tarzan's treehouse a gargantuan structure wrapped in staircases bound with ropes
and populated with various rooms and structures you can't help but look up at this giant tree
stump entrance with a curious expression most of us remember that the expansive tree house
behind it has been there our whole lives however there are many of you who remember the treehouse
as it originally appeared when walt disney himself opened it to the public six decades ago
allowing people of all ages the chance to climb this gargantuan tree
for those of you who don't have the blessing of remembering those years
people such as myself we grew up always seeing this tree towering over adventureland whether the
neighboring tree stump was there or not and now let me tell you the history of this beloved tree
a tree of an imagined species named lovingly the disney odendron semper florens grandice which
translates to large ever blooming disney tree the sands of time climb up the hourglass as we travel
into the distant world of disneyland in 1962. it was said that walt disney was walking through
adventureland one day and felt that what was missing was a giant tree house he had always
wanted one and now he had the chance to construct one in the grand style of his recent feature film
construction began to reroute a portion of the jungle cruise in order to make room for the new
attraction walt disney had assigned imagineer bill martin to design the structure similar to
the 1960 live-action feature film the swiss family robinson based on the 1812 book of the same name
by author johann david wiess to ensure the treehouse was as movie accurate as possible
disney animator wolfgang reatherman who designed the treehouse in the movie was brought in to help
supervise the construction the treehouse would have a massive steel reinforced concrete trunk
that was buried 40 feet into the sandy anaheim soil to anchor the tree against earthquakes
the grand sprawling limbs of the structure were made of steel piping the kind often used
to construct oil rigs and other such equipment and these steel limbs would give the tree at 70
foot height and 80 foot width the completed tree would weigh an estimated 150 tons the tree was
designed to look like an overgrown fig tree and would occupy the space formerly taken by a canal
that connected the waterways of rivers of america with the jungle cruise the canal was vital to the
park's waterways it was part of a system of streams and canals that kept all the bodies
of water connected so as to prevent stagnation and allow wildlife to move from one area to the next
now you may notice if you walk through adventureland today there is no canal
connecting rivers of america with jungle crews or at least none that you can see actually back when
the tree house was being constructed imagineers had reduced the canal to a large underground pipe
that snakes its way around the tree house weaving around river belters and out to the big river
the tree house didn't have that large dead tree stump out front like it does today
instead there was a small bridge that led over the rushing stream that powered the waterwheel
from there you climbed a staircase to the top of the tree house the waterwheel i mentioned was a
really neat feature of this attraction just like in the movie it delivered water to the
top of the tree house and the wheel itself drove water powered features such as a system of bamboo
ceiling fans all interconnected with bands of flat belts and of course the water itself flowed
from bamboo troughs at the top of the tree house in order to supply the robinson family
the different huts and rooms were each furnished with props like the ones in the movie
some of these props actually were from the movie such as the pipe organ which you can hear from all
points of the tree house playing the swiss kapolca and there was even the ship's helm from the movie
the tree house offered wonderful views of the park especially since at the time it was one of the
tallest structures in disneyland the swiss family tree house opened at disneyland on november 18
1962 and its grand opening event was attended by actor john mills who played the father in
the movie walt disney himself used to love to come out and climb the treehouse when he had the time
as a child he had always dreamed of having one and now well he owned the largest and dare i
say coolest tree house in the world [Music] park guests often could catch walt climbing
the stairs his eyes gleaming with joy and a great big grin across his face and the kitties loved it
after all who wouldn't want to climb such an awesome treehouse with walt disney himself [Music]
the swiss family tree house enjoyed about three decades of popularity but as the year stretched on
through the 1990s the attraction faced its demise you see that decade was awful for disneyland
because the company had spent lots of money in the previous years opening the failed disney's
mgm studios park in florida and the expensive flop that was euro disneyland in france not to mention
that big ticket items like the new phantasmic nighttime spectacular and the indiana jones
adventure had emptied the company's wallets as a result disneyland's operations and maintenance
budgets were cut back rides like the people mover the skyway and the submarine voyage
were all permanently closed imagine tony baxter had seen the cutbacks severely affect walt's park
and he made attempts to keep the shuttered attractions but sometimes without success
he caught wind that the swiss family treehouse was next on the chopping block
he managed to convince the company to allow him to retheme the attraction
to something more modern he knew the new animated movie tarzan was on its way and he argued that
a simple retheme of the treehouse could help promote it his project was given the green light
original props from the swiss family robinson movie were salvaged some of them being auctioned
off such as the pipe organ other props were reused such as the bell the helm the brick stove
and even some of the old bamboo water buckets were kept and turned into plant pots [Music]
phil collins who had created the music for the movie was asked to compose music specifically
for the treehouse then imagineer bruce gordon stitched the music tracks into seamless loops
that always play in their designated areas while the main path weaving through the branches of the
tree was left largely untouched they did have to reverse the direction in which guests walk
through the attraction [Music] to make the tree appear taller like it does in the movie
imagineers increase the height of the top most branches by 10 feet however the highest part
of the tree that guests can reach is still 68 steps in the air as it has always been
the original tree had over one thousand branches sporting around three hundred thousand handmade
red vinyl leaves at a total price tag of 254 thousand nine hundred dollars today the tree
has only 450 branches with 6 000 green vinyl leaves which were mass-produced from one mold
however in defense of this move to heavily prune the tree i must say it was done to make the tree
lighter and more resilient to high winds since it has less wind drag the attraction took slightly
longer to navigate through thanks to the large tree stump staircase and rope bridge constructed
in the middle of the adventureland walkway this addition was necessary in order to make
the treehouse more movie accurate the rope bridge is supported independently from the 1962 structure
and a way most genius if you look carefully at the side connected to the original tree house the
large ship masts cut down to size are buried at the foot of the tree and help support the bridge
when you climb up and down the stairs of the tree you will see events of tarzan's
life unfold as they did in the hit movie such as the leopard attack when tarzan was an infant
and the first time baby tarzan met his new mother kala and it even progresses into the
events of when tarzan met jane though the darker events of the story were left out of the treehouse
nevertheless the whole attraction is put to the thrilling music of the movie
and when you reach the bottom you can see the camp which jane and her father had set up you can even
see that jane had brought her old gramophone and it plays a familiar tune the swisskapolka
here in the camp you can go ape crazy by playing the rain sticks
hammering the xylophone or even catching up on botany samples collected from the jungle
in the early years you could meet tarzan and jane here although today they don't visit anymore from
down here at ground level you can also see that though the old water wheel is long gone
the rushing stream that powered it is still alive and well just a little fun fact this
stream is chlorinated water unlike the jungle cruise water which is why it's so crystal clear
tarzan's treehouse opened on june 23rd 1999 and enjoyed a decent success in its first few years
thanks to its connection with the movie the attraction today is still frequently
visited by adults and children alike but mostly because it's a giant tree house
many disney fans are calling for the return of the swiss family robinson theme
though i don't see disney justifying a million dollars worth of renovation for an ip that
is now quite dated at least not unless the original movie is remade with a popular cast
whatever the case is for the future of the attraction we can all still appreciate this
marvel of engineering brought about by one man's boyhood desire to have a treehouse
[Music]