Nature's Wonderland, Teddy Roosevelt and the Thunder Mesa Mining Co.

Today, the Thunder Mesa Mining Co. still offers excursions aboard vintage steam trains through Nature's Wonderland National Monument. Thanks to Teddy Roosevelt, this national treasure has been preserved for the enjoyment of all since 1906.

In the late summer of 1906, tensions were high in Thunder Mesa Country. Mining revenues were down, and the TMMC, and its parent road, the Santa Fe, Denver & Carolwood began pushing into new territories, including those controlled by the Estrella & Sonora Grande and Calico Gold Company. Naturally, the other companies pushed back, and by August, the battle over gold and silver claims in this wild canyon country had escalated to a fever pitch. It didn't take long for rival newspapers and political gangs to get in on the fight and soon they were tossing incendiary lies and insults in all directions. Before long it was greatly feared that conditions would deteriorate into physical violence. Armed toughs from Calico and banditos from San Lorenzo were quietly being recruited by both sides and an all out range war seemed imminent.

Diminutive but dangerous, the notorious Pequeño Brothers arrive in Thunder Mesa to fight as mercenaries on behalf of the railroad. A railroad that, ironically, they had been suspected of robbing in years passed.

From the border country down south came El Puerco and his gang of bandits, ready to shed blood on behalf of the E&SG.

By the fall, none other than the President himself was preparing to intervene in the fracas. Traveling by private rail car, Theodore Roosevelt just happened to be on a secret hunting trip along the fertile bottomlands of Big Thunder Creek when he was briefed on the ensuing hostilities. After quietly surveying the natural wonders of the area (and shooting a dozen elk, two bears, a catamount, a duck, two armadillo, six coyotes, and three chipmunks), our 26th president made his presence known (as the story goes, he announced his presence by shooting a shot glass off the nose of the buffalo head in Big Thunder Saloon). He called a meeting of all aggrieved parties in what came to be known as the "Council of Calico." As it turned out, the President had been thoroughly delighted by the amazing buttes, canyons, geysers, and glittering caverns of Thunder Mesa Country and had concluded that the region deserved to be protected and preserved for the enjoyment of future generations.

"Providence," he said, "has been at work upon this land for untold ages. For here has been gathered an unmatched collection of natural curiosities and splendid scenic wonders. Verily, this "Nature's Wonderland" is an irreplaceable treasure of the United States and must be protected from the greed and petty concerns of short-sighted men."

Then, by presidential decree, he set aside the wild country on all sides of the TMMC right-of-way, excepting only existing claims, and effectively hemming-in the land hungry railroad. Invoking the newly minted Antiquities Act, and with the stroke of a pen, TR created Nature's Wonderland National Monument.

It is believed that TMMC founder, Elias Homage, first coined the term "Nature's Wonderland" to describe the unique wild country near Thunder Mesa, but it is generally agreed by historians that our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, was the one most responsible for popularizing the region in the public imagination.

Of course, the railroads grumbled at first, but it soon became clear that the official designation and endorsement of the President himself would be a boon to the area. By 1905, the writing was on the wall as once rich finds at Calico and Big Thunder began to play out. This, in turn, had lead to the mining company's overreach into new territories already controlled by the Calico Gold Co. and Estrella & Sonora Grande. The "Roosevelt Solution" effectively put an end to the conflict while creating a rich new revenue stream for the TMMC.

TMMC management wasted no time in promoting tourism within the new monument as new excursion trains were quickly added to the schedule. Old ore gondolas were converted to carry passengers and secondhand coaches were procured from the Santa Fe, Denver and Carolwood to fill out the new trains. For its part, the SFD&C began to promote direct rail service to Thunder Mesa from Carolwood, Denver and Discovery Bay. By decade's end, tourism had replaced mining as 80% of the TMMC's revenue. In 1910, the TMMC also connected with the struggling Estrella & Sonora Grande Ry. near Lone Rock, and eventually came to control many of that line's assets.

A Thunder Mesa Gazette extra from 1910 tells of the joining of the E&SG and the TMMC at Lone Rock.

