The Hidden Mickey Book Fan Club BLOG! - v007

The OFFICIAL HIDDEN MICKEY FAN CLUB!

Disneyland's Rivers of America!
By David W. Smith

Hello again Hidden Mickey Fans!

I wanted to share some subtle secrets about Disneyland that many may not be aware of. Today's newsletter focuses again on the Rivers of America, but unlike Volume 003 where I talked about the Mike Fink Keel Boats, today we are getting down low on the river'actually slightly below water line!

No, I'm not talking about the Submarine Voyage! (Finding Nemo for those who are more up on current attractions at Disneyland!) I'm talking about the Davy Crocket Explorer Canoes! (The only ride in the park that you actually have to 'Work' to enjoy the attraction!)

When you are in the canoes, (at nearly 20 feet long, they could be considered small yachts!), your feet actually sit several inches below the water line! The rails of the canoes lie about six inches above the water and the seats just a couple inches below the rails'giving guests the feeling that they really are 'part of the river'!

I worked canoes for five years. After my first two years, I was also trained on Pirates of the Caribbean and later the Keel Boats. My final year in 1984, I rehired into the park, (after retiring in 1983'the day my canoe team won the men's division at the 25th Annual Canoe Races), and drove the Monorail. But, I would still work the canoes some weeks, a nice break from the other rides I was trained on. The canoes were the only ride you could really get a great workout on!

With 18 guests and two guides, the canoes would weigh about four and a half tons! Using a 5 ' foot paddle, the two guides were often the main source of propulsion when guests were either too lazy or too uncoordinated to contribute any measurable help. However, on rare occasions, we would be blessed with a crew of athletes who could almost make the canoe hydroplane across the river! Such events were often observed by hundreds of guests lining the seawall in front of Pirates or Mansion, standing in awe of the streaking canoe moving faster than anything on the river by at least an exponent of three!

Summers were always full of splashing guests. As ride operators, we usually didn't mind much if it was really a hot day. However, when we were not in the mood to get wet, the front guide would often stand up and remind the guests that the ducks around the river all pooped in the river. That usually ended the deluge! However, the river in all honesty, wasn't that dirty. The green color in the river is there for effect and disguise: if it were not colored green, the track for the Mark Twain and Columbia would be visible! The river is only about 10 feet deep at the middle.

Like the other river vessels, (the Rafts and the Keel boats), the canoes are not on a track but steered by the rear guide who uses his (or her; now that they don't discriminate between sexes on the ride!), 5 ' foot paddle like a rudder against the side of the canoe.

Experienced canoe guides could not only steer the canoes with precision around the river, (which is why the canoe race winners are almost always current or former canoe ride operators), but many of us could perform tricks with our paddles including twirling it over our heads as we switch sides of the canoe and smack the water with the blade in a perfect pattern to send a stream of water twenty feet at people along the banks of Tom Sawyer's Island.

Working the canoes was often the coolest ride to work, I have to admit. Wearing comfortable moccasins, loose fitting shirts, (for all those bulging muscles we were building up from paddling eight hours a day!), and simulated leather pants with fringe helps give the canoe ride operators a western look'a far different look than the typical 'polyester' look that many of the other ride costumes had back in the 70's and 80's.

Working the canoes was akin to being a rock star in some ways, at Disneyland. The canoes were very visible on the river going around the populated parts of Frontierland and New Orleans Square, and with many of the guides being muscular, especially in the arms; it wasn't uncommon to have 'groupies' hanging out at the canoe dock as the ride operators got off when the ride closed at dusk. I won't go into the many 'escapades' that many ride operators were reported to have experienced, however, there was a saying: 'If you couldn't get a date working at Disneyland, you couldn't get a date'period.'

Well... that's it for this issue...
Enjoy, and have a Magical Hidden Mickey Day!
 

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