Fun Facts about SDC:
-When Herman the Hermit's Tree Top House originally opened, guests could exit by walking down a flight of stairs, or by sliding down a huge slide!
-When Jim Owen's Float Trip Ride was dismantled to make way for the American Plunge, the lift used to stop and release boats for loading was moved over to the Flooded Mine and used there!
-Grandfather's Mansion originally was a much smaller "gravity house" attraction called Slantin' Sam the Miner Shack! (The basement playroom of Grandfather's Mansion is the original room left over from Slantin' Sam's.)
-In the winter prior to Silver Dollar City's opening, Pete Herschend arrived on the construction site early on a cold morning in February, started a wood heat fire in a stove, left the building for a short while to eat breakfast, and the mill, print shop and photo gallery were accidentally burned down! (They were rebuilt in time for the grand opening in May, 1960.)
-Portions of American Plunge, Wildfire, and Powder Keg footprints cover the majority of the trails used for the Butterfield Stagecoach Ride!
-The Oak Trail Schoolhouse used to be located where the furniture factory is!
-The Apple Butter Cabin was originally built on the town square for a fall crafts festival showcase, packed with furniture and arts and crafts made by SDC craftsmen! The cabin and contents were offered for sale, but there were no takers, so the cabin was moved to it's present location, and has been used for various shops since.
-The original entrance to the park...when it was known as Marvel Cave Park...was in the vicinity of where the Grand Exposition is now! The small nursing cabin adjacent to Red/Gold Hall is what is left of an old cabin dating back to when the Lynch Sister ran the cave, I believe it was rented out for overnight lodging for guests, and later, it was once lived in by Shad Heller and his wife. Later the cabin was used as a security office before being seriously remodeled into the nursing station it is now.
-In 1960 the entire SDC staff consisted of 17 people!
-When Mary Herschend went to People's Bank of Branson for a loan to build SDC, she surprised the bank president by paying off the loan in full at the end of the year!
More fun facts to come at a later time. In the meantime, add your own, if you know some! :)
Junior, you are a wealth of interesting facts! I remember the apple butter barn shop being on the square!
The sign on the nursing cabin identifies it as a replica or Shad's cabin. The stones in the fireplace are from his original place which was nearby (I believe on Indian Point).
Yes, there was a time when Shad and his wife apparently lived in a cabin on the park in that location. I'm told by a 30 plus year veteran of the park that the nursing station is a completely remodeled "Shad's." Now, Shad and his wife DID later live in a home, perhaps a cabin, on Indian Point. I know it had a big fireplace, and it is possible the stones at the nursing station could have been pulled from his old house. If the nursing station is not what is left of the old "Shad's," I have been misinformed by the fellow who has worked on park for so long. He's a personal buddy from my old days there.
The actual building doesn't appear to be that old. All I know is what I've read on the sign that's on the wall there.
Wow! I know he is a legend from back in the day, but I had no idea he actually lived on park! How cool is that!
Here's a couple maybe a few people don't know about.
When Old Time Christmas first started out, it was very small. SDC was just testing the idea of being open this late in the year. Most of the park was closed off, the square and a few shops past it were as far as you could go. The carousel was brought up to the gazebo area and was decorated with garland. There was also a machine that produced fake snow, and people could go on a small sled ride. Carolers traveled around the square singing Christmas songs. The living nativity was small, and located behind the Wilderness Church, everyone sat on bales of hay.
As the years passed, more lights were added, no colored lights, just clear.
In the 80's and 90's, round glass dated ornaments were produced each year, depicting the theme for that Christmas season.
The first tree on the square was (i believe) the one that is now located in front of Granfathers Mansion, and had large wooded packages at the base.
The "singing tree" was added in the mid 90's, but not the one we see now. Each night at the tree lighting ceremony, everyone lit candles and circled the tree.
For only one year, the Flooded Mine was transformed into a Candy Mine.
Hey Junior- Seems like I remember way back when the tree house was up and running that you walked through an area that made you feel like you were walking in space. Pitch black with "stars" everywhere. What become of that?
History Buff...you very well could be right about the nursing station, the info I put in my "facts" at the top of the thread was based on what my buddy told me, that's all I know, too.
