What Got Into Walts Matterhorn?
When the Disneyland Skyway opened on June 23, 1956, the hill became the home for a large steel tower used to support the buckets that traveled from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland and back. That summer, Walt sat on the hill with Admiral Joe Fowler and talked about the possibility of transforming the hill into a toboggan ride with real snow. The good Admiral was aghast at the logistics of trying to get a working snowmaking machine to generate enough snow to accommodate Walt’s vision, and he steered Walt away from the idea by talking about all the other things needed in Disneyland at the time. In October 1957, Jack Sayers read an article in Funspot magazine about a “wild mouse” coaster that could make quick turns and sharp drops, and he passed the article along to Walt, who passed it along to Dick Irvine. By May 15, 1958, Bill Cottrell was talking at a meeting about converting Holiday Hill with “a pair of wild mouse bobsleds” with a little bit of artificial snow. Once the concept was present
