Matterhorn Moving East?

After the Matterhorn Bobsleds became so popular after its 1959 opening in Disneyland, the head mouse wanted it move East, to the recently opened Walt Disney World Resort, in Orlando, Florida. In early planning for the Magic Kingdom, the Matterhorn was to be placed where Mickey's ToonTown is. It would have been along the train tracks, and possibly cross the berm of the park. Which would have made it part of the Walt Disney World Railroad and also a rollercoaster. As the railroad would have gone through it and created an attraction like the Primeval World Diorama along the Disneyland Railroad, which then turns back to the orginal purpose of the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland. Once aboard the train and in the mountain, a blizzard would have started and you would have traveled through it.

Once EPCOT opened in 1982, people wanted thrills and such in this (what some said) boring park, about learning. Beginning a couple years after the opening of EPCOT rumors started swirling of mountains being built around the world showcase. THe first rumor was shown in pics from the area, a Mount Fuji attraction located in the Japan pavilion, along with that rumor was the one about the Tokyo Disneyland attraction, Meet the World and the simulator bullet train ride through Tokyo Underground. The Mt. Fuji attraction would have been a copy of the Matterhorn Bobsleds, without a Abominable Snowman. THe mount Fuji concept has yet to be dropped, still there are rumors every-so-often that it will be built. But conflicts to find a sponsor are a problem. Also, Kodak, the sponsor of the Imagination pavilion would not be happy to hear that an attraction with Fuji in the name, their rival company, in the same park they are sponsoring an attraction in.

A few years later a rumored and conceptualized pavilion of Switzerland was in development. And it was planned to have a Matterhorn type attraction in the pavilion. The Walt Disney Imagineers looked for Swiss sponsors for the pavilion, but never found one willing enough to sponsor.

Around the mid 1980s along with the rumors swirling of the mountains coming to EPCOT, there was also a rumor and concept of the Matterhorn in the new Disney MGM Studios park. You say to your self, how does a Swiss snowcovered mountain fit into the hollywood backlot theme? Well, it seems that it would have been themed to a movie set with just the back side, towards the road, fully completed. The idea behind this version of the "Matterhorn" was that WDW guests would get a big thrill out of seeing how close their ride vehicle was actually coming to the "mountain"'s support beams. Which would have added to the fun of this Disney-MGM Studios thrill ride.

Years later around the 1990s, the rumors didnt stop. People said that not just one of the mountains would be built, but both. Creating a mountain range in the WOrld Showcase, creating two seperate wienies in the two opposite ends of the World Showcase. Some said they would be visual book ends to the American Adventure pavilion. THen in the late 90s when talks were happening about the new Animal themed park, which would have featured a mystical themed land with mythological creatures, one being the Abominable Snowman. THen once the land was never built rumors started up again for Matterhorn and/or Mt. Fuji attractions in Epcot's World Showcase.

In the mid 1990s, rumors once again started to swirl around the mountain being added to Magic Kingdom, again. But, in a different theme, either in a volcano called Fire Mountain for Adventureland or Dark/ Villians Mountain, in Fantasyland. Those rumors were swirled for a while, but were never as strong as the mountains of Epcot rumors.

Finally, in 2003 the rumors came true, but in a whole new form. During the 2003 Disney's Animal Kingdom 5th Anniversary Press Conference it was confirmed and announced that the Forbidden Mountain was coming to Asia, in Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Pics and Pins of the Matterhorn

Here are some pics and pins our research team found while doing our Pinvestigation on the Matterhorn Bobsleds.

Above: Pre 1978 refurb with large open grotto in the middle of the mountain of disguised pylons and support beams.

Below: Entrance and exit holes for the Skyway ride to and from Tomorrowland and Fantasyland through the caverns of the Matterhorn.

On to the pins, lets start with some of the first Matterhorn Bobsled ones. They are simple and show the mountain as a character and as the main event, not the Abominable Snowman.

These five pins represent the post 1978 refurbishment adding Harold, the Abominable Snowman, guarding the Matterhorn mountain

Harold, the Abominable Snowman, is featured in many pins for the attraction, he really is the mascot of the ride, not the mountain.

The attraction seems to be more a icon for the whole park, because many pins celebrating certain anniversaries for the park or even the resort, the attraction, Matterhorn Bobsleds, in some way, is featured in.

