Though it’s easy to forget today, when Disneyland opened in 1955, Walt’s opening day speech called for it to be “dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America…”
It’s no accident that Walt’s biggest projects within Disneyland – including the park’s original themed lands – told a piece of the story of America, from our frontier past to our Space Age tomorrow; from the comforts of home on Main Street to the pop culture exoticism of what “adventure” meant to Americans in Walt’s time.
But even if history has always played a part in Disney Parks, it’s got nothing on the strangest theme park Imagineers ever designed: a new Disney theme park that was officially set to open in 1998… but never did. That’s why our Possibilityland series is here. Part of Theme Park Tourist’s renowned LEGEND LIBRARY, these in-depth features cover the full stories behind could-be classics from Discovery Bay to Muppet Studios; Tomorrowland 2055 to never-built Disney “mountains”.
Image: Disney
Announced in 1993, Disney’s America would join the historic tourist attractions of Virginia just outside of Washington D.C. A living history park, this new prototype theme park would’ve dispensed with Disney’s fantasy in favor of the hard facts – and we mean hard – that created America… How did Disney plan to turn a country’s sometimes-tumultuous history into its first-ever regional theme park? Let’s find out.
Eisner era
Image: Disney
Like so many stories that populate our Legend Library, the tale of Disney’s America can’t be told without Michael Eisner. Back in the late-‘80s, Eisner was the still-fresh CEO at the helm of Disney, and in his first decade, things were looking up. Eisner made no qualms about his ultimate goal, and he was slowly-but-surely transforming the tired and lifeless Walt Disney Productions of the ’70s into the modern Walt Disney Company we know today, amassing media subsidiaries and kicking off the Disney Renaissance in theaters.
It’s well known that one of Eisner’s biggest projects for Disney Parks was the opening of the Disney-MGM Studios – a park that would play into Eisner’s interests and experiences as the former CEO of Paramount Pictures.
Image: Disney, via Yesterland
But the unspoken truth about Walt Disney World’s third park is that Eisner knew all along that it was a “half-day” park. In fact, the studio was specifically designed to be built in phases, growing out from its miniscule core (featuring only seven attractions – just two rides – at opening), but only as attendance demanded.
The opening of the Studios park (and its stellar attendance and subsequent expansion) proved Eisner’s point: Disney could open new theme parks without the ride count, detail, or intricacy of Magic Kingdom or the vast, epic, monumental investment of Epcot. (An assurance he would later put to use in creating the Declassified Disasters: Disney’s California Adventure and Walt Disney Studios Park… but we digress…)
The Old Dominion
Image: Colonial Williamsburg
In 1990, Eisner and a team of Disney executives flew to Virginia, where they visited Colonial Williamsburg – a “living history” village of restored (and recreated) historical buildings dating to 1699. Unique for its Disney-like exclusion of the outside world, Colonial Williamsburg is a 173-acre village whose streets are open to the public. There are historic mansions and manor houses with sprawling gardens, the Governor’s Palace, churches, courthouses, parks, and more, all centered on the preserved Duke of Gloucester Street (above).
Image: Colonial Williamsburg
Within each shop, home, mansion, and garden, costumed interpreters are more than just actors; they’re authentic tradespeople who make wigs, soaps, candles, bonnets, barrels, and clothing; repair shoes, practice blacksmithing and glassblowing; tailor and sew; cook and farm precisely as was done in colonial times in an effort to keep these historic trades alive.
Allegedly, Eisner and his team were inspired by their visit. Not only was Eisner said to take particular interest in the stories he’d read of Pocahontas and John Smith while visiting, but he also began to envision Disney’s ability to become a part of the beautiful, forested hills of eastern Virginia…
Eisner and his team immediately set to work scouting the Prince William County area for property… They found it, purchasing or holding options for nearly 3,000 acres outside Haymarket, Virginia – strategically, about 40 miles west of Washington, D.C. and within the market of both Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg amusement parks.
