Big Thunder Mountain

Big Thunder Mountain is a location in The Disney Club. It is a mountain in Arizona that was center to a large mining operation and is home to many peculiar legends.

Background
During primeval times, Big Thunder was home to a large amount of dinosaurs, most notably Tyrannosaurus-Rex and Triceratops. Following the K-T extinction event, the fossilized skeletons of many of these animals would be littered across Big Thunder.

Billions of years later, Big Thunder Mountain was home for the indigenous American shoshone tribe who likely migrated to the region c. 1750 due to competition and pressures from Blackfoot, Crow, Lakota, Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes. The mountain would receive the name of Big Thunder from the indigenous tribes due to the loud sounds made by the mountains waterfalls during rainy seasons. The shoshone considered Big Thunder Mountain to be sacred and home to a powerful spirit known as the Spirit of Big Thunder or Thunderbird.

In 1849, a man named Henry Ravenswood traveled to Big Thunder for unknown reasons and happened upon gold within the rock-work of the mountain. Ever the opportunist, Henry established the Big Thunder Mining Company and mining-town of Thunder Mesa which forced the shoshone off of their own land, keeping them out a fortress known as Fort Comstock on the town border.

For twenty years, Henry and his company exploited the land of Big Thunder for its gold. Due to having angered the spirit of Big Thunder by his greed and evil deeds, accidents and natural-disasters would become common-place in Thunder Mesa, many of which claimed the lives of miners and townsfolk. This climaxed in the year 1860, when a massive earthquake hit Thunder Mesa and collapsed a the south-west portion of the town into a canyon. Countless lives were claimed, including those of Henry Ravenswood, his wife Martha, the town mayor and sheriff to name a few.

The canyon would be named Phantom Canyon by the townsfolk due to it being known to be a literal ghost-town, inhabited by the spirits and animate corpses of those who had died in the earthquake. Mining operations too would stop for a time with the mining-trains of the company running wild and out of control, apparently being possessed by spirits. This halting of operation would not be long-last however as in 1869, another mining town would be constructed on a different peak of the mountain by the name of Rainbow Ridge.

Rainbow Ridge could be accessed from Thunder Mesa by the Mark Twain Riverboat and furthered mining into the mountain. By 1880, another mining town would be built called Tumbleweed which was built by the Big Thunder Mining Company under the leadership of one Barnabas T. Bullion. The disasters and accidents which plagued Ravenswood would torment Bullion's company as-well with earthquakes, accidents, floods and extreme-draughts being common. Additionally, Barnabas' foreman G. Willikers was a cruel man who frequently cheated workers of their money for his own pockets.

To try and keep his business afloat, Barnabas came into contact with his old contemporary Jason Chandler. Chandler and Bullion were members of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers, with Chandler himself being club-president in addition to being a gifted inventor. Concerned for Bullion, Chandler came into contact with his ally Madame Zarkov of the Museum of the Weird and learned that the land itself was the cause of the problems, leading to him warning Bullion against continued mining. The end of Big Thunder's story is a mystery, though apparently Barnabas would die prior to the year 1899.

Since then, the mountain has remained dormant, though many adventurers, would-be entreprenuers or men/women simply trying to get rich quick from the crystals inside have tried to traverse the caverns, but little to none of them have ever come back alive.

Features
Big Thunder Mountain has multiple peaks and faces. There are also at-least two notable rivers within the Big Thunder Mountain Range with one surrounding the mountain-peak of Thunder Mesa while the other winds around Rainbow Ridge.


 * Dinosaur Gap
 * Rainbow Caverns
 * Spiral Butte
 * Coyote Canyon
 * The Nevermine
 * Busted Flats