mae!

KRAFT: I never went on the Keel Boats when they were in Disneyland. They looked like such a snooze. I was certainly not going to waste a ticket going on one. Then the Bertha Mae came up for auction. I felt possessed. I had always loved your website, Yesterland. I loved the idea of a cyber-space where all of the attractions of the past lived on. Owning a keelboat would be like really visiting Yesterland. So for quite a bit more than the cost of a “C” ticket, I can now visit Disneyland of the Past whenever I want.

WEISS: Currently, you have the Bertha Mae in storage, but your plans are to build a lagoon for the Bertha Mae on your property. How is that project proceeding? How will you make sure the Bertha Mae is seaworthy? How do you plan to use the Bertha Mae? As a floating work of art? Or perhaps as a floating outdoor dining room?

KRAFT: The original plan was to crane it over our house and build a lagoon in our backyard. I envisioned a picnic area with the keelboat as the centerpiece, sort of like the Chicken of the Sea Ship in Fantasyland. After a few meetings with various engineers and my business manager, reality kicked in. So it has lived in storage ever since.

Instead of ever floating in a shallow backyard lagoon, the Bertha Mae continued to languish in deep storage at Dunkel Bros. off “The 5 Freeway” in La Mirada, California, where it had been since Kraft took possession after his successful bid. Wrapped in plastic and stored indoors, it was still in the same condition as when Kraft bought it in 2010.

After paying for storage year after year, Kraft included the Bertha Mae in his huge 2018 “That’s From Disneyland!” auction with Van Eaton Galleries. It sold to an undisclosed buyer at an undisclosed price.

Once again, who could the buyer be? And, once again, the answer came from a video. In this case, it was a YouTube video posted in 2020: “Disneyland’s Lost Riverboat FOUND!” on the JustinScarred (Randomland) channel.

The Bertha Mae is now in the 120,000-square-foot design and manufacturing plant of Garner Holt Productions, Inc. in Redlands, California. The plant is not open to the public. By the company’s own claim, Garner Holt produces “the world’s finest animatronics, special effects, show action systems, and more.” Considering that Garner Holt creates animatronics and other attraction elements for many of the world’s best theme parks (including Disney parks), that’s a valid claim. The Bertha Mae has a role in Garner Holt’s Education Through Imagination program to inspire childen.

The “Crockett craze” was 70 years ago, but a product of that craze can still help to inspire a new generation of children.

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Updated October 11, 2024