Image: The Washington Post
While plans might’ve initially called for Disney to fill the Virginian property, the 1992 opening – and subsequent disastrous financial meltdown – of Disneyland Paris changed Disney Parks forever. Throwing the cautionary, start-small philosophy of the studios park to the wind, Disneyland Paris was stunningly overbuilt and massively undervalued by the French. Eisner famously commented two years after its opening, “Everything is possible… including closure,” and “I don’t know whether a private company can ever spend this kind of money.”
We know that Eisner would be humbled by his experience with the French park. In his 1998 memoir, Work in Progress, he wrote, “Chastened by the rising costs of Euro Disney, we began to look for ways to develop smaller-scale theme parks.” In other words, Eisner backed down from the epic, elaborate, full-scale resort strategy (and, of course, would go on to cancel or cost-cut every major project Disney had in the pipeline for decades). It stood to reason that Disney’s future might lie in smaller, regional parks… Disney could build seasonal properties that would compete with parks like Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens… Get it? The Virginia property fit the bill.
A new kind of park
Image: Disney
On November 11, 1993 – still reeling from Disneyland Paris – Disney announced Disney’s America – a brand new theme park set to open in Virginia in 1998.
The park would be quite unlike anything Disney had done before. Certainly, it would be smaller – adequately sized for its seasonal status and placement among other regional parks – but would still feature a resort hotel, golf course, RV park, and retail center.
As for the park’s potentially political position and its broaching of sensitive topics, Disney Senior Vice President Bob Weis offered, “This is not a Pollyanna view of America. We want to make you a Civil War soldier. We want to make you feel what it was like to be a slave or what it was like to escape through the Underground Railroad.” Peter Rummell, President of Disney Design and Development, doubled down: “An intelligent story, properly told, shouldn’t offend anybody … But we won’t worry about being politically correct.”
Image: Disney
Publically blessed by Virginia’s outgoing and incoming governors who vowed to “kick down any hurdles,” it seemed at Disney’s America was a shoe-in, with Disney promising 3,000 permanent jobs and $500 million in tax revenues for Prince William County.
What rides would Disney’s America have contained? We’ll step inside on the next page…
Click and expand for a larger and more detailed view. Image: Disney
Typically, one of the signature elements of Disney Imagineering concept art is how little is really shown, with details obscured by lens flare, fireworks, and hot air balloons. But since Disney’s America was official, information about this smaller, “regional” take on a Disney park and the concept art for it is surprisingly clear, up to and including the beautiful concept art above (which can be made larger by clicking) and logistical aerial layouts for the park we’ll reference below (at the top and bottom of the next section for your reference).
Like Disneyland, Disney’s America would’ve been divided into nine themed lands. Let’s head inside.
Inside Disney’s America
Disneyland’s entrance is Main Street, U.S.A. – a typical Midwestern town at the turn of the 20th century, alight with the brand new electric lightbulb. But here in Disney’s America, our journey starts nearly a century earlier.
We enter Disney’s America (in true Disney fashion) by passing under an 1840s train trestle (where we might choose to start our historic adventure by boarding steam locomotive that circumnavigates the park and heads out into the beautiful forests of Virginia en route to a grand circle tour). Once inside, we find ourselves in Crossroads, U.S.A. (1) (on the map above) – a bustling 1800s town.
Image: Disney
This is a fledgling nation not yet torn asunder by the Civil War. While the streets of this land would be alive with merchants and living history exhibits, the second and third stories of these buildings would be a cleverly-integrated, historical, and inconspicuous hotel (2), with premium rooms overlooking the canals and marketplaces of town.
Image: Disney
Traveling counterclockwise around the park’s central lagoon, we find ourselves back in time, along the red-brick colonial streets of New England. This is, of course, President’s Square (3), a regal courtyard celebrating the birth of democracy from 1750 to 1800, with The Hall of Presidents as its signature attraction.
