Painted by American artist Delmer J. Yoakum, the Grand Canyon Diorama was added to the Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad in 1958. To the sounds of Ferde Grofé’s “Grand Canyon Suite,” Guests could now ride slowly on the train and view scenery from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in a realistic diorama. The diorama is 306 feet in length and features many varieties of indigenous animals among the quaking aspens and pine trees. When it first opened in 1958, it was billed as the “Longest Diorama in the World.” It became even more impressive in 1966 when Audio-Animatronics® dinosaurs, originally created by Disney for the Ford Magic Skyway at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, were installed in the second half of the diorama—taking Guests back through time to a prehistoric era when dinosaurs still roamed the earth.
