Huck Finn's Tree Fort

[shavethewhales]

Now that it's on it's death bed, anyone remember the good ole days when the tree house had more than the music room and the 'shadow machine'? I still remember when it was actually a tree fort, when there were faux guns sticking out the windows, crazy mirrors and oddities all over the place, plus some cool games. Back then it was a beehive of over-excited little kids scrambling for toys... man, I loved it.

If anyone has any photos, even recent ones, I'd appreciate seeing them.

[Joy]

Here's a scan of the 1980s souvenir map I got off Ebay; I've cropped it to show just the Hideaway/Landing area:
<a href="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/caitlin_boyd/SDC/HuckFinn1980.jpg">
<img src="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/caitlin_boyd/SDC/th_HuckFinn1980.jpg"></a>
click on pic for full-size

By the time I first went to SDC in '94, they didn't have those barrels and cave/tunnel things... And I've a question: on this map, there's no spiraling path like what we have now that takes you from above the train track down into the Landing.... This map makes it look like a straight shot.... How was it really set up? The map is not the most accurate (comparing it to this year's new awesome map, I find just how terribly inaccurate the souvenir map is).

And here are a couple other pics I have, the first from March '06 (the last time I ever got to go in there), the other two from April '07 (the middle pic is sized where it can be used as a wallpaper for people with 1024x768 resolution)....
<a href="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/caitlin_boyd/SDC/HuckFinnSign.jpg">
<img src="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/caitlin_boyd/SDC/th_HuckFinnSign.jpg"></a> <a href="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/caitlin_boyd/SDC/HuckFinn2007a.jpg"> <img src="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/caitlin_boyd/SDC/th_HuckFinn2007a.jpg"></a> <a href="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/caitlin_boyd/SDC/HuckFinn2007b.jpg"> <img src="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/caitlin_boyd/SDC/th_HuckFinn2007b.jpg"></a>
click on pics for full-size

Hope others have pics to show! It'd be awesome to see what the area used to look like.

~ "Becky" Joy ~

[Coaster]

I'll look around for some pictures since this used to be my favorite place in SDC as a kid. I'm sure my mom has some pictures in the bottom of her hope chest maybe.

[Hatfield McCoy]

Here's a scan of the 1980s souvenir map I got off Ebay; I've cropped it to show just the Hideaway/Landing area:
<a href="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/caitlin_boyd/SDC/HuckFinn1980.jpg">
<img src="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/caitlin_boyd/SDC/th_HuckFinn1980.jpg"></a>
click on pic for full-size

By the time I first went to SDC in '94, they didn't have those barrels and cave/tunnel things... And I've a question: on this map, there's no spiraling path like what we have now that takes you from above the train track down into the Landing.... This map makes it look like a straight shot.... How was it really set up? The map is not the most accurate (comparing it to this year's new awesome map, I find just how terribly inaccurate the souvenir map is).

And here are a couple other pics I have, the first from March '06 (the last time I ever got to go in there), the other two from April '07 (the middle pic is sized where it can be used as a wallpaper for people with 1024x768 resolution)....
<a href="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/caitlin_boyd/SDC/HuckFinnSign.jpg">
<img src="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/caitlin_boyd/SDC/th_HuckFinnSign.jpg"></a> <a href="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/caitlin_boyd/SDC/HuckFinn2007a.jpg"> <img src="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/caitlin_boyd/SDC/th_HuckFinn2007a.jpg"></a> <a href="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/caitlin_boyd/SDC/HuckFinn2007b.jpg"> <img src="http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c65/caitlin_boyd/SDC/th_HuckFinn2007b.jpg"></a>
click on pics for full-size

Hope others have pics to show! It'd be awesome to see what the area used to look like.

~ "Becky" Joy ~

Hi there,

Depending on what year it was in the 80's it was probably semi accurate although cartoony.  The spiral didn't come along until sometime in the eighties.  If you look closely it has a little newer look to it than it's surroundings. 

I wrote this in another thread, before I saw this one, but the tree house used to exit right around the Christmas shop.  It ended with a little cave that had thousands of little stars in it.  You can still see the old cave exit just to the right of the Christmas shop.