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The dark room with "stars" in it at the tree house was called "the infinity room" and a tape loop of weird, '60's era electronic "space" noises, (mostly blips and bleeps, and so on) was played as people walked through the room. It really was a room that had small glass mirrors stuck on the walls, ceiling and floor. Strings of miniature white Christmas lights were strung from the ceiling, and guests walked through a wire enclosed walkway to the exit. With the work lights turned off, it appeared as if you were "floating" through space. It was pretty cool. When I played Junior Dugan, one of the duties I had was sweeping out the mansion and tree house prior to rope drop, and picking up trash like old drink cups and so on. I was in both the mansion and the tree house many times when maintenance men had all the work lights on as they repaired things, and I can tell you, the "magic" of both attractions was completely blown for me when I saw these places in a different way the guests did. I guess it was kind of like knowing how a magician does a trick...it takes the fun out of it! Anyway, the old infinity room was torn down a few years ago, and I don't know why. I guess it was worn out and was easier to demolish it then maintain it anymore. You would have to ask a park insider why that was done.
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By the way, thanks for the info on the Christmas celebration and how it developed. I remember attending many years ago when only the town square was open. Really, compared to what happens today, it had very humble beginnings. I remember going a few years later and the rest of the park being opened. However, not nearly the lights as are on park now. I thought it was nice then, but in the last few years the "WOW Factor" is much higher. I love what they are doing now with the festival.
Always remember, my specialty knowledge of the park spans only a tiny bit of the 50 year history of the park, primarily the 1970s through mid 1980s. The period of about 1985 to 2000 is where I know very little of what happened at the park. I was too busy during that period to visit, ya know, starting a career, family, and so on. So that period of time is my "dark ages" when it comes to knowledge of what was going on at the park.
Quote from: DollarCityBoy on December 04, 2013, 11:50:31 AM
Here's a couple maybe a few people don't know about.
When Old Time Christmas first started out, it was very small. SDC was just testing the idea of being open this late in the year. Most of the park was closed off, the square and a few shops past it were as far as you could go. The carousel was brought up to the gazebo area and was decorated with garland. There was also a machine that produced fake snow, and people could go on a small sled ride. Carolers traveled around the square singing Christmas songs. The living nativity was small, and located behind the Wilderness Church, everyone sat on bales of hay.
As the years passed, more lights were added, no colored lights, just clear.
In the 80's and 90's, round glass dated ornaments were produced each year, depicting the theme for that Christmas season.
The first tree on the square was (i believe) the one that is now located in front of Granfathers Mansion, and had large wooded packages at the base.
The "singing tree" was added in the mid 90's, but not the one we see now. Each night at the tree lighting ceremony, everyone lit candles and circled the tree.
For only one year, the Flooded Mine was transformed into a Candy Mine.
I remember attending the first year of the Christmas celebration. If i recall correctly.
Admission price was $5.00. You might have had to bring a coke can to get that price
Campfires were set up outside the HH house where you could Buy Chile and Stew in A bread bowl cooked in cast iron Kettles.
The Wassill was Actually homemade I think and was much better than the version served now.
I'm sure Junior will remember this one but in the mid-late 70s when the Plunge was the Float Trip and the journey was reversed and the "cave" was the last thing you went through they had "Haunted Mansion"- like effects where 2 pictures of gentlemen with dueling style pistols would come out of their pictures and fire at each other! Pretty cool.
The first attraction I worked at in 1979 was...the float trip! Duelist is right, the channel water flow was opposite what it is with the plunge. When you rode the float trip you got into a big aluminum jon boat, and floated "the mighty James River," and, as us float trip "river rats" would tell you at the time, our version of the James River "is the 8th wonder of the world! It was the only river that ran in a complete circle!" While floating along, you and your float party passed Turtle Falls, saw a sunken boat in the channel, passed Echo Rock (if you shouted out, it would echo back at you.) and passed under the world's smallest natural bridge (sill viewable if you are in the line waiting for Wildfire) and then the outhouse on a bluff would almost slide off right on top of you, then, you saw pigs slurping moonshine from a still, passed by the River Gang tree house and swimmin' hole, then past a river rats camp on the bank, and went by the animal haven where little critters like goats, prairie dogs, or donkeys would be kept, then, past the whirlpool that almost sucked in your boat (still pass by that when you come out of the tunnel at the plunge) and then into the cave...it was a different cave than is there now, the one there now replaced the old one because it was worn out. Inside the cave there were little scenes you would pass by, a big barrel dump washed an ocean of water down on your boat, and there was a scene where there were "ghosts" dancing in a hideaway dance hall/saloon. (Duelist may have a better memory than me, my guess is that is the area where he saw a shoot out scene...they changed that scene out every few years, I personally don't remember the shoot out thing.) As your boat left the cave you traveled down a narrow channel with several geysers shooting up and around your boat, they somehow quit just as your boat came along so you didn't get wet (unless it malfunctioned, as it DID from time to time) and passed under the bridge the stagecoach traveled on (now a bridge you cross to get in line for the plunge or Wildfire) then your journey came to an end as you came back into the loading dock.
