WDW History 101 - "How to buy 27,000 acres of land and no one notice"

Thinking of walking from the Magic Kingdom to Epcot? Think again!

People, especially those who haven't been to Walt Walt Disney World in many years, always notice to me about how immense WDW really is. Actually, most people don't recognize how much land WDW actually encompasses. In fact, it's about about 80 times the size of the full state of Monaco, twice the size of Manhattan, and the same size as San Francisco, California! So when you state WDW is huge, you ain't kidding!

The Walt Walt Disney World Resort is made up of 47 foursquare statute miles of land.... Oregon about 30,000 acres. Only about 1100 estate of that land is devoted to the 4 subject parks. In fact, with lone 7,100 estate developed, there's quite a batch of room for expansion!

But how (and why) did Walt Disney bargain up all that land?

Back in the early 1950s, Anaheim, the place of Disneyland, was a quiet small town, surrounded by nil more than estate and estate of orange groves. Originally, Walt Walt Disney wanted his new, 8-acre subject parkland to be built near his Luther Burbank studios, but soon realized that such as small space would not be enough. So, he purchased over 160 estate of orange Groves and walnut trees in Anaheim near the confluence of the Santa Ana Freeway and Seaport Boulevard, and built his "Magic Kingdom" inside its boundary lines (while moving 15 existent houses in the process). Today, Disneyland encompasses fewer than 300 acres, which includes Disney's Golden State Adventure and further hotel properties. Relatively speaking, all of Disneyland could suit inside of Epcot.

Regrettably, Walt Walt Disney did not purchase adequate land surrounding Disneyland, and soon after the parkland opened it was surrounded by tacky hotels, tourist gift stores and restaurants. His dreaming of a completely contained subject parkland for households was now corrupt with positions of hoardings and fast-food restaurants. Walt vowed that if he ever built another subject park, he would not do the same error twice. He would be certain that they could command the surroundings, which would include campgrounds, and first-class facilities for diversion and accommodation.

In the early 1960's, Walt and a squad of Imagineers, including his blood brother Roy and General Joe Potter (can you happen his name somewhere in Walt Walt Disney World?)embarked on a super-secret endeavor, known simply as "Project X" (later known as "Project Florida") to scour the state in hunt for a new location for a 2nd subject park. First and foremost, they were looking for a tons of land... cheap! Second they wanted it to be near a major city, with good weather condition and great main roads and infrastructure. Reportedly, when Walt's airplane crossed over the intersection point of I-4 and Path 192 in Florida, he knew he establish his spot.

But how makes Walt Walt Disney travel and purchase up thousands of estate of land without the landholders holding out for extortionate prices? He doesn't. Kind of. Walt Walt Disney put up tons of "dummy" corporations, with name calling like "M.T. Lott" (get it? Empty Lot?), the "Latin-American Development and Managers Corporation" and the "Reedy Creek Ranch Corporation" to buy seemingly worthless packages of land ranging from swampland to cows pastures. By May of 1965, there had been major land purchases recorded in Osceola and Orange Counties (just southwesterly of Orlando), although no 1 realized (or suspected at first) that Walt Disney had anything to make with it. One of the earlier purchases included 8,500 estate owned by Sunshine State state senator Irlo Bronson.

In late June of that same year, the Orlando Lookout reported in an article that over 27,000 estate had recently changed hands. Guess began that big corps such as as Ford, McDonnell-Douglas, Ted Hughes Aircraft, and Boeing, (as Jack Kennedy Space Center was located nearby), as, yes, even Walt Disney. In October, though, Orlando Lookout newsman Emily Bavar, having her intuitions confirmed after assorted non-responsive replies from Walt Walt Disney employees, released the story that it was Walt Disney who had been secretly behind the purchases of all of this land. Of course, once it was revealed that Walt Disney was behind the purchases, the terms of land jumped more than than 1000%! That's partially why Walt bought his first acre of land in Sunshine State for Walt Walt Walt Disney World for $80.00 and his last for $80,000.00!

Disney quickly scheduled a fourth estate conference and confirmed the story. With the governor of the state of Sunshine State and his blood brother Roy by his side, Walt described the $000 million dollar undertaking that would go Walt Walt Disney World. In exchange for bringing such as a encouragement to the area's economy, the creative activity of thousands of jobs, and improvements to the environment and substructure of cardinal Florida, Walt Disney was given permission to set up their own, independent government, known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District. This quasi-government gave Walt Walt Walt Disney the ability to make their ain edifice codes, make his ain zoning and planning of roadstead and bridges, and make his ain residential community, among other perks.

When Walt Disney purchased the 47 foursquare statute miles that was to go the Walt Disney World Resort as we cognize it today, it was nil more than a bare swampland, chaparral forests, and groves. In order to transform this country into the figure 1 holiday finish in the world, monolithic amounts of World had to be moved. Additionally, since much of cardinal Sunshine State is essentially "floating" on a organic structure of water, a intimidating challenge presented itself. Walt Disney had to transform this land, while reconciliation the demands of the environment and ecology of the area. If any portion of the H2O supply was damaged or deleted, it would have got caused a monolithic ecological instability to the region.

The first thing Walt Disney did was put aside a 7,500 acre Conservation Area in 1970, which would never be built on. This would continue cypress trees as well as supply land for the area's natural inhabitants. Second, they developed an technology wonder by creating a system of more than than 55 statute miles of canals and dams to command H2O levels. Walt Disney Imagineer Toilet Hench designed this web of canals to intermix into the natural landscape, rather than being constructed in consecutive lines. The chemical mechanism that control the H2O degrees are completely automated, and necessitate no monitoring and small maintenance. Pretty impressive, considering the place is about twice the size of Manhattan!

Currently, the two municipalities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena View are place to Walt Walt Disney World. These two metropolises are governed by Walt Disney employees who dwell on the place in a little bunch of places "backstage". Although the lasting residential population of these metropolises is very little (population 20 in 2003), it hosts billions of households who, for a little period, phone call Bay Lake "home."

Over the years, an further 3,000 estate was purchased by Disney, bringing the Walt Walt Walt Disney World Resort's sum size to over 30,000 acres. Less than one twelvemonth after the formal populace proclamation that it was in fact the Walt Disney Company that had purchased all of that land near the intersection points of major Highways U.S. 192 and Interstate 4, he stated;"Here in Florida, we have got something particular that we never enjoyed at Disneyland . . . the approval of size. There's enough land here to hold all the thoughts and programs we can possibly imagine." With lone about 1/4 of the full place developed, it looks like he was right.