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Realityland's David Koenig

Disneyland Lays Out Plans to Evict Critters

Rating: 3 votes, 5.00 average.
Earlier this week, Disneyland announced that the Big Thunder Ranch Barbecue would be closing by January 11, 2015, to make way for construction of the Star Wars land. What wasn’t shared is that January 10 is also slated to be the last day for the adjacent petting farm.

“Both locations will enjoy one more Christmas season before disappearing. There is nothing planned for Halloween, as in the past, but around Christmas, Santa is supposed to be there,” a cast member shared. “It is sad to see these locations close—a lot of memories and the loss of another quiet place in the park. The goats, cow, mule and lambs have found new homes—except they will not be with Disneyland.”

That will leave employees of Disneyland’s “Circle D Ranch” with just Main Street trolley horses to care for. These operations will be moved off-property, necessitating the horses to be trucked to and from their shifts via surface streets.

In addition, when the current Circle D is closed, the historic Pope House (Circle D’s 1,300-square foot offices, the last remaining structure on property from the orange grove days, and former home to Owen and Dolly Pope, who ran the Pony Farm for its first 15 years) must also be relocated. Its new site will be a portion of the Team Disney Anaheim visitor parking lot (about half the lot will be closed off and landscaped around the house), where it will be transformed into a fancy cast member conference center.

If nothing else, the timeline gives credence to my suspicion that, with Harry Potter landing in Hollywood next spring, Disney will not be content to wait five years to bring Star Wars to Anaheim.

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Comments

  1. Jimbo996's Avatar
    "closing by January 11, 2015" ... You mean 2016?

    Disappointed that no Halloween events held in the ranch. There was a lot of fun things there.