Adventurers Club Los Angeles. Wilson and Disney Imagineering Vice President Chris Carradine saw the show "three or four times together and a few times more with others." According to Wilson, there was also "more than a pinch of Rick’s Cafe," from the film "Casablanca". There was an actual adventurers club, called the Ends of the Earth Club, created in 1903. Its members included Mark Twain, General John Pershing, Admiral Robert Peary, Gutzon Borglum (the sculptor of Mt. Rushmore) and more than 100 other prominent businessmen and academics located, primarily, in the northeastern United States. However, there is no evidence that the Disney
Needles (Black Hills) location was rejected by the sculptor Gutzon Borglum owing to the poor quality of the granite and the fact that they were too thin to support the sculptures. The Needles attract approximately 300,000 people annually. The area has a rich history of bold climbing by greatest climbers of their era, and has long been known for its purist ethics. In 1936 Fritz Wiessner climbed the "Totem Pole" and in 1937 "Khayyam Spire" with Bill House and Lawrence Coveney. In 1947 Jan and Herb Conn moved to the area and over the next couple decades put up over 220 first ascents.