Though the mines near Thunder Mesa were largely played out, the rich diggings around Calico continued to produce gold bearing ore well into the new century and the Calico Gold Co. remained independent until the crash of '29 forced a sale of its assets to the TMMC. Calico itself became a ghost town, and the once legendary mining camp merely another attraction for tourists aboard Thunder Mesa's colorful excursion trains.

It didn't take long for TMMC management to catch on to the possibilities of tourism revenue and soon advertising posters like this began to show up in railway stations across the country.

By the early 20th Century, rail travel had made it possible for families to tour the west and see the sites for pleasure. Railroads like the SFD&C and the TMMC were quick to take advantage of this trend.

After 1906, Theodore Roosevelt was never again seen in Thunder Mesa Country. However he did manage to visit other spectacular regions and preserve their natural wonders for future generations as well. As president, Roosevelt created five national parks and used the landmark Antiquities Act to unilaterally create 18 national monuments, including the Grand Canyon. He also set aside 51 federal bird sanctuaries, four national game refuges, and more than 100 million acres' worth of national forests.

Roosevelt's chance visit to Thunder Mesa was a classic case of the right man being in the right place at the right time. Without his wise intervention, it is doubtful that the railroad would have survived much beyond the boom times of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the spectacular region known as Nature's Wonderland might never have been preserved. Without Roosevelt, another chance visit by Walt Disney, Ward Kimball and Roger Broggie might never have occurred in the early 1950s, leading to a "rediscovery" of the Thunder Mesa line and sketchbooks full of ideas for a magical little park being planned for Southern California. But that legendary visit is a story for another day.

Putting the Rainbow into Rainbow Caverns

Rainbow Caverns on the TMMC is being modeled as three major show scenes: A bat cave filled with glowing eyes, colorful Rainbow Falls, and a beautiful grotto of color changing crystals. Major work has been completed on the central Rainbow Falls scene and that's the topic of today's post and video log.

Most scenery and effects work is now complete on the upper section of Rainbow Falls, a major scene within Rainbow Caverns, and I'm excited to share the results today in a new post and video log. Tried and true "illusioneering" and stagecraft was used to bring this scene to life with a major element being the "Pepper's Ghost" rainbow effect in front of the falls. Check out this month's video log for a rundown on how the scene was created, and follow along with the photo's below for a more in-depth explanation.

Thunder Mesa Video Log: August 2015

Some representation of Rainbow Caverns has been part of the plan for Thunder Mesa from the very beginning. In fact, it goes back even further, starting with early plans to model Nature's Wonderland, and then on to my HO and On30 Big Thunder & Western layouts. At long last I'm getting around to the real magic at the heart of this model railroad and having a wonderful time playing with miniature versions of some of those classic Disney effects. The Rainbow Falls scene is achieved with a combination of ultra-violet light effects and the classic Pepper's Ghost illusion.

A Pepper's Ghost Rainbow

The waterfall is made from clear acrylic, painted on the back with transparent blue UV reactive paint. The "floating" rainbow is a Pepper's Ghost illusion - basically, a view-point controlled glass reflection.

The Pepper's Ghost illusion is used to make semi-translucent objects appear to float in mid-air. In reality, it's the exact same effect you see when you look at your own reflection in a window. Here, however, the viewing angle is tightly controlled so that only the illuminated object, in this case a photo of a rainbow, can be seen in the reflection. If you've ever experienced the Haunted Mansion at a Disney park then you have seen expert use of this classic illusion. 

Here, a simple black box has been created from cardstock with a blurry rainbow printed against black glued inside. An improvement on this design would be to curve the image around the inside of the box so that no edges will be reflected. My second version (not pictured) does just that.

To illuminate the rainbow, a single white 3mm LED was installed in this faux rock fixture.

The next step in creating the illusion is to position a piece of glass at an angle to reflect the picture or object but not the viewer. Note the the glass should be the full height of the scene. In this case, that's five inches.

Rockwork

All of the rockwork inside the caverns is made from pink polystyrene foam. Some are like set pieces, and are removable for maintenance. Layers of these set pieces are positioned to hide lighting rigs, and to complete the illusion of depth in the caverns when viewed from the proper angles. This is Stair Case Falls under UV light.