As a part of the 50th anniversary of Disneyland. THe Magical Milestone of 1978 was the addition of the Abominable snowman.

Below: A pin from 2004 showing a retro postcard of Mickey accomplishing the feat of making it to the summit of the Matterhorn

Below: Piglet tries to measure up to the Matterhorn Bobsleds height requirement of 42 inches, but sadly doesnt.

The attraction is so popular pins are even made of its trash can.

With the Matterhorn Bobsleds celebrating 50 years of exploring the mountain, there are bound to be more Matterhorn themed pins. Like this Walt Disney Imagineering pin released on March 13th.

Stay tuned to Global Disney Pinvestigation reports as Matterhorn is trying to move East.

Pinvestigative Reports: Matterhorn Bobsleds

The Matterhorn Bobsleds opened in 1959 as apart of the Tomorrowland redo. This attraction has many firsts, from the first rollercoaster in Disneyland, to first rollercoaster to use tubular steel tracks. But first lets back up several years to the making of one of Walt's Live Action features, the Third Man on the Mountain. Where Walt fell in love with the mantain and the Swiss culture and architecture. So once done, Walt went back to Disneyland and wanted to put it somewhere in the park.

His first design was just a decorative overlay on a skyway pylon. Then it evolved into a ridethrough ice glacier/ cavern for the Skyway attraction, like the Primeval World Diorama is to Disneyland Railroad. Finally evolved into a rollercoaster because Walt wanted something thrilling in his park. It was envisioned to be apart of Tomorrowland's new line up for 1959, as it opened up among five other attractions in Tomorrowland.
Opening on June 14, 1959, this Matterhorn mountain was 1/100th scale size of the real thing in the Alps. With two intertwining rollercoasters and two different entrances in two different lands. One side on Fantasyland and the other on Tomorrowland, so two attractions, in two lands, and still one attraction. When built, small trees were used to create a forced perspective of the mountain to make it look bigger than actually is. In 1971 sometime, the mountain was moved without anyone knowing. On a 1970 guidebook, Matterhorn Bobsleds is shown in Tomorrowland, then in a 1972 guidebook, it was in Fantasyland.

The Matterhorn Bobsleds served inspiration to Walt Disney World about thirty years prior to even conceiving Expedition EVEREST. Matterhorn Bobsleds was the inspiration for Space Mountain, using the steel tubular track and two sides, even though they share similar concepts the layouts for the two rollercoaster mountains are far from the same.

IN 1978, Matterhorn Bobsleds had a major rennovation. THe main purpose was to have a more convincining theme. THe vehicles were changed from one 4 passenger vehicles to two cars of 8 passengers. THis made the attraction have a better CPH (Capacity per hour). Along with changing the vehicles, the mountain got more rockwork inside. Instead of having a giant open grotto in the middle of the mountain, it was transformed into seperate smaller ice caverns to imprive the theme and thrillingness. Also this transformation added a key element of the attraction today, Harold. Who is Harold you ask? Well, Harold is the Abominable Snowman, three audio-anamatronics were added. One were both tracks can see and the two others were placed one on each track, for a second and final encounter.

As with all mountains, the Matterhorn has its fair share of legends and rumors about the mountain. One legend that is true is that the Matterhorn has a half basketball court inside the mountain. It was built to give climbers of the mountain, in the beginning, a break between climbs with Mickey and the gang. The basketball court was recently taken up and closed due to dry rot, now is an empty room. Even though that was the only room inside the mountain, another cast member break room is on the bottom floor of the mountain. Then in the early 1970s, there were rumblings that the Matterhorn was going to be moving East.

Thanks to Wikipedia, Yesterland.com, snopes.com, matterhorn1959.blogspot.com, and pinpics, and Jim Hill Media for the pics and info for this column.

The Snowy Mountains

The Disney pinvestigators set out to investigate the history of the Expedition: EVEREST Legend of the Forbidden Mountain. But then they realized that the history stretches back far before the planning stages for the Legend of the Forbidden Mountain. So, they started out with the Swiss Alps, moving to the Matterhorn Bobsleds...

Coming Soon... Matterhorn vs. Everest

Our Pinvestigative reporters find out really how similar yet different these two mountains of Disney really are... Coming Sunday March 22, 2009.