An outdoor amphitheater around the corner bridges the gap to the next themed land, Native America (4). While Disneyland’s early “Indian War Village” may seem positively barbaric by today’s standards (even though it was quite accurate and culturally competent for the time), Native America would be a land set aisde to honor local First Nations by displaying their people, pride, and stories well, with interactive experiences, arts, and exhibits compiled with Native Americans.
Image: Disney
That said, its anchor attraction is still be Lewis & Clark’s River Expedition, Disney’s first river rafting ride, departing from Native America and tracing the fabled 1804 – 1806 Corps of Discovery Expedition that set out from Pittsburg and found a route to the Pacific. It’s likely that the rapids ride would’ve passed scenes of wildlife and other natural wonders encountered by the cross-country expedition.
Image: Disney
Continuing onward, a large, open field provides room for local Civil War reenactments and other living history demonstrations. Meanwhile, the Civil War Fort (5) jutting out into the artificial Freedom Bay is the park’s Tom Sawyer Island equivalent, inviting us to climb, explore, and imagine what it might’ve been like to be a citizen of a country torn in half. To futher figure it out, the fort itself cleverly houses a 360-degree Circle-Vision film depicting the Civil War.
The ramparts of the form also provide spectacular views of Freedom Bay, which hosts seafaring battles between the Monitor and Merrimac as a “thrilling nighttime spectacular” in the park’s center.
Image: Disney
The Eastern half of the park now advances into the 20th century, beginning with the Family Farm (10). Borrowing from Williamsburg, this living exhibition allows you and I to get up close with real farm animals and the tools and instruments used by the Midwest family who lives there. We can also explore their homestead and the acres of gardens and fields surrounding.
Image: Disney
And stepping into the shoes of that family, we can imagine the excitement when the State Fair (9) rolls into town just up the path! Recreating a depression-era fair, this land contains a classic, white wooden roller coaster (made of modern steel, but cleverly disguised as a 1930s wooden ride), a Ferris wheel, and a carousel set picturesquely in the dusty cornfields of town. There’s also a real baseball field for exposition games and shows to take place in the land!
Continuing our counterclockwise journey, we next arrive in Victory Field (8), the sprawling military aviation base showing us the realities faced by servicemen in the World Wars. While some early plans allegedly called for “dueling” roller coasters here, the interwoven tracks of dogfighting “American” and “German” coasters was dropped (for a number of good reasons…) if it ever existed.
Image: Disney
Any concrete plans for Victory Field are based around a base of military hangars, likely housing a simulator borrowing from the tried-and-true Lost Legend: STAR TOURS technology.
Victory Field connects to the next land, Enterprise (7). Modeled after an industrial manufacturing town, exhibits on the street level of this land highlight the role of industry in the American story through the 1930s. The land’s signature experience, though, is an indoor/outdoor steel roller coaster whose supports would look right at home in the industrial town, guiding the train up to the second story of the town where riders pass through dark ride scenes.
Image: Disney
In a surprising and thrilling finale, these steel coaster – the Industrial Revolution – would dive into a showbuilding, racing between boilers and escaping from the red hot steam of active blast furnaces.
The final land, We The People (6), would theoretically be the park’s most moving. Recreating the French Renaissance-inspired Immigration Building on Ellis Island in New York Harbor, this sensational land would feature exhibits and entertainment celebrating America as a melting pot of languages, cultures, and ideas, allowing guests to have the experience of being immigrants arriving in the land of the free.
Image: Disney
Having traveled through time to live our great American story, we find ourselves again returned to Crossroads, U.S.A.
Something different
You can no doubt see that Disney’s America was quite different from anything else Disney had attempted before. The first of a new “regional” park model, Disney’s America would feature only three or four outright rides, relying on entertainment and dining to fuel an experience. And unlike Walt Disney World and the plans underway to transform Disneyland into a multi-day, international destination, Disney’s America was always meant to be a day-trip for D.C. visitors.