Here a piece of polystyrene foam is being shaped with a cone sanding bit in a Dremel tool. This goes fast but you have to be careful not to sand away too much!

Each piece is then painted flat black. Once that dries, varies purples and blues are dry-brushed on for a mottled appearance. Keeping the rocks a dark blueish gray helps to make the UV painted objects pop and makes the caverns seem darker, larger, and more mysterious than they are.

The Waterfall

The waterfall was created in the same basic way as the waterfalls for Big Thunder Creek, by sculpting 1mm thick clear acrylic sheet with a hot soldering iron.

The acrylic waterfall was then painted on the back with blue transparent UV paint before being cemented in place on its own set piece with clear silicone caulk.

A single 5mm UV LED is hidden behind the falls for illumination.

UV Lighting

Several of these 5mm Ultra Violet LEDs were positioned strategically in the scene for added illumination. Outside the waterfall, the creek itself is nothing but acrylic UV paint and gloss medium. Here you cam also see the 12v wiring buss that runs below the caverns from a DC transformer. The red wire is positive and the black is negative - important to know when working with LEDs.

I needed a simple way to mount LEDs to the roof of the scene and still have them be flexible enough to aim the lights. Cheep plastic bendy straws came to the rescue. Painted flat black and attached to the ceiling with a dab of hot glue, they make for quite serviceable miniature lighting rigs. A scrim of rockwork hides rigs like this from view.

What's Next?

Down below Rainbow Falls where the track crosses the creek on a stone bridge, there will be a series of deep pools, each slowly changing color as the magical waters drip down from above. Beyond the falls will be a Crystal Grotto, dancing with light. And let's not forget the Bat Cave with its hundreds of shining eyes. Yes, there's much more to come in Rainbow Caverns! But that will have to do it for this time. Thanks for checking in, Amigos. Adios for now!

Building a Better Cactus

Down by McKennon Arch, a pair of cactus wrens are building their nest high in an old saguaro. These giant cactus can stand for centuries and provide homes for many desert creatures. The holes are made by gila woodpeckers and later get used as nesting spots by wrens and other birds. The birds are made from polymer clay and the saguaro cacti are carved and painted Balsa Foam.

I must admit that I'm cheating a little by including a forest of giant saguaro cacti on my canyon country themed layout. In nature, saguaros are usually found down in the lower country of the Sonoran Desert and not up on the high plateaus around Four Corners. I've always had a soft spot for these bristly sentinels of the desert, so I hope I'll be forgiven for including a patch of them growing here or there. Also, the Cactus Forest was a feature of the Living Desert on Disneyland's original Nature's Wonderland Mine Train, and Thunder Mesa draws a lot of inspiration from that old attraction. And nothing says "Wild West" quite like the sight of mighty saguaro on the landscape.

Saguaro have been part of Thunder Mesa from the very beginning, but I've changed the way I model them over time. Originally, the Cactus Forest was populated with carved balsa wood succulents made with the old John Olson method, alongside some plastic monstrosities from Woodland Scenics. After a while, these no longer satisfied me and I began looking around for a better way to model them.

The Cactus Forest as originally modeled with John Olson style balsa wood saguaros and some funny looking little plastic things from Woodland Scenics.

I tried Travis Handschug's method of making saguaros from polymer clay but since I enjoy carving more than sculpting I finally ended up making most of my cactus from Balsa Foam, the same polyurethane carving foam that Thunder Mesa's rock formations are carved from. I use the higher density Balsa Foam II for cacti since it is less fragile and holds detail better than the softer foam. With a razor saw, I cut the foam into rods that are 1/2" square and about 6 or 7 inches long. Then they are sanded into a basic cigar-type shape before lines are scribed in with a hobby knife. Naturally, the crooked and bent arms are shaped from angled pieces of foam.

Balsa Foam from American Art Clay Co., and some of the tools used to work with it.

Here's a craved Balsa Foam saguaro before painting. Along with some strong adhesive, small lengths of wire help hold the arms in place. The pointy end of a bamboo skewer is inserted into the base to serve as a handle during painting and to help plant the cactus on the layout.

