Trail Dust Town
Encyclopedia
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
.
Although Trail Dust Town operates as a for-profit shopping mall, on its grounds exists a great number of historical artifacts, including an Allan Herschell
The Allan Herschell Company
The Allan Herschell Company was a company that specialized in the creation of amusement rides, particularly carousels and roller coasters. The company manufactured portable machines which could be used by traveling carnival operators...
merry-go-round, the Fiesta del Presidio carousel, which was manufactured in the 1920s that still contains its original wooden horses and benches.
Trail Dust Town also features a historical museum, the Museum of the Horse Soldier, which chronicles the history of Western cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
and dragoon
Dragoon
The word dragoon originally meant mounted infantry, who were trained in horse riding as well as infantry fighting skills. However, usage altered over time and during the 18th century, dragoons evolved into conventional light cavalry units and personnel...
units. It is notable for its large display of Western history and military history, including original period costumes, uniforms, weapons, firearms, and ephemera.
History
The shopping mall was built from the abandoned set of an unfinished Glenn FordGlenn Ford
Glenn Ford was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades...
western movie set that was left outside of the populated area of Tucson in the 1950s.
Trail Dust Town Railroad
The Trail Dust Town Railroad is a narrow-gauge, motorized trainTrain
A train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track to transport cargo or passengers from one place to another place. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway.Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate...
that runs on a looped 24" track. The railroad loads patrons at Trail Dust Town's train depot, which is modeled after the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western station located in Wallace, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. The engine, named "C. P. Huntington
C. P. Huntington
C. P. Huntington is a 4-2-4T steam locomotive currently on static display at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California, USA. It is the first locomotive purchased by the Southern Pacific Railroad, carrying that railroad's number 1. The locomotive is named in honor of Collis P...
", and numbered 287, pulls two passenger cars around the town and passes through several theme areas, two tunnels, and across several working, but miniature crossings.
Dragoon Street Wild, Wild West Stunt Show
Generally performed two or three times an evening, Trail Dust Town's stunt show is a slapstickSlapstick
Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...
comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
to the wild west. The shows, which vary from twenty to thirty minutes in length, are performed adjacent to the Trail Dust Town depot, in an area that seats around 125 patrons. Most shows feature falls from the top of two story buildings, dynamite explosion effects and lots of "rough and tumble" choreographed fights. There is no charge for admission, however, performers ask for a donation to off-set the cost of the show upon exiting.