It's not every day that you get to work for the "Happiest Place on Earth." Back in 1986 I was producing plans for a contractor in California. Besides the typical residential and commercial projects they were a distributer and builder for Rocky Mountain Log Homes based in Montana. Disneyland in Anaheim California was planning to expand part of the Big Thunder Mountain attraction in Frontier Land. This was in addition to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad that opened in 1979. The small expansion included the Big Thunder Ranch Cabin with a petting zoo and the Big Thunder Ranch BBQ.
When Rocky Mountain Log Homes was contacted by Disney they refered them to the contractor I was working for and they were happy with me producing the plans. So I was fortunate to work with a great group of people in the Disney Imagineering department and using their designer's sketches and preliminaries produced plans for the cabin. Attention was taken to hide any modern structural hardware, bolts recessed and wood plugs used to hide them. But the logs are real.
The cabin was intended to simply be a replica to be looked at by visitors then later was used as a gift store and I believe now is a kids crafts center. It remains today with the BBQ but according to news reports Big Thunder Ranch will be closed come January 2016 and removed to make room for the new Star Wars attraction. I love Star Wars but am sad the ranch must go.
Fortunately I still have the original plans I drew of the Cabin. Below are a few of the sheets.
Rocky Mountain Ranch Cabin Site Plan
Rocky Mountain Ranch Cabin Floor Plan
Rocky Mountain Ranch Cabin Elevations