Now, everyone thinks they know what these cactus look like from movies and TV shows but it is very instructive to do some actual research into these plants. First of all, they grow a lot bigger than many people realize and a mature saguaro can tower 40' or more. That would be 10" tall in O scale! They can also have as many as 25 arms. It would take some real time and dedication to model a cactus like that.

Real saguaros are big!

Obviously, if I modeled them to scale they would dwarf everything else on the layout and throw off the carefully constructed false perspective illusion created by the buttes above. The only choice then was to caricature the saguaro. My cactus are at a smaller scale than the real thing (who knows? maybe they are a rare, "dwarf" subspecies that only grows at higher elevations), and they have just enough arms to get the idea across.

Another cactus wren pokes her head out of a finished saguaro. After carving, the cactus are painted with dark brown acrylic craft paint. Once that dries, Olive Green, Moss Green and Ivory are dry-brushed on to complete the paint job. The chewed away part of the cactus down below is evidence of javelina in the area. Javelina are bristly pig-like critters that enjoy chowing down on cactus.

The Cactus Forest today, sans backdrop. I'm much happier with the way it looks now and will be using the same techniques to add a few more saguaro here and there on the layout as things progress.

That's the story of building a better cactus. Admittedly, today's post was more of a "what I did" than a "how to do it" and if I glossed over any details or if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments section below. I've got several big new projects on the back burner and I look forward to sharing all of those as the new year goes on. As always, thanks for checking in, amigos. Adios for now!

The Never Mine: Part I ~ The Shaft House and Head-Frame

The Never Mine. Abandoned to the elements back in '85, some folks claim the old place is haunted.

Legend of the Never Mine 

High above Big Thunder Creek, on the rugged slopes of Baxter's Butte, rests the Never Mine. This is old Badwater Baxter's original claim, the oldest developed mine in these wild canyons and the same rich find that started the gold boom in Thunder Mesa Country. According to legend, when Baxter first set out from Fort Wilderness in 1865, the naysayers and local know-it-alls at the fort canteen told him he'd never find anything prospecting in that weird hoodoo country. Old Baxter just grinned beneath his big mustache, slapped his burro on the rump and said, "Never say never!" And the rest, as they say, is history. 

Though it was undoubtably a rich find, misfortune and strange goings-on seemed to plague the Never Mine right from the start. Mysterious cave-ins, inexplicable equipment failures, frequent accidents and more than a couple of grizzly fatalities soon gave rise to rumors that the claim was cursed or haunted. Evidence of an old Indian burial ground had been found nearby and it was commonly known that the local Ute people held the entire Mesa as sacred. It's no small wonder then that Baxter became a little addled by all the misfortune and eventually sold the claim in 1877. He drifted west to Discovery Bay where the remainder of his years and his fortune were spent experimenting with outlandish airships. The Never Mine was taken over by the Rainbow Ridge Mining Co. which was later acquired by the TMMC. By all reports, the strange happenings continued until the rich ore finally played out and the mine was abandoned in '85. 

Today, the dry desert wind whistles through the timbers of the old head-frame and the mine opening has been boarded up to keep out the curious. Or perhaps, to keep something in. Rumors of hauntings persist. Some foolish mortals say that on certain nights, when clouds obscure the stars and the zephyrs howl down the canyons, strange apparitions and ghostly voices seem to emanate from the long abandoned shaft house and the dark, gaping drift of the Never Mine.

The Model

The shaft house and head frame of the Never Mine; a little less spooky when photographed outdoors in the brilliant Arizona sunshine. The crooked smoke jack is a nod to the original Rainbow Ridge Mine that helped inspire this structure.

Inspiration for the Never Mine came from several sources. The design is loosely based on the Rainbow Ridge Mine, a tiny structure that once stood above the first tunnel on Disneyland's original Mine Train Thru Nature's Wonderland. The overall look and weathering was inspired by scouting trips to southwestern Colorado's Red Mountain Mining District.  The name, "Never Mine," is a direct reference to a bit of Imagineering humor: A signpost in the queue area for Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad points the way to several local landmarks, including Dinosaur Gap, Coyote Canyon, Busted Flats and Never Mine.

A signpost at Disneyland. 79 miles to the Never Mine? I think it's closer than that.

I began the structure with no real plan, just modeling by the seat of my pants. Generally, I wanted a small and interesting looking abandoned mine to help round out the scenery near Big Thunder Creek. I had long thought that something which looked a little spooky and haunted might be just right for this spot and a paper model mock-up of a generic abandoned mine held the space for a couple of years. Follow along with the photos and captions to see how the shaft house and head-frame for the Never Mine went together.

The available space for a mine was pretty tight, only about 5" wide by 3.5" deep. Fortunately there was a lot of vertical space to play with and my solution was to simply stack all of the mine elements one on top of the other. A shaft house and head-frame sits on a stone foundation directly above a mine adit, which in turn will sit above a trackside ore tipple. The cliff face with the adit, or drift, was carved from Balsa Foam to match the surrounding scenery and the hoist house was laid out with 1/16" thick illustration board. The door and window are styrene Grandt Line catsings.

The tiny shaft house is a scale 8'x8' with a 24" wide catwalk on two sides. The illustration board structure was spray painted flat black. 

Coffee stir sticks were distressed with an X-acto knife and razor saw, adding woodgrain, splits and knotholes before being stained with a mix of Kiwi black shoe dye thinned with alcohol. The stir sticks are cheap, readily available, and scale out to about 11" wide in 1:48. They were cut to size and then glued in place over the illustration board with yellow carpenter's glue.

A foamcore jig was created to keep the head-frame supports straight and true during assembly.  The head-frame was built up with scale 8"x8" timbers following photos of similar structures I'd seen in Colorado. 

The head-frame was glued in place to the side of the shaft house. For added visual interest, the head-frame sits an inch (4 scale feet) lower than the shaft house.

The problem of where to put the hoist mechanism on such a tiny mine was solved by building this simple shed between the legs of the head-frame.  I guess there's a little steam hoist in there that must draw its water directly from the nearby creek. The sooty smokestack is a painted soda straw.

After assembly, the shaft house was dry-brushed with acrylic Buff Titanium to simulate old, faded whitewash. The Grandt door and window castings were primed and then dry-brushed to match, and signs were printed out on heavy paper to decorate the structure.

Grandt nut/bolt/washer castings were installed in logical places on the head-frame and watercolors were used to further age and weather the boards. Here rust stains are being added with a #1 sable brush. I mix up a batch of burnt sienna and ultramarine watercolors to create varying shades of warm grey. These are then brushed on to simulate age, rust, soot, water stains and other weathering effects. The watercolors soak right into the wood for a very realistic look and if the color gets too heavy it is easy to scrub off and blend with just a bit more water. If you try this technique though, take care, too much water can dissolve the yellow or white glue on your carefully constructed model. 

Here is the rest of the head-frame assembly and the parts hidden by the shaft house roof. The sheave wheel is from a 1:43 Model T truck, turned down with a rotary tool. The brackets holding it in place are painted paper with nut/bolt.washer castings affixed.

Before the roof was installed, lighting effects were added in the form of two 5mm LEDs. A blue LED emits a ghostly glow through the frosted panes of the shaft house window, while a flickering amber LED simulates a mysteriously rekindled firebox glimpsed through the roof of the hoist shack. The LEDs are wired in series with 510 ohm resistors soldered to the positive diodes of each bulb. A pigtail of wires protrudes from the base of the structure to connect to the layout's 9v DC accessory buss. 

The shaft house roof was made from illustration board with paper corrugated roofing. The roofing was cut into scale 4'x8' panels and painted with red oxide primer before assembly. Weathering was done with watercolors and brown, black and rust colored chalk powders. 

Rafters and rafter ends were created from scale 1"x8" stock. The crooked smoke jack is a Grandt Line casting with the crook created by sawing off the uppermost section, filing at an angle, and then glueing back in place. The jack was airbrushed silver and black and then weathered with powdered chalks.

Another view. The hoist cable is black painted elastic thread.

With the shaft house and head-frame complete I can now turn my attention to the mine adit and ore dump down below. There will be a lot more on how I built those coming in a future post. For now, thanks for checking in. Comments and questions are always welcome. Adios amigos!

Click here for part II

Engine Roster for the Thunder Mesa Mining Co.