A little slower, calmer, and more serious than Disney’s other parks, Disney’s America was something new. But of course, it never came to be… Despite its 1993 announcement and 1998 opening date, problems began to intercept the park’s timeline before a single shovel of dirt was moved… On the next page, we’ll dissect the mounting problems with Disney’s America and Eisner’s last-ditch effort to build in Virginia. Then, on the last page, we’ll see where the “DNA” from Disney’s America was re-used in Disney Parks…
Pet project problems (1993 – 1994)
It won’t surprise you to find that Disney’s America was never built. As with any cancellation of a billion-dollar project, it’s difficult to determine a single cause. In fact, the reasons are numerous and complex. Here are just a few:
1. PUBLIC PRESSURE. Though polls showed that a majority of Virginians supported Disney’s America (also evidenced through a “Disney’s America: Good For Virginia” bumper sticker campaign), a prominent group of historians (called Protect Historic America) launched an all-out assault on the project, calling it a “commercial blitzkrieg” that “would desecrate the ground over which men fought and died.”
A modern bumper sticker by passport2dreams, available for sale here.
Perhaps owing to the fact that he’d faced similar resistance in the building of Disneyland Paris, Eisner was prepared. He went on a damage control P.R. spree, refuting, “it’s private land that is not in the middle of a historic area” and calling out Protect Historic America’s academic members, saying, “I sat through many history classes where I read some of their stuff, and I didn’t learn anything. It was pretty boring.”
2. CULTURAL COMPETITION. Numerous historic sites, museums, and non-profits spoke out against Disney’s America, fearing that Disney’s highly publicized revenue-generating theme park would be one too many tourist attractions for the D.C. area and would cannibalize non-profit organizations like Colonial Williamsburg.
Image: Progress City, U.S.A.
3. STAGGERING STIMULUS; LOUSY LOGISTICS. Of course, the opening of a Disney theme park near the Historic Triangle would bring an estimated 35,000 vehicles per day tearing into the area. As a result, the physical infrastructure around the Disney property would need a massive overhaul, with over $163 million in funding requested from the State of Virginia for road improvement and relocation costs, while locals imagined the motels and fast food strip malls that would doubtlessly follow. A further $50 million would need paid by the county to prep water and sewer lines, all while Disney was awarded tax subsidies and reimbursements!
What’s more, Disney executives privately began to ponder whether the regional park model was for them… After all, such smaller parks would – by design – be farther from metropolitan areas, lack surrounding infrastructure, and – for most of America, at least – would only be open seasonally. Even in the fairly warm Virginia, Disney’s America would only be open seven days a week during the summer and early fall before transitioning to weekends-only, then closing from January through March… a business model familiar to regional park operators, but seriously cutting into Disney’s expected revenue.
4. REALITY STINKS. Frankly, it’s hard to imagine why Michael Eisner – a man who inherited the 2-year old Epcot at the height of its most classic and beloved form and apparently had no idea what to do with it or what it should be – would even be interested in a park determined to present the realities, messiness, and hard truths of history without Disney characters, popular IPs, or Disney’s signature idealism.
Image: Disney
The most hard-hitting criticism of Disney’s America would be the difficulty in addressing the realities of American history. Groups fought against the (imagined) prospect of Disney selling “little souvenir slave ships” as emblematic of the problem. A group of U.S. representatives from across the country even spoke up, offering as an example that the Civil War should “not [be taught] by Minnie and Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.”
And while that’s a hyperbolic exaggeration, it brought up a valid point: what exactly made The Walt Disney Company an appropriate editor of the story of American history, choosing what to include and how? Why should Disney get to revise and retell America’s story however they want? Even the park’s name – Disney’s America – was a sort of damning admission of the park’s editorializing and commercialization of the country’s identity. Which is why plans briefly changed…
Disney’s American Celebration (1994)
In August 1994 – less than a year after its official announcement – Michael Eisner had effectively been convinced that Disney’s foray into being the narrator of American history was doomed. Jim Hill Media reports that in a quick thinking attempt to salvage the project, Eisner had his team draw up plans for the property just a little differently. The so-called Disney’s American Celebration would de-politicize and “de-historize“ the park, opting for a cultural exposition of what makes America great in EPCOT-style pavilions. To name just a few as detailed by Jim:
Image: Disney
- The FAMILY pavilion featuring a multi-media show about a family’s evolutions through the 20th century;
- The WORK pavilion, reportedly including “factory tours” of modern American industry partners (like Apple, Crayola, and Ben & Jerry’s);
- The SERVICE & SACRIFICE pavilion – a monumental veteran’s memorial, including a time-traveling attraction through moments of American conflict, artifact exhibitions, and interactive areas to try out military training;
- The CREATIVITY AND FUN pavilion, offering historic attraction recreations from Coney Island, as well as replicas of historic sports fields for exposition style ball games;
- The LAND pavilion, offering an attraction through the landscapes of the country through the seasons and centuries, as well as a petting zoo and nature walks through Virginia’s legendary forests;
- The STREETS OF AMERICA, a cross-country dining district with mini streetscapes recreating New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago, with the associated cuisine of each on display.
You can see how this alleged concept sketch completely reimagined and redefined the park, removing the living history aspects as well as any tough talk of real history and uncomfortable realities in favor of universally agreeable and evergreen celebrations of music, food, innovation, and family. (It may also have been more amenable to character introductions since it spoke of lofty American ideals and concepts rather than interpreting important historical events.)
Image: The New York Times
Even still, Disney’s American Celebration barely made it out of brainstorming. On September 28, 1994, Michael Eisner announced that Disney was officially cancelling its plans to build a history-themed park in Virginia. But that didn’t mean Disney’s America was done… Just when it seemed that Disney’s America might well and truly be scrapped, an unusual opportunity presented itself on the other side of the country… Instead of building Disney’s America, Eisner considered buying it. Read on…
Knott your America (1995)
Knott’s Ghost Town in the 1940s – a decade before Disneyland. Image: Orange County Archives
Just six miles northwest of Disneyland resided Knott’s Berry Farm – a “theme park” predating Walt’s. True to its name, Knott’s Berry Farm originated as a roadside stand on Walter and Cordelia Knott’s farmstead, with Mrs. Knott’s famous chicken dinners turning into a tourist attraction in itself by the 1930s. The 1940s brought a historic Californian “Ghost Town” recreation, followed by a “county fair” themed section coinciding with the opening of Disneyland down the street, and – in the 1960s – a full-scale replica of Independence Hall was built by Walter Knott just across from the park’s entrance.
Suffice it to say that by the ‘90s, Knott’s Berry Farm was a full theme park in its own right, with Ghost Town, the Mexican themed Fiesta Village, the renowned Timber Mountain Log Ride and Calico Mine Ride (which would inspire Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland), a “Roaring ‘20s” themed Boardwalk, and more.
Image: Knott’s Berry Farm
So when Walter Knott’s family put the park up for sale in the mid-1990s, executives at the Walt Disney Company saw acquisition of the park as one potential way to expand the landlocked Disneyland past its borders. Disney reportedly moved forward in negotiations, with potential plans to purchase, reskin, and rename the park as… you guessed it… Disney’s America.
Their plans allegedly included expanding the park’s entrance across Beach Blvd. to the Independence Hall recreation to form President’s Square as a new entry land (including adding the Hall of Presidents), carving the park’s fabled Mystery Lodge and rapids ride (rethemed to the Lewis & Clark River Expedition) into a new Native America territory, transforming the “Roaring 20s” into their planned Enterprise land, and more.
Image: Knott’s Berry Farm
Though certainly the logistics aren’t known, it’s likely that Disney would’ve utilized busses to carry guests between the two parks – Disneyland and the “new” Disney’s America – had the sale gone through. Allegedly, the Knott family resisted Disney’s offer, fearing that their father’s legacy would be buried, while Disney ultimately decided the park was too inconsistent a combination of bare steel coaster thrills and education.
(Interestingly, the Knott family instead sold the park to Cedar Fair – owners of Cedar Point, Kings Island, and Kings Dominion among others, who arguably removed much more of Walter and Cordelia’s influence than Disney would’ve, even if they retained the Knott’s name. As an aside, Knott’s Berry Farm has pivoted back from bare steel roller coasters to theming, entertainment, and dark rides in the last few years… a purposeful repositioning by new Cedar Fair CEO Matt Ouimet, formerly president of Disneyland, who was able to act on the potential he always spoke of seeing in Knott’s from six miles down the road…)
Everything old, new again (2001)
image: Disney
Obviously, Disney’s America has never been built – and probably never will be. But how many times in our Possibilityland entries have we learned that good ideas never die at Disney Imagineering? Such is the case with this concept, too, and many aspects one sketched out for Disney’s never-built Virginian park did find their way into the real world.
It’s no surprise, really, that quite a few concepts cooked up for Disney’s America made their way into the project Imagineers tackled next: the official second gate at Disneyland, Disney’s California Adventure. Built using Eisner’s post-Paris decree requiring little investment and few rides, the park had radically changed in its relatively short life thanks to its own troubled, harrowing history. But even after a few facelifts, the “DNA” of Disney’s America can still be seen within the park.
Image: Disney
Perhaps most inherently obvious, the State Fair area was clearly reimagined with a coastal spin as Paradise Pier, one of the opening lands at Disney’s California Adventure. The steel-coaster-disguised-as-a-classic-wooden-one, carousel, and Ferris wheel are dead giveaways, even if Paradise Pier (and especially its successor, the admittedly odd Pixar Pier) dropped the fair-in-a-field style in favor of a more elegant and attractive seaside Victorian aesthetic.
The Victory Field area of militaristic aviation also made its way to California Adventure as the Condor Flats land – a “high desert” landing strip marked by industrial hangars, rocket parts, and rotating satellite dishes. Likewise, we can imagine that the wartime flight simulator (probably using Star Tours technology in the Virginia concept) “evolved” into the Lost Legend: Soarin’ Over California.
Victory Field at DIsney’s America (top) and Condor Flats at California Adventure (bottom). Images: Disney
(Ultimately, Condor Flats was one of the areas axed from California Adventure during its billion-dollar redesign, becoming the Grizzly Peak Airfield – a ‘50s inspired expansion of the Grizzly Peak National Park land next door, losing its desert rocks and industrial shrapnel in favor of fire watchtowers and evergreens).
Other influences from Disney’s America might’ve been Grizzly River Rapids as the headlining attraction of Grizzly Peak, and Bountiful Valley Farm as an interpolation of the “Family Farm” land planned for Virginia.
America, today?
Controversial, radical, and revolutionary, Disney’s America was many things to many people. At first blush, the park may feel akin to Walt’s early infatuation with Americana – more peers to Frontierland, Western River Expedition, and the Country Bear Jamboree – than fellow ‘90s projects like the “MTV attitude” infused Superstar Limo, the “ride the movies” philosophy of Indiana Jones Adventure, or the “pivot to teen thrillseekers” influence of Alien Encounter.
Image: Disney
Would this proposed park have profited from the privatization of our history as detractors promised? Would it have whitewashed America’s sometimes-troubled-and-traumatic origins and growing pains? Or – perhaps worse – would Disney have actually confronted the realities of Americans’ hard-fought (and ongoing) push for freedom, “picking sides,” acting as revisionist and historian in the politicized backyard of D.C.?
Perhaps the most compelling question yet – if Disney’s America had been built, would Disney still own it? Or is the very concept of a self-serious, character-free, reverent and historic park beyond Disney’s scope of interest in the 21st century? How would Disney’s living history park grow and evolve, and indeed, would it have? Even if Disney had opted for the less-controversial “American Celebration” park, wouldn’t it have fared even worse than Epcot has? More than likely, it would still be showing the same Circlevision movies it was meant to open with in 1998.
Disney’s patriotic park was never built (and arguably, might not be around today even if it had been). But as always, Disney’s experimentation with something revolutionary did inform Imagineers’ ideas for decades to come.