[shavethewhales]

So this thought came to me awhile back - could one of the reasons behind the demise of the whole Tom Sawyer's area be the debate over whether or not 'The Adventures of Huck Finn' is racist? Personally, I think anyone that finds the book to be racist doesn't have the ability to evaluate literature, but
being America, you don't have to have knowledge on a subject to cause an uproar over it.

There was recently a fight over this in my area, and I was surprised at how many people were short-sighted enough to view the book as racist. Maybe SDC has been receiving complaints? It seems to me that they would normally be trying harder to spruce up the area. 

[Joy]

Eh. The argument about "Huck Finn" being racist has been around since the book was first published.

Sadly, I'd be surprised if there are more than a handful of SDC visitors who even know more about Huck Finn besides a general summary. I mean, one of the reasons Disney overlayed its Tom Sawyer Island and got rid of the walk-around Twain characters was because kids had no clue who Tom Sawyer was!

I wouldn't be surprised if the reason Tom Sawyer's Landing is going to pot is more because of this generation's lack of knowledge about Mark Twain than anything else. I'd love to see SDC revitalize the area and maybe have walk-around Twain characters and maybe even a Twain himself... Maybe have a story-telling "show" in the Carousel Barn where "Mark Twain" tells truncated versions of some of his stories, like the Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and stuff like that.

~ "Becky" Joy ~

[History Buff]

That would be the best!  People would really interact with some talented strolling characters and maybe even a mini-show of Twainisms.  BTW, the Treehouse there and GF's Mansion are some of those little "tweaks" that make SDC unique and amazing.  Other little nuances include:

the talking railroad bucket (whose signage was repainted this year)
the tree with water coming out of it (near the American Plunge)
the "Don't look through this hole" and the "For Men Only" type things built into the fences and knot holes

Even after 40 years, I still love discovering something new like these every time I visit.  Just finding one thing makes my Season Pass worth the price.

[Copper]

These types of nuances you are talking about are called Andyisms.

Andy Miller is responsible for the original Silver Dollar City. He came up with all these little extras that mean so much to us. He loved curved streets, so that you had a sense of closeness with the City and never felt surrounded by people. He would take any project handed to him and transmit it into 1880s Ozarks. He was the master designer. Also, Mary and Andy were very strict; they were known to stop projects half way done and make them tare it down and start over. They strived for the best. 

I love hearing stories about Mary, Andy and also Don Richardson.

[CJR]

Wow, I must have been missing this news over the last year or so.  I didn't know they were removing this.  I wonder if they have a replacement in mind?  I always liked the tree house concept when I was a kid so hopefully they keep it a tree house of some sort.  I know it's no Powder Keg, but it's always the small stuff like this that has made me like SDC.

[shavethewhales]

Has there been any news lately on the status of the Tree House? I kind of assumed that they would be taking it down this winter as I can't see why they would keep it up any longer. Has anyone heard anything?

[thepainter]

I remember the first time I went to SDC. The park was not a buy one ticket and ride what you want as many times as you wanted.

Back then you got a ticket with all the rides listed on it. Then when you went to a ride or attraction, they stamped or punch the ticket.

I remember a girl sitting at the bottom of the tree marking all the tickets so you could only go in once.

[bobber620]

i always loved the treehouse when i was a kid back in the 80's. i still remember the slow nervous walk across the bridge (before they started making you crawl across it) and the little maze you had to go through to get to the stairs,and waiting in line to pop off a couple of shots from the air guns,then the" oh my god am i going to fall "climb down the stairs to the "cave of stars" only to come out alive and turn right around and go do it all over again

[rubedugans]

Ahh the rope, maze, and the ball pit, the air guns, that place was great. Climbing up the hollow "tree" was always great. Both Hucks Hideaway and Tom Sawyers Landing
 (formerly Hermans Hermits I am pretty sure) were all amazing places. I wonder what the treehouse looks like inside. Injun Joes cave (of stars) always reminded me of a weird music video, I wanted a room like that in my house!

[saladdays]

I remember when it used to exit off into the toy store.  Pretty good idea there from a business standpoint.  I'm sure there were reasons why they discontinued that.  Anyone know? 

[SteamFreak]

WOW, all this talk about Huck Fin's fort and I'm suddlenly remembering all kinds of stuff about it, was there a room with a lighted floor by any chance? I remember the air guns, trying to shoot at the train when it went by. Hmmm, now I wish I could o back through it, don't think I've been through it since I was maybe 7 or 8. Oh well, too late now.