A reader recently asked a question on Facebook about the locomotive names and numbering on Thunder Mesa and it made me realize that I have never really published a complete engine roster for the railroad. The roster has changed and evolved a bit over time and will no doubt continue to do so as new equipment comes available and the railroad continues to grow. For the most part, I name locomotives after the Disney animators or Imagineers that I most admire, or other pioneers in the world of theme park railroads such as Bud Hurlbut. Currently, there are five locomotives running on the layout with at least two more planned or under construction.

No. 1

No. 1  - Marc F. Davis

Wheel arrangement: 0-4-0
Builder: Thunder Mesa Mining Co.
Entered service: 1878
Notes: This unique vertical boiler, single piston steamer was built from the recovered wreckage of a steam launch and the 2-4-0 El Dorado. Placed into service in 1878 to help complete construction of the railroad. Named for the proprietor of the Western River Expedition Company.

Modeling notes: Scratch-built from spare parts on a Bachmann HO cable car power truck. Analog DC power. No sound. Click here for more on the Marc F. Davis.

No. 2

No. 2  - Claude Coats

Wheel arrangement: 2-4-0
Builder: H.K. Porter, Inc.
Entered service: 1879
Notes: Light duty mining locomotive named for the discoverer of Rainbow Caverns.

Modeling notes: Planned but not yet built. Inspired by Disneyland's Nature's Wonderland locomotives, the #2 will more than likely be built using a Bachmann 0-4-0 Porter with DCC and sound. Claude Coats was the brilliant Disney Imagineer who developed the lighting and water effects for Rainbow Caverns.

No. 3

No. 3  - Sam McKim

Wheel arrangement: 4-4-0
Builder: Freelanced
Entered service: 1879
Notes: General duty locomotive named for the first surveyor and cartographer of Thunder Mesa Country.

Modeling notes: Under construction. Inspired by the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad, #3 is a diminutive 4-4-0 that uses a Bachmann HO Richmond 4-4-0 as a starting point. Sam McKim was a first generation Imagineer and Disney artist who created the early souvenir maps of Disneyland among many other things.

No. 4

No. 4  - Earl Vilmer

Wheel arrangement: 4-4-0
Builder: Freelanced
Entered service: 1880
Notes: General duty locomotive named for the first general manager of the TMMC.

Modeling notes: Bachmann On30 inside frame 4-4-0. Inspired by the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad. DCC installed, sound to be added. Earl Vilmer supervised the construction and operation of both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Railroads.

No. 5

No. 5  - Frank Thomas

Wheel arrangement: 0-4-2
Builder: H.K. Porter, Inc.
Entered service: 1881
Notes: General duty mining locomotive.

Modeling notes: Bachmann On30 0-4-2. Needs paint and decals. Inspired by Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. DCC and Tsunami sound on board. Frank Thomas was a legendary Disney animator, one of the Nine Old Men and best friends with Ollie Johnston. 

No. 6

No. 6  - Ollie Johnston

Wheel arrangement: 0-4-2
Builder: H.K. Porter, Inc.
Entered service: 1881
Notes: General duty mining locomotive.

Modeling notes: Bachmann On30 0-4-2. Inspired by Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. DCC installed.  Ollie Johnston was a legendary Disney animator, train enthusiast, one of the Nine Old Men and best friends with Frank Thomas.

No. 7

No. 7  - Bud Hurlbut

Wheel arrangement: 0-4-0
Builder: H.K. Porter, Inc.
Entered service: 1883
Notes: General duty mining locomotive named for the discoverer of the Calico Mine.

Modeling notes: Bachmann On30 0-4-0. Needs paint and decals. Inspired by Knott's Calico Mine Train. DCC and Tsunami sound on board.  Bud Hurlbut was a pioneering theme park designer best remembered for creating the Timber Mountain Log Ride and Calico Mine Train attractions at Knott's Berry Farm.

That's where the roster stands as of this writing. Will there be more? Probably. Even though the TMMC already has more locomotives than a mining railroad of its size would likely ever need, this modeler simply can't resist the temptation of a shiny new engine every now and again. Besides, there's not a single geared locomotive yet and I've always been a fan of geared steam! Stay tuned. Adios for now!