I remember this quite well !!
At the time of all this I was doing a radio show in Winchester, VA which was not all that far from this.
The project was to be called Disney's America. It was planned to be built not far from theManassas,VA battlefeild off of Interstate 66.
When the project was first announced a lot of people were excited about it. If I remember correctly it was to have one massive wooden roller coaster and one of the largest ferris wheels ever built. Looked like it could easily draw 6 million if not more.
Another thing in Disney's favor was local competition at this time. In 1993/1994 there were rumors that Adventure World ( Six Flags America ) would close soon come to think of it I believe the park didn't even open for the 1991 season.
But in Virginia style, came the protests, lawsuits, and such People didn't feel a theme park near a battlefield was right, concerns about traffic on I-66, unhealthy air, you name it as it seemed it was the "in" thing to attack Disney. Actor Robert Duvall was one of those "anti-Disney" crowd.
Anyway Disney pulled out. It was sudden too. I think it was announced at 10pm at night so the children wouldn't be disappointed, or so I have been told.
Believe it or not, one can still find a car here or there in Virginia that says "say no to Disney" and there is still debate to this day whether Disney was actually serious about this project in the first place. For starters when Disney pulled out of northern Virginia, other towns/states jumped on the bandwagon to get them. I think some town near Raleigh, NC tried to get Disney and one town in West Virginia ( Charles Town, WV )
was willing to GIVE Disney anything including massive tax breaks just so they could build there.
Of course Disney didn't take any of these offers and very little about Disney's America was heard about since.
