These illustrations of Brer Rabbit and his critter friends were created by Sid and Marty Krofft and used to pitch Six Flags Over Georgia for the Okefenokee Swamp Dark Ride.

The gallery says the illustrations are from 1969, but I believe the ride debuted earlier than that.   In fact, we have these creepy videos to prove it.

Come 2009, the ride will be known as “Monster Mansion.”

Before Monster Plantation, however, there was “Tales from the Okefenokee.”  The ride was based on Joel Chandler Harris’ critter stories.  Here’s what it looked like when it debuted in 1967–

Click here to view the embedded video.

I do not know what is up with the child is that explains the ride, but it did scare me the first time I heard it.

Six Flags updated the ride in 1968 to something much, much trippier–

Click here to view the embedded video.

What just happened!?!

Of note:

1.  This article will give you more information than you ever needed about Tales from the Okefenokee.

2.  The first time I kissed a girl was on Monster Plantation.  I was 24.

3.  Since we’ve worked so hard to put on our concert fundraiser tonight, Amelia and I are skipping work on Tuesday to go to Six Flags.  We’ll return with a full report, annotated and footnoted.

4.  No really, #2 is true.  Mostly.