Proposed Disney Theme Park outside Washington DC - 1990's?

[mtbiker99]

I was reading an article about the US Army building a military-theme amusement park at Fort Belvoir (South of Washington DC).

 

At the end of the second page, it states that in 1994, Disney pulled the plug on a theme park near Manassas battlefield (southwest of Washington DC) that was supposed to draw 6 million guest a year. Anyone else hear about this before? Also, I wonder what other locations in the US that Disney is still considering? Or about the ones that were scrapped?

 

Here is the second page of the article. Its the last paragraph.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/07/AR2006080701182_2.html

[Canobie Fan]

I remember it being in the news a bit. People were mad that disney was going to come in and make a fake world in a place with a lot of US history... And crap like that.

[tantan]

I was reading an article about the US Army building a military-theme amusement park at Fort Belvoir (South of Washington DC).

 

At the end of the second page, it states that in 1994, Disney pulled the plug on a theme park near Manassas battlefield (southwest of Washington DC) that was supposed to draw 6 million guest a year. Anyone else hear about this before? Also, I wonder what other locations in the US that Disney is still considering? Or about the ