Imagineering My Way Podcast

Imagineering My Way Podcast

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Imagineering My Way Podcast episodes

  • Mission San Miguel Arcángel [Flickr]

    Greg Nutt posted a photo:

    Mission Days

    Mission San Miguel is one of California's historical and cultural treasures. The beautiful old adobe building, whose foundations were laid more than 200 years ago, is a precious part of our heritage, with a story that is integral to California's history.

    Mission San Miguel - named for the Archangel Saint Michael - was founded by Franciscan Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen in 1797, and was meant to close the gap between Mission San Antonio to the north and Mission San Luis Obispo to the south. Father Buenaventura Sitjar, who had ministered for years at Mission San Antonio and was fluent in the local Salinan language, baptized 25 youth on the day the Mission was established.

    A temporary church was built in 1797 but was lost to fire in 1806 - at a time when more than 1,000 Salinans were living and working at the mission. Soon after the fire, preparations for a new adobe church began. Tiles and adobe blocks were made and stored before the stone foundation of the church was laid in 1816. By 1821 the church building was complete, along with the interior frescos designed by Esteban Munras.

    San Miguel Mission property extended 18 miles to the north and 18 miles to the south, 66 miles to the east and 35 miles to the Pacific Ocean. The success of the Mission was due largely to Father Juan Martin who served here from the beginning until 1824.

    Secularization
    Following Mexico's move to independence, Mission San Miguel was secularized in 1834 and put under the control of a civilian administrator. With the exile of the Spanish Franciscans, the Salinan People left the mission for their ancestral homelands.

    On July 4, 1846, Petronillo Rios and William Reed took possession of the mission and the Reed family occupied the recently abandoned buildings. After the 1848 murder of the Reed family members and their household staff, the mission rooms were converted to commercial stores such as a hotel, a saloon, and retail shops.

    United States President Buchanan returned the mission buildings and the surrounding property to the Catholic Church in 1859. In 1878 a diocesan priest was assigned and the Parish of San Miguel was established.

    In 1928, Mission San Miguel was again occupied and administered by Franciscan Friars of the Province of Saint Barbara and continues so to this day.

    San Simeon Earthquake of 2003
    On the morning of December 22, 2003, California's Central Coast was rocked by a severe earthquake, the largest to strike the region in over 50 years. Mission San Miguel, just 34 miles from the epicenter, was especially hard-hit. The entire Mission complex was closed to the public, and the long process for raising funds for a retrofitting began.

    In 2005, the Mission Gift Shop was reopened, and then on December 22, 2006 - the same day and time as the earthquake three years earlier - the Museum reopened. This was followed by reopening of the parish offices. On the Feast Day of St. Michael the Archangel on September 29, 2009, a dedication Mass was celebrated in the church and three days later a public ceremony was held to mark the church's reopening.

    In January and in October of 2011, retrofitting of the former retreat wing and part of the Franciscans' living quarters were completed. Two more wings of the inner quadrangle remain to be restored. Restoration fund raising continues today.

    Present
    The church's appearance today is much the same as when it was built. The inside of the church has never been repainted. The wall frescos are the originals that were painted by Salinan artists under the direction of Esteban Munras.

    Today Mission San Miguel is both a State and National Historical Landmark, an authentic reminder of California's past.

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  • Huntington Beach Library [Flickr]

    Greg Nutt posted a photo:

    The Huntington Beach Public Library and Cultural Center (HBPL) is located in Huntington Beach, California. This medium-sized public library offers online databases, print and electronic books and magazines, children's programs, computer lab, DVD movies, CD music and books on CD for anyone with a Huntington Beach library card. Library cards are free to California residents. Free wireless access is available at all locations without a card. The library is financed and governed by the City of Huntington Beach, California. Volunteers also subsidize the library system by selling used books, operating a gift shop, and running charitable events. In 2015 volunteers donated 57,731 hours towards the library.


    The first library in Huntington Beach opened in 1909 and has since evolved to a five-location library system: Central, Main Street, Oak View, Helen Murphy, and Banning.

