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/* Attraction History */
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. Imagineers however had When talking about the use of computers when creating Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Imagineer Tony Baxter noted: {{Quotation|So 9 times I did a different new design that I thought would solve the problemand the computer would say no. Although they knew how So we built 9 tiny models to make check the attraction look appealing, until the computer did not. In factsaid, "OK, I will accept this. This one is OK." That was the one we ended up building. But it took Imagineers nine different 9 designs before the computer accepted one without making changesapproved!<ref> http://www. Construction onlywdworld.com/2010/03/big-thunder-mountain-railroad-beyond.html </ref>}} Thunder Mountain eventually began on the attraction in 1979 and it opened to the public on September 23, 1980. 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 refurbishment, 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 and Queue==
On November 19, 2012 Disney announced a new backstory for Big Thunder Mountain. According to Disney:
