Once upon a time, there was a man with a vision. That man was Walt Disney and his vision was
for a theme park like no other.
A whole new world of unique attractions, hotels and even a planned community that would set
new benchmarks in innovation and city planning.
Though he never saw his vision completed, Disney is now immortalised in one of the world’s
largest and most visited attractions.
This is the incredible construction story behind the Walt Disney World Resort.
In 1959, following the success of their first theme park - which opened in California
in 1955 - Walt Disney Productions began planning the development of a second resort in the
United States.
With 75% of the US population at that time living east of the Mississippi River, a location
on the east coast was explored.
The new project was personally conceived and led by Walt Disney. He disliked the numerous
businesses that had sprung up around his California park and the lack of control that he had over
developments in close proximity to the resort. With the second destination, he set out to
control a much larger area of land.
Walt Disney flew over a potential site near Bay Lake in Orlando, Florida (one of many
locations he was reviewing) in November 1963.
The site was attractive for its proximity to Orlando International Airport (then McCoy
Air Force Base) and the well-developed road network which was set to be strengthened
further with the construction of Florida’s Turnpike and Interstate 4.
To avoid unwanted attention and press speculation the early development of Disney’s second
park took place in complete secrecy - with even the notion that a second park was being
considered being kept under wraps.
With the Orlando site selected, Walt Disney Productions began quietly acquiring the land
for their second resort.
In the early 1960s, many owners were only too happy to let go of the land, which was
mostly swamp at the time.
The land acquisitions took place as distinctly separate transactions through a number of
proxy companies. Some of these company names - such as the “Reedy Creek Ranch Corporation”
- are now cast into a window above Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom Park.
The agents brokering these deals were unaware who their ultimate client was, and in some
instances areas of swamp land were acquired for as little as USD $100 an acre.
Knowing that recording of the first deeds would ignite intense public scrutiny, Disney
delayed the filing of paperwork until a large enough portion of land was under contract
and the proxy companies could be amalgamated under the Disney brand.
Despite being undertaken by proxy companies, as the land acquisitions became public in
quick succession to each other, rumours began circulating as to what such a large area could
be used for. Newspapers at the time speculated that Henry Ford, the Rockefellers or even
NASA were behind the purchases.
Walt Disney Productions gently stoked these rumours through intermediaries and even announced
a $50M investment in their California park, to throw people off the scent.
In October 1965, Walt Disney was asked about the land purchases directly in a interview
with the Orlando Sentinel. Whilst Disney denied the claim, his momentary look of shock when
the question was first put to him led to the Sentinel publishing a theory that Disney were
planning a major new park in Florida.
With the story breaking, Walt Disney and then-Florida Governor Haydon Burns formally announced what
was then described as “The Florida Project” in November 1965.
Unfortunately, just over a year after announcing the development, Walt Disney passed away from
lung cancer.
Roy Disney, Walt’s brother and business partner, delayed his retirement in order to
oversee the first phase of his brother’s vision.
In order for the resort to grow and succeed, legislation was passed which
made the land owned by Disney a special district containing two incorporated cities, Bay Lake
and Reedy Creek - known today as Lake Buena Vista.
This status gave Disney a degree of immunity from County and State land use laws. It also allowed for
the issuing of tax-free bonds to fund public projects within the district.
In 1967, the district began construction of drainage canals to dewater the vast site,
along with roadways and supporting infrastructure for the Magic Kingdom.
By 1971, that theme park, together with the first section of the resort’s monorail,
numerous golf courses and hotels were completed - including the Contemporary Resort, Polynesian
Village and the Fort Wilderness campsite.
When the resort opened to the public on 01 October 1971, Roy Disney dedicated it to his
brother, announcing that it would be officially be known as “Walt Disney World” - ensure
that the man who started it all would be remembered.
Sadly, Roy Disney himself passed away just three months after the park opened.
While the first phase of the park opened to much fanfare, Disney were determined to continually
grow the resort and never allow it to become dated; maintaining a continuous pipeline of
new attractions.
In its first decade, Walt Disney World added further golf courses and hotels in the Magic
Kingdom vicinity as well as the Village Marketplace Shopping District (now Disney Springs) and
the Walt Disney World Conference Centre.
From inception, Walt Disney had wanted to develop an ambitious Progress City within
the resort district that would act as a blueprint for cities of the future.
This concept was abandoned by the board after Disney’s death but later evolved into a
version of Walt’s idea known as the “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow” or ‘EPCOT”.
EPCOT officially opened in 1982, becoming the second theme park at Walt Disney World.
Famed for its World’s Fair-inspired Future World exhibits and the internationally themed
World Showcase, the park is centred around a 55 metre (180 foot) high geodesic dome, known
as Spaceship Earth.
The completion of EPCOT also saw the monorail system extended and today the system runs
for over 14 miles around the resort carrying 150,000 people everyday.
In 1989, a Hollywood inspired park, known as “Disney’s Hollywood Studios” was added.
Operating as both a theme park and an active production studio - the facility contributed
to a number of Disney’s productions in the 1990s and early 2000s including Mulan and
Lilo and Stitch.
More recently the park has become home to the resort’s latest attraction - “Toy
Story Land” - which opened in 2018.
Typhoon Lagoon also opened in 1989 marking the resort’s first step into water parks
- and was followed by Blizzard Beach in 1995.
Disney's Animal Kingdom is the latest theme park to open at the resort, dedicated to the
natural world and conservation. The attraction was opened in 1998 and has since continued
to grow with “Pandora - The World of Avatar” added in 2017.
Today, Walt Disney World extends over a 43 square mile, 110 square kilometre area. It
features 30 themed hotels and has over 74,000 staff making it one of the largest employers
in the United States.
With more than 50 million visitors annually since 2013, the resort’s growth shows no
signs of slowing down and even more attractions are currently under development.
Disney’s acquisition of Marvel in 2009 and LucasFilm in 2012 has given rise to “Star
Wars: Galaxy’s Edge” currently under construction and due to open in Disney’s Hollywood Studios
in 2019 and a “Guardians of the Galaxy” attraction due to open at EPCOT by 2021.
The Fox-Disney merger currently in the pipeline, is also likely to generate new resorts in
the years ahead.
Over the past 60 years, this remarkable project has seen an area of swamp land become one
of the world’s most visited destinations, a powerful tribute to its founder Walt Disney
and symbol of what can be possible if you keep on believing.
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