    The Central Library resides in a 350-acre (140 ha) park and features an open and light-filled floor plan, spacious reading decks, a public computer lab, and indoor fountains including a spiral ramp water feature. The Dion Neutra designed facility opened in 1975 and was expanded by Huntington Beach architects Anthony and Langford in 1994. The Central library has seven meeting rooms available for rental to help support the library system. Local business and residents have held special events such as seminars, classes, weddings, auditions, jazz concerts and film festivals at the central location. Additionally, several community organizations utilize Central: Literacy Volunteers of America help adults learn to read; the Huntington Beach Art League hosts art shows; the Orange County, California Genealogical Society houses a depository of records; and the Huntington Beach Playhouse produces several shows a year in the library theater. The Central library is located at 7111 Talbert Ave. The size of the Central Library is 115,000 square feet (10,700 m2) as of 2009.

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  • Angels Flight [Flickr]

    Greg Nutt posted a photo:

    Angels Flight (or Angels's Flight) is a landmark 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow gauge funicular railway in the Bunker Hill district of Downtown Los Angeles, California. It has two funicular cars, Sinai and Olivet, running in opposite directions on a shared cable on the 298 feet (91 m) long inclined railway.


    The funicular has operated on two different sites, using the same cars and station elements. The original Angels Flight location, with tracks connecting Hill Street and Olive Street, operated from 1901 until it was closed in 1969, when its site was cleared for redevelopment.

    The second Angels Flight location opened two blocks south in 1996, with tracks connecting Hill Street and California Plaza.[4] It was re-closed in 2001, after a fatal accident, and took nine years to commence operations again, on March 15, 2010. It was closed again from June 10, 2011, to July 5, 2011, and then again after a minor incident on September 5, 2013. The investigation of this 2013 incident led to the discovery of potentially serious safety problems in both the design and the operation of the funicular, and Angels Flight service has been suspended since that time with no timetable for restored service. Before the 2013 service suspension, the cost of a one-way ride was 50 cents (25 cents for Metro pass holders).

    Although it was marketed primarily as a tourist novelty, it was frequently used by local workers to travel between the Downtown Historic Core and Bunker Hill. In 2015, the executive director of the nearby REDCAT arts centre described the railroad as an important "economic link", and there was pressure for the city to fund and re-open the railroad.

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  • Ols Schoolhouose & Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California [Flickr]

    Greg Nutt posted a photo:

    Hearst Castle is a National Historic Landmark and California Historical Landmark mansion located on the Central Coast of California, United States. It was designed by architect Julia Morgan, between 1919 and 1947, as a residence for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who died in 1951. In 1954 it became a California State Park. The site was opened to visitors in 1958. Since that time it has been operated as the Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument where the estate, and its considerable collection of art and antiques, is open for public tours. Despite its location far from any urban center, the site attracts "millions of travelers each year".


    Hearst formally named the estate "La Cuesta Encantada" ("The Enchanted Hill"), but usually called it "the ranch". Hearst Castle and grounds are also sometimes referred to as "San Simeon" without distinguishing between the Hearst property and the adjacent unincorporated area of the same name.

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  • The Grizzly Flats Chloe [Flickr]

    Greg Nutt posted a photo:

    The story of the Grizzly Flats Railroad began in 1938, in the backyard of Ward and Betty Kimball’s San Gabriel, California orange grove. Ward, an animator for the Walt Disney Studios and part-time railroad hobbyist, decided to purchase the last remaining passenger coach from Southern Pacific’s narrow gauge railroad. About the same time, a railfan friend suggested the Kimballs should have an engine to go with their “new” 1881 coach. The historic Nevada Central Railroad was about to be abandoned, and had for sale a nice, vintage Mogul-type steam locomotive, numbered 2 and once named Sidney Dillon, which had operated in the Nevada desert since 1881.


    The rest is history. The newly-acquired locomotive and coach were brought to Southern California by rail and by truck, and soon were resting on a short section of track among the Kimball orange trees. Ward and Betty decided to name their new operation the Grizzly Flats Railroad, and heralded it as the “Scenic Wonder of the West”.

    Friends and family helped to restore and refinish locomotive number 2 to its former glory and Ward renamed it Emma Nevada after a famous opera star of the late 1800s. Coach 5 was colorfully painted and its Southern Pacific letterboard re-lettered to Grizzly Flats Railroad. This activity all took place on weekends during the late1930’s and early 40’s. The intervening years saw additional rolling stock added and a Baldwin plantation locomotive arrived from Hawaii. More track was laid and a Victorian railroad depot that was a leftover from a Disney movie set became the line’s station.

    Over the years, the Grizzly Flats Railroad was truly a family and friends affair. Every so often, one of the locomotives would be steamed up for rides up and down the 500-foot right-of-way. Thousands of curious railroad buffs from all over the world visited this famous Southern California landmark. Magazine and news reported, motion picture companies, and TV crews sought out and recorded the Kimballs and their backyard empire. Even though the suburban neighborhood multiplied around the orange grove as the years passed, this unique railroad operation will always be regarded as Ward and Betty Kimball’s “Scenic Wonder of the West”.

    On July of 2001, the Grizzly Flats Railroad was further expanded with the addition of a replica Southern Pacific “gallows” type turntable, built on site by Museum volunteers with financial support from Ward and Betty Kimball. Ward Kimball passed away one year later, in July of 2002. Betty and the rest of the Kimball family continued steaming up the original Grizzly Flats Railroad in San Gabriel until the summer of 2006. The Chloe and her cars arrived at OERM shortly thereafter, and went on display in the Grizzly Flats enginehouse in early 2007.

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  • Inside The Grizzly Flats Railroad Roundhouse [Flickr]

    Greg Nutt posted a photo:

    The story of the Grizzly Flats Railroad began in 1938, in the backyard of Ward and Betty Kimball’s San Gabriel, California orange grove. Ward, an animator for the Walt Disney Studios and part-time railroad hobbyist, decided to purchase the last remaining passenger coach from Southern Pacific’s narrow gauge railroad. About the same time, a railfan friend suggested the Kimballs should have an engine to go with their “new” 1881 coach. The historic Nevada Central Railroad was about to be abandoned, and had for sale a nice, vintage Mogul-type steam locomotive, numbered 2 and once named Sidney Dillon, which had operated in the Nevada desert since 1881.


    The rest is history. The newly-acquired locomotive and coach were brought to Southern California by rail and by truck, and soon were resting on a short section of track among the Kimball orange trees. Ward and Betty decided to name their new operation the Grizzly Flats Railroad, and heralded it as the “Scenic Wonder of the West”.

    Friends and family helped to restore and refinish locomotive number 2 to its former glory and Ward renamed it Emma Nevada after a famous opera star of the late 1800s. Coach 5 was colorfully painted and its Southern Pacific letterboard re-lettered to Grizzly Flats Railroad. This activity all took place on weekends during the late1930’s and early 40’s. The intervening years saw additional rolling stock added and a Baldwin plantation locomotive arrived from Hawaii. More track was laid and a Victorian railroad depot that was a leftover from a Disney movie set became the line’s station.

    Over the years, the Grizzly Flats Railroad was truly a family and friends affair. Every so often, one of the locomotives would be steamed up for rides up and down the 500-foot right-of-way. Thousands of curious railroad buffs from all over the world visited this famous Southern California landmark. Magazine and news reported, motion picture companies, and TV crews sought out and recorded the Kimballs and their backyard empire. Even though the suburban neighborhood multiplied around the orange grove as the years passed, this unique railroad operation will always be regarded as Ward and Betty Kimball’s “Scenic Wonder of the West”.

    On July of 2001, the Grizzly Flats Railroad was further expanded with the addition of a replica Southern Pacific “gallows” type turntable, built on site by Museum volunteers with financial support from Ward and Betty Kimball. Ward Kimball passed away one year later, in July of 2002. Betty and the rest of the Kimball family continued steaming up the original Grizzly Flats Railroad in San Gabriel until the summer of 2006. The Chloe and her cars arrived at OERM shortly thereafter, and went on display in the Grizzly Flats enginehouse in early 2007.

    0 min
  • Grizzly Flats Railroad Chloe [Flickr]

    Greg Nutt posted a photo:

    The story of the Grizzly Flats Railroad began in 1938, in the backyard of Ward and Betty Kimball’s San Gabriel, California orange grove. Ward, an animator for the Walt Disney Studios and part-time railroad hobbyist, decided to purchase the last remaining passenger coach from Southern Pacific’s narrow gauge railroad. About the same time, a railfan friend suggested the Kimballs should have an engine to go with their “new” 1881 coach. The historic Nevada Central Railroad was about to be abandoned, and had for sale a nice, vintage Mogul-type steam locomotive, numbered 2 and once named Sidney Dillon, which had operated in the Nevada desert since 1881.


    The rest is history. The newly-acquired locomotive and coach were brought to Southern California by rail and by truck, and soon were resting on a short section of track among the Kimball orange trees. Ward and Betty decided to name their new operation the Grizzly Flats Railroad, and heralded it as the “Scenic Wonder of the West”.

    Friends and family helped to restore and refinish locomotive number 2 to its former glory and Ward renamed it Emma Nevada after a famous opera star of the late 1800s. Coach 5 was colorfully painted and its Southern Pacific letterboard re-lettered to Grizzly Flats Railroad. This activity all took place on weekends during the late1930’s and early 40’s. The intervening years saw additional rolling stock added and a Baldwin plantation locomotive arrived from Hawaii. More track was laid and a Victorian railroad depot that was a leftover from a Disney movie set became the line’s station.

    Over the years, the Grizzly Flats Railroad was truly a family and friends affair. Every so often, one of the locomotives would be steamed up for rides up and down the 500-foot right-of-way. Thousands of curious railroad buffs from all over the world visited this famous Southern California landmark. Magazine and news reported, motion picture companies, and TV crews sought out and recorded the Kimballs and their backyard empire. Even though the suburban neighborhood multiplied around the orange grove as the years passed, this unique railroad operation will always be regarded as Ward and Betty Kimball’s “Scenic Wonder of the West”.

    On July of 2001, the Grizzly Flats Railroad was further expanded with the addition of a replica Southern Pacific “gallows” type turntable, built on site by Museum volunteers with financial support from Ward and Betty Kimball. Ward Kimball passed away one year later, in July of 2002. Betty and the rest of the Kimball family continued steaming up the original Grizzly Flats Railroad in San Gabriel until the summer of 2006. The Chloe and her cars arrived at OERM shortly thereafter, and went on display in the Grizzly Flats enginehouse in early 2007.

    0 min
  • Grizzly Flats Railroad [Flickr]

    Greg Nutt posted a photo:

    The story of the Grizzly Flats Railroad began in 1938, in the backyard of Ward and Betty Kimball’s San Gabriel, California orange grove. Ward, an animator for the Walt Disney Studios and part-time railroad hobbyist, decided to purchase the last remaining passenger coach from Southern Pacific’s narrow gauge railroad. About the same time, a railfan friend suggested the Kimballs should have an engine to go with their “new” 1881 coach. The historic Nevada Central Railroad was about to be abandoned, and had for sale a nice, vintage Mogul-type steam locomotive, numbered 2 and once named Sidney Dillon, which had operated in the Nevada desert since 1881.


    The rest is history. The newly-acquired locomotive and coach were brought to Southern California by rail and by truck, and soon were resting on a short section of track among the Kimball orange trees. Ward and Betty decided to name their new operation the Grizzly Flats Railroad, and heralded it as the “Scenic Wonder of the West”.

    Friends and family helped to restore and refinish locomotive number 2 to its former glory and Ward renamed it Emma Nevada after a famous opera star of the late 1800s. Coach 5 was colorfully painted and its Southern Pacific letterboard re-lettered to Grizzly Flats Railroad. This activity all took place on weekends during the late1930’s and early 40’s. The intervening years saw additional rolling stock added and a Baldwin plantation locomotive arrived from Hawaii. More track was laid and a Victorian railroad depot that was a leftover from a Disney movie set became the line’s station.

    Over the years, the Grizzly Flats Railroad was truly a family and friends affair. Every so often, one of the locomotives would be steamed up for rides up and down the 500-foot right-of-way. Thousands of curious railroad buffs from all over the world visited this famous Southern California landmark. Magazine and news reported, motion picture companies, and TV crews sought out and recorded the Kimballs and their backyard empire. Even though the suburban neighborhood multiplied around the orange grove as the years passed, this unique railroad operation will always be regarded as Ward and Betty Kimball’s “Scenic Wonder of the West”.

    On July of 2001, the Grizzly Flats Railroad was further expanded with the addition of a replica Southern Pacific “gallows” type turntable, built on site by Museum volunteers with financial support from Ward and Betty Kimball. Ward Kimball passed away one year later, in July of 2002. Betty and the rest of the Kimball family continued steaming up the original Grizzly Flats Railroad in San Gabriel until the summer of 2006. The Chloe and her cars arrived at OERM shortly thereafter, and went on display in the Grizzly Flats enginehouse in early 2007.