Wow Junior, what a recollection! And you said I had a better memory than you ;D Yes that would have been the place I saw the "dueling ghosts". You think someone called Duelist would forget that? LOL
I barely remember that! I wish they put some of that back - maybe in a refurbished American Plunge or a new Float Trip! Yup, I think a new float trip would be best!
If they could make room for a new float trip...it could be fantastic. I still like the idea someone came up with here at sdcfans.com about re-theming a float trip "the creature on the creek" and give it a "bigfoot" theme.
With early float trips being such an important part of the Branson area history, they should definitely do something to represent it.
However, the float trip concept is already being portrayed with River Blast. It would be nice to "reimagine" American Plunge and more completely theme it to early logging.
It looks like the sign indicates that Shad's original cabin was "a few feet from this very spot".
(http://www.weebly.com/uploads/6/0/7/6/6076564/9253925.jpg)
(http://www.weebly.com/uploads/6/0/7/6/6076564/1578135.jpg)
Thanks for clarifying the issue. That clears things up! :)
I'll be sure to look for that next time I'm at the City.
Yep, for any citizen of the city the "Shad Cabin" was very well known as the place that he and Molly lived for a short time. Junior is right about it turning into many different facilities. Back when I worked there, it was the Security checkpoint for employees (with the parking lot being the actual Grand Exposition) and also a cash control drop off area for those employees leaving at the end of the day.
A few more fun facts about SDC:
-The lower portion of Hill Street, from the Powderkeg/FITH area back up to where the rest rooms are under the woodcarving shop, are all a part of the old stagecoach pathways.
-Did you know that the tower at the Lumbercamp entrance originally had a platform where musicians performed for people in the dining area and standing in line for the saloon?
-For much of the 1980 season, two Hollywood stunt men performed little skits around the city, jumping from the windmill on Main Street, jumping off the roof of the diving bell into a boat on Lake Silver, and going across from the saloon balcony to the lumbercamp on a cable slide. They were a bit too rowdy for Midwestern tastes, and after one of them had an unpleasant exchange with a guest, they were fired and no longer appeared on park.
-Did you know that the first few years the city was open, the entire guest parking lot was the Main Street area where the gazebo and seating are?
-Later, as the city grew and expanded, parking was moved to the area where Flooded Mine is, and guests walked into the city over the swinging bridge above Half Dollar Holler.
-About 1970, the growing city meant parking was moved again. The entire parking lot was the area where trams now turn around at, and a small portion of the handicapped parking area.
-In the old days when there was a lot of hype about attractions across the country, a business owner could make almost any claims about his tourist attraction...all done with a wink and grin in an effort to pull in more visitors. Marvel Cave was once known in this period as "America's Third Largest Cave." The slogan was painted on the train that brought guests up to the Hospitality House. When someone in the know disputed this claim, the slogan stopped being used sometime in the late 1970's.
-There are many work and business offices hidden in plain sight of guests. There are offices in the Hospitality House, in the Mill/Mine Restaurant complex, and on the second floors of the ticket booth building and Ozark Marketplace. Also above the ice cream shop and behind Grandfather's Mansion and the General Store.
-You will see the Silver Dollar City "Mary's Well House," an employee health facility, located along Hwy. 76 between SDC and Shepherd of the Hills, just before coming to the Inspiration Tower if you are headed back to Branson. It will be on your right. That was founder Mary Hershend's actual home from the 1960's thru the early 1980's. She lived there until she was unable to care for herself any longer, and Jack and Pete placed her in a nursing home just across the street from the subdivision Jack lived in (Branson North) at the time. My understanding is members of her family came to visit her EVERY day.
