Swiss Family Treehouse--Disneyland History--TMS-524

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00:24The delightful Swiss family tree house was a clever addition to the northern border where guests around the corner

00:29from Adventureland to Frontierland.

00:31The tree house took its design and decor from the Swiss Family Robinson movie sets and props,

00:37which included items salvaged from the Robinson's sinking ship and homemade creations fashioned from jungle materials.

00:44The tree house included a library, kitchen, private rooms, and viewing platforms.

00:48All of it furnished and functional, and all of it toured via 139 steps of wooden stairways.

00:54Most memorable was an ingenious water delivery system that lifted hundreds of gallons of water per hour

01:01to the upper levels using pulleys, bamboo dippers, and bamboo chutes.

01:06Throughout the tour, a likely Buddy Baker composition from the movie The Swiss Polka was a buoyant theme song.

01:13Almost as impressive as the tree house was the tree it sprawled across, playfully named a

01:19Disneyodendron Semperflorans Grandis.

01:21Big, ever-blooming Disney tree by its designers, the mass of steel and concrete structure rose

01:2770 feet over the jungle and spread brilliant colored branches 80 feet in width.

01:33The stats reveal that the tree's width was greater than its above-ground height,

01:37but unmentioned was the depth of the foundation roots, which drove another 42 feet downward

01:42and helped give the whole structure total weight of 150 tons.

01:47The 300,000 leaves that adorned the tree were artificial and reddish in color until they

01:52faded in the harsh sun, and were replaced by green plastic instead.

01:56True to the R. Robinson's heritage, a Swiss flag flew from the top of the tree.

02:01The tree house had a clever and functional plumbing system.

02:05A water wheel drives a continuous supply of scoops, lifting 200 clean gallons of water per hour

02:11into the tree.

02:11The water dumps into a system of bamboo gutters and uses gravity to provide running water to

02:17every room.

02:18Start by touring the kitchen and library on the ground floor.

02:21You do not mind climbing stairs, do you?

02:24Count the steps.

02:25There are 68 going up, but 69 going down.

02:29This is not just an attraction.

02:30It's an exercise apparatus, too.

02:32As you ascend and descend, there might be an extra bounce to your step as you hear the

02:37catchy theme tune, the Swiss, Swiss kapotka.

02:40Take a look into the rooms of the shipwrecked family.

02:43Pick your favorite, the one where you could imagine yourself living.

02:46No matter which room you pick, you get elegant furnishings salvaged from the ship, along with

02:51some terrific views.

02:53A hand-painted sign in the jungle lookout says,

02:55In this compound, we often pause to contemplate our small world.

02:59Here, adventure beckons, with every view and every sound.

03:03The jungle and its river call out their mystery and invite us to a new discovery.

03:08Cost $254,000 to build.

03:11That would be over $2.5 million in 2022 dollars.

03:15Amount of water circulated by bamboo buckets, approximately 200 gallons per hour.

03:20Amount of water circulated in the treehouse, 4,000 gallons per minute.

03:24Stream length, 160 feet.

03:26Groundbreaking was January 17, 1962.

03:30Opening day was December 1962.

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