    0 min
  • F-4C Phantom II @ The March Field Air Museum [Flickr]

    Greg Nutt posted a photo:

    The F-4 was designed in 1958 as a company venture by McDonnell Douglas to meet future needs and it turned into the greatest post World War II fighter ever built. Considered by some the fastest, most versatile and effective aircraft ever built. The F-4 was initially designed as an attack bomber without internal weapons. The Phantom carried a greater bomb load than a B-29, yet was an effective fighter shooting down 106 out of 137 Migs destroyed in the Vietnam War. Israel has used F-4's in all of its major confrontations, at one time shooting down over 70 Syrian aircraft without a Phantom lost. The F-4E was flown by the US Air Force Demonstration team The Thunderbirds from 1969 through the mid 1970's. F-4E's were also flown as aircraft known as Wild Weasels and were active in the Persian Gulf War.


    RF-4 recon aircraft have a longer nose order to carry optical, infrared and forward looking radar. Over twenty foreign countries have flown the F-4 as standard front line combat aircraft and the Phantom can match the latest designed fighters in almost every performance category.

    More than 1,200 F-4's have been stored at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC) at Davis-Monthan AFB near Tucson, Arizona. Most of these stored aircraft will eventually be expended as target drones like the
    F-86's, F-100's, and F-102's before them.

    In 1962, the USAF began equipping the Tactical Air Command with the F-4C, similar to the U.S. Navy F-4B. In 1964, an improved version, the F-4D, was introduced. Large numbers of C and D Phantoms flew in Southeast Asia between
    1966 and 1973. This F-4C aircraft, serial number 63-7693, was manufactured by McDonnell Aircraft, St. Louis, Missouri, and delivered to the USAF on 1 Feb 1965.

    It has served with 8th TFW, 479th TFW, 431st TFS all at George AFB between 1965-1967; 8th TFW at Ubon, RTAFB, Thailand, in 1967; 366th TFW, Da Nang AB, South Vietnam,
    1967; 58th Tactical Fighter Training Wing, Luke AFB, AZ, in 1971; 1633rd TASG, Ontario AP, in 1982. This is one of the F-4's flown by the late Capt Dean Paul Martin, USAF Reserves, who was killed in the crash of an F-4. He was the son of
    famed entertainer Dean Martin.

    This aircraft is on loan from the USAF.
    According to the Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA/RSA), Maxwell AFB, AL, the museum's F-4C has the following history:

    F-4C, s/n 63-7693, was manufactured by McDonnell Aircraft, St Louis, MO and
    delivered to the USAF on 1 Feb 1965. Its assignments were:
    Feb 1965 - To 8th Tactical Fighter Wing (TAC), George AFB CA
    Nov 1965 - To 479th Tactical Fighter Wing (TAC), George AFB CA
    Apr 1966 - To 431st Tactical Fighter Squadron (TAC), George AFB CA
    Feb 1967 - To 4525th Fighter Weapons Wing (TAC), Nellis AFB
    12 May 67 - To 479th Tactical Fighter Wing (TAC), George AFB CA
    30 May 67 - To 8th Tactical Fighter Wing (PACAF), Ubon RTAFB Thailand
    Nov 1967 - To 366th Tactical Fignter Wing (PACAF), Da Nang AB SVN
    Feb 1968 - To Ogden Air Materiel Area UT
    Mar 1968 - To 4453rd Combat Crew Training Wing (TAC), Davis Monthan AFB AZ
    Apr 1971 - To Ogden Air Materiel Area UT
    Aug 1971 - To 58th Tactical Fighter Training Wing (TAC), Luke AFB AZ
    Apr 1977 - Unit becomes 58th Tactical Training Wing
    Nov 1982 - To 163rd Tactical Air Support Group (ANG), Ontario AP CA
    Mar 1984 - Unit (163rd Tactical Fighter Group) transfers to March AFB CA
    May 1987 - Dropped from USAF inventory by transfer to museum or school.with total of 5,123 flight hours

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About Imagineering My Way Podcast

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Join Greg, a former Disneyland Cast Member of 10 years, for a journey into the world of Walt Disney Imagineering, Attraction Audio, Music, Interviews, Comedy, and more.