Happy New Year! I launched Yesterland on May 20, 1995. In Internet years, that was a long, long time ago. I ignored Yesterland’s 15th anniversary on May 20, 2010. But now I’m going to use this milestone as an excuse to write about my website.

, Curator of Yesterland, December 31, 2010

Let’s start in 1994.

I was working for a computer network company. When you’re in that business, you have to keep up with the technology. It appeared that the next big thing would be the commercial Internet and something called the World Wide Web.

To teach myself how it all worked, I installed software on my home computer, bought a new dial modem, and found a local Internet Service Provider. I was surprised that my monthly $19.95 dial access fee also allowed me to set up my very own website. What a great way to learn more about the next big thing!

I had an idea for a site. My old color slides of Disneyland from the 1960s and 1970s included some attractions that were no longer there. I had the slides digitized, and I wrote about the attractions as if they had been moved to a park called Yesterland. Perhaps I might attract 12 site visitors per day, I thought. By the way, there was not yet an official Disneyland website.

PeopleMover in 1995, the year that Yesterland went live

I was amazed by what happened after my site went live in May 1995. I announced Yesterland on USENET, and I asked other sites if they would link to me. The new Netscape browsers for Windows came with pre-loaded bookmarks. For some reason that I still don’t understand, these bookmarks soon included Yesterland’s page of links to other websites about Disney—built right into the browser. For about a year, that was good for a thousand visits per day all by itself. (The Netscape browser for Macintosh came with a link to an early official Disney website instead.)

Generous readers sent other vintage photos of Disneyland to me, allowing Yesterland to grow. (Thank you! Thank you!)

If you want to read more about the history of Yesterland, take a look at these three interviews:

• Website of the Week: Yesterland — by Coury Turczyn at PopCult Magazine, May 23, 2002
• Yesterland’s Future — by Sue Kruse at MiceAge, October 13, 2006
• Interview with Werner Weiss of “Yesterland” — by Audrey M. Brown at “Born For Geekdom,” September 8, 2009

But enough about ancient history! Let’s fast-forward to 2010.

Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland, a part of Yesterland since the day the site was launched

The Ten Most Popular Pages at Yesterland in 2010

Yesterland now consists of more than 300 pages of content. I added 60 new pages in 2010 alone. Of course, some pages are viewed far more often than others. The ten pages with the most views in 2010 have all been part of Yesterland for many years (although I updated some of them in 2010):

1. Yesterland Home Page — Yesterland’s home page gets more page views than the next nine pages combined. Too many websites have complicated navigation structures that make it difficult to know what’s on the site or to find anything. So Yesterland has just about everything accessible directly from the home page. I admit that it’s now too big, so expect some changes in 2011.
2. What’s New at Yesterland? — The title is self-explanatory.
3. News about Disney — This page has a loyal following of readers who use it to catch up on the current news about The Walt Disney Company, Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, and Disney Vacation Club.
4. Disney Park History Links — This page is almost as old as Yesterland itself. I still add new blogs and websites (and delete dead ones) in an effort to keep it up-to-date. In a way, these are links to Yesterland’s competitors—sort of like Macy’s sending shoppers to Gimbels in Miracle on 34th Street.
5. PeopleMover, Presented by Goodyear — I think people miss the PeopleMover more than any other retired Disneyland attraction. At least it’s the top defunct attraction at Yesterland.
6. Monsanto House of the Future — The futuristic, all-plastic house opened in 1957. Tearing down this “old-fashioned” relic in 1967 must have seemed like a good idea. It wasn’t
7. Rocket Rods — This attraction was the short-lived replacement for the PeopleMover.
8. Captain EO, Presented by Kodak — With the death of Michael Jackson in June 2009 and the return of Captain EO to Disneyland in February 2010, there’s a renewed interest in this ground-breaking “4-D” attraction from 1986.
9. The Old Matterhorn — How does the Matterhorn of 1959 compare to the Matterhorn of today? Apparently a lot of readers want to know.
10. Lion Country Safari, Irvine, California — This one has me baffled. Why is there so much interest in Lion Country Safari in Irvine? The drive-through safari park lasted from 1970 to 1984.

Rocket Rods in 2000

The Five Most Popular Items Ordered through Yesterland in 2010

This section provides some insight into what Yesterland readers bought from Amazon links on this site.

The top selling Amazon items at Yesterland in 2010, in order, were the following DVDs and books:

1. The Secret Tour of Disneyland, 2nd Edition (Yesterland review here) — a fun, feature-length DVD by a talented father-and-daughter team
2. Knott’s Preserved: From Boysenberry to Theme Park, the History of Knott’s Berry Farm (Yesterland review here) — Highly recommended anyone interested in theme park history and design
3. The Vault of Walt (Yesterland review here) — 478 pages of “unofficial, unauthorized and uncensored stories” in 38 terrific chapters
4. Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind the Dreams Look at Making More Magic Real — The best book about Walt Disney Imagineering
5. Disney Parks: The Secrets, Stories and Magic Behind the Scenes (Six-Pack) — A bargain DVD set that provides six Travel Channel programs

Werner Weiss and Jim Korkis pose with The Vault of Walt by Jim Korkis

Disney’s Mineral King Sun Wheel Not Gone Home

© 2010-2020 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks

Updated May 1, 2020

Photo of PeopleMover: 1995 by Chris Bales.
Photo of Mine Train: 1969 by Werner Weiss.
Photo of Rocket Rods: 2000 by Werner Weiss.
Photo of Werner Weiss and Jim Korkis: 2010 by Tina Weiss.