-The mill at the American Plunge entrance was initially used as the ticket booth for guests to have their "passport" punched if they paid a premium price for a ticket to tour attractions or the rides. The location was initially part of Jim Owen's Float Trip Ride. Part of the queue for the ride was to cross a little foot bridge in front of the mill, enter and get your ticket punched, then climb a short staircase and continue out the back of the mill to a bridge that crossed the float trip channel, and then you waited in the boat dock area to get on the ride. The inside of the mill was decorated with some authentic float trip photos taken in the 20s-40s in the local area, and some made up, silly portraits of SDC float trip guides. There was also a float trip office in the upper portion of the mill. The outside façade of the mill was used as the mill for the Beverly Hillbillies episodes shot at the park. The interior mill shots were shot in the real Sullivan's Mill.
-Next time you are around the Tree house, look at the concrete tree that used to be the entrance to the attraction. The doorway is boarded up, that is where a winding staircase went up to the little swinging bridge you crossed to get in the tree house. Next to that is another boarded up area, which was a tiny little area the guy working the attraction sat so he could punch your "passport" premium ticket for attractions and rides.
-Next time you go into the Flooded Mine, you will see the little building at the entrance, which also was initially used as a ticket booth to punch "passport" premium tickets.
-The queue area of lost river is part of the old diving bell attraction. Tell tale signs of the diving bell are all around there. The only strongly visible thing to most guests is the "Dugan Salvage Yard" sign on the side of the building facing the Smoke House/Rib House Restaurant. That area served as the little playground next to the diving bell queue line area.
All around the park are examples of old things that have been discontinued at the park. As you visit in 2014, look around closely and you will see the old passport ticket booths at the older attractions, you will see doors and windows to work offices, you will see what remains of the old stagecoach paths, and you can tell when a building has been repurposed to another use. The signs are all around you if you know where to look.
cool post Junior!!
i got a question for ya all -- when you are heading towards Wildfire, there is a overflow queue line are to your right, are the metal bars made from old railroad tracks? AND, is it old tracks from the train ride? i have noticed this for a while, & when i comment, alot of people freak out. :o
Just a quick correction... The blue house that is being labeled as "Mary's Well House" is in fact Mary's home, but is not the Well House. It is however the location of Herschend University. Every employee working in OMC have to have a certain number of hours in HU before they can be "Signed Off" on the culture of the company. An interesting fact about the house is that it was the first house in Taney county to have indoor plumbing! Mary's Well House is located by Compton Ridge. But everything else seems to be right on the money Junior.
I have a slide or two from the early days with cars parked next to the blacksmith shop.
Thanks for the correction on the Mary Herschend House! Rube, post those photos...I think you have in the past, but, we all love seeing them! :)
a little known fact. Silver Dollar City was the second idea of what to put it above Marvel cave by Mary et all....the first was the Marlin Perkins zoo, a tie in with mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. It only lasted one season, then it made way for Silver Dollar City.
here is another very little known fact. There is only one person officialy interred at Silver Dollar City and that was the man who gave the park its name. Don Richardson was silver dollars cities PR director from its inception and tell his death in the 1980s. Hid ashes were scattered behind the wilderness church. No other person associated with Silver Dollar City was ever given this honor.
Ricardson behind the church...never
knew that, quite an honor
Quote from: Old Guy on June 01, 2014, 03:07:20 PM
here is another very little known fact. There is only one person officialy interred at Silver Dollar City and that was the man who gave the park its name. Don Richardson was silver dollars cities PR director from its inception and tell his death in the 1980s. Hid ashes were scattered behind the wilderness church. No other person associated with Silver Dollar City was ever given this honor.
How do you know these things? Was that a personal request of Richardson? You have very interesting info.
this was never public knowledge. SDCs official policy doesn't allow this for obvious reasons. An exception was made in a small ceremony. Don was the reason I had the position I had. He flew me all over the country doing radio and TV interviews on the city behalf. Even though he once got publicity at my expense, I still owed him a lot. I was at that service.
Quote from: Old Guy on June 02, 2014, 01:11:50 AM
this was never public knowledge. SDCs official policy doesn't allow this for obvious reasons. An exception was made in a small ceremony. Don was the reason I had the position I had. He flew me all over the country doing radio and TV interviews on the city behalf. Even though he once got publicity at my expense, I still owed him a lot. I was at that service.
Thanks for sharing with us!
Fascinating info. RIP, Don.