Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is a mine train roller coaster located at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Park in Paris. In Tokyo and Paris, the attraction is named Big Thunder Mountain. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is also the name of the fictional rail line the roller coaster depicts. Theme Although the details of the backstory vary from park to park, all follow the same general story arc. Sometime in the late 1800s, gold was discovered on Big Thunder Mountain in the American Southwest. Overnight, a small mining town became a thriving one (Rainbow Ridge in Disneyland; Tumbleweed in Florida; Thunder Mesa in Disneyland Paris) under the thumb of the greedy mining company owner (Barnabas T. Bullion in the American versions, Henry Ravenswood in Disneyland Paris). Mining was prosperous, and an extensive line of mine trains was set up to transport the ore. Unknown to the settlers, the mountain was a sacred spot to local Native Americans and was cursed. Before long, the settlers' desecration of the mountain caused a great tragedy, which, depending on the park, is usually depicted to be an earthquake (Disneyland and Disneyland Paris), a tsunami (Tokyo Disneyland), or a flash flood (Walt Disney World), which befell the mines and town, and the town was abandoned. Some time later, the locomotives were found to be racing around the mountain on their own, without engineers or a crew. The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was founded in the old mining camp to allow wanderers to take rides on the possessed trains.