Starting off this final part of our August 1973 trip to Magic Mountain let’s take a ride on the Eagles Fight. This “Skyway” ride had two separate routes, both terminating at the top of the mountain.
The “Eldorado Station” side was near EL Bumpo (present day Riddles Revenge area), it had steel towers and was around 100 feet at its peak I would guess. The “Galaxy Station” was near the Galaxy of course (present day lower level supports for Superman) it had cement towers and was WAY too tall, it seemed around 200 feet, maybe the mountain made it seem higher. This photo from a 1973 brochure shows a bucket from the Eldorado station in the foreground and the Galaxy station towers in the back ground.
Absolute terror as the buckets reach the tower, my heart used to literally stop when it would cross over those wheels of death. In fact, someone did die as their bucket passed the last tower heading into the Galaxy station it plunged 50 feet down into the hillside. A newlywed couple was inside, he died, but miraculously, she survived. (link).
The Eagles Flight Dual station at the top of the mountain is still there. This photo was taken in May 2008, the bottom area has restrooms that are still in use, otherwise the building is shuttered and empty.
Scary…. Is that clown real? Check out the fun Troll balloons!
A couple photos showing the neat animal shows they used to have. I remember these, they were informal and informative. Those poor ladies had to wear some unusual costumes.
The green belt area of the Grand Prix car ride, you can see the back of one of the cars on the lower right.
From an early post card series, here is the Grand Prix in all its Autopia rip-off glory. The cars were fun, if not a tad slower than the Real Autopia. Check out the Metro Monorail, BRING BACK THE METRO! Also note the massive towers for Eagles Flight and that round building is the Sand Blaster bumper cars structure, still bumping away after 37 years.
Gold Rusher as seen from a souvenir postcard. I sure do like this ride, a 1971 Magic Mountain original; it gets a big smile from me every time I ride it.
Here’s our balloon lady again, this time she is sitting on a fountain that was near the big Showcase Theater. I remember contemplating “acquiring” change from this fountain in the Summer of 1976 when I got dropped of with $10 for the whole day and spent it all in about an hour and a half!
As with most theme park fountains this one is now a planter as seen in my May 2008 photo! Notice the bricks, did they sink or did the ground get higher? 80 Layers of slurry?
In addition to the animal shows in the pics above and a petting zoo, Magic Mountain also had a Tiger! I’ve had dogs that can chew thru a chain link fence like that!
From an old postcard, this is “Gambi” I wonder if he is the same Tiger as the amature slide above?
There were once trains at Magic Mountain, here’s the O’l 99. This is not to be confused with the Spillikin Corners "Grand Centennial Excursion" or the “Train to Trollywood” those would come later.
Looks like that “Valencia” grass could use some water.
Here’s the O’l 99 in all her Post Card glory. Jed over at Vintage Disneyland Goodies informs me the O’l 99 still exists somewhere near the Mountain. I gotta check that out soon!
Since this post and series are about to end, here’s a few follow-up pictures.
The Jet Stream still looking great, this attraction was getting kind of neglected in the early 2000’s, nice to see it sparkle and shine.
Not much sparkle or shine here. This was the Four Winds Restaurant. It was also the Laughing Dragoon and the “______ House”. It probably has had other names too.
Sad to see it closed and in disrepair. This location offers fantastic views and the Mountain needs a good sit-down restaurant. Hopefully the new management team at Magic Mountain have plans for this Flagship location.
I hope you enjoyed this little series of Magic Mountain Slides and goodies. Slides from the Mountain are pretty rare so if anyone has vintage images of Magic Mountain, please share them.
No comments:
Post a Comment