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/* Attraction History */
==Attraction History==
The history of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad actually begins with the story of the Western River Expedition. In the late 1960s Imagineer Marc Davis was tasked with creating a Frontierland alternative to Disneyland's [[Pirates of the Caribbean ]] attraction <ref name="hill1">http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief1/b/jim_hill/archive/2000/12/31/why-quot-western-river-quot-went-south-part-3.aspx </ref>. Although the ride had proved to be extremely popular, Disney felt that guests in Florida would not be interested in the attraction due to the preponderance of pirates in Florida's cultural lore <ref name="dated"> http://www.omniluxe.net/wyw/wre.htm </ref>. Instead of pirates, Davis and his team pitched the Western River Expedition. This massive Frontierland expansion would have featured a boat ride similar to Pirates of the Caribbean, which would have taken guests through various scenes in the American Old West. Also included in the expansion, would be hiking trails, a mule ride, and finally an attraction aboard a runaway train which was pitched to give the project a thrill component<ref> http://passport2dreams.blogspot.com/2015/01/all-about-western-river-expedition-part.html </ref>. When pitching his project Davis suggested:
{{Quotation| "What if we were to incorporate a thrill ride into the 'Western River' project? Maybe have a runaway mine train that rolled across the top of the mesa as well as down along the sides of the show building?" <ref name= "hill1"/>}}
Although Marc Davis tried to keep his project alive, it was clear that the project would be too expensive. Disney was already using its funds to build [[Space Mountain]], the [[Carousel of Progress]], the [[WEDway People Mover]] and the [[Star Jets]] in [[Tomorrowland]] and there was not enough money to construct another large expansion <ref name= "dated"/>.
The final strike against the construction of the Western River Expedition came in 1973 when Imagineer Tony Baxter (who had been tasked with fleshing out the Western River Expedition) showed his plans for a standalone mine train, thrill ride, called Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The new attraction took some the best elements of the Thunder Mesa mine train ride, but without the expensive show building <ref> https://www.mouseplanet.com/guide/251/Walt-Disney-World/Magic-Kingdom/Frontierland/Big-Thunder-Mountain-Railroad </ref>. Although Baxter suggested that the ride could be built next to the Western River Expansion building, only Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ever saw the light of day. After seeing the proposal , Disney green lit Big Thunder Mountain for both Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
Construction on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad began in January 1979 <ref> http://www.wdwmagic.com/walt-disney-world-history.htm </ref>. The roller coaster was the first attraction in Disney World to be designed by a computer, which allowed Imagineers to create a much smoother ride. When talking about the use of computers when creating Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Imagineer Tony Baxter noted:
Thunder Mountain eventually opened to the public on September 23, 1980, although its Grand Opening was officially on November 8 <ref> https://d23.com/this-day/big-thunder-mountain-railroad-officially-opens-in-the-magic-kingdom-at-walt-disney-world/ </ref> (some sources list the date as November 15)
On January 9, 2012, Big Thunder Mountain was closed for a major refurbishment <ref> http://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions/big-thunder-mountain-railroad/news/06oct2011-big-thunder-mountain-railroad-set-for-lengthy-refurbishment-in-early-2012.htm </ref>. During the refurbishmentrenovations, every single piece of track was redone and the entire attraction was repainted. Furthermore, many of the attraction’s special effects that had become non-operational were fixed <ref> http://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions/big-thunder-mountain-railroad/news/26may2012-video---take-a-walk-through-the-queue-and-onboard-ride-at-the-newly-refurbished-big-thunder-mountain-railroad.htm </ref>. In March 2013 Thunder Mountain received a new “interactive” queue <ref> http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2013/02/first-look-an-imagineer-tour-through-the-big-thunder-mountain-railroad-interactive-queue-at-magic-kingdom-park/ </ref>. At this time, the attraction also received a new backstory.
==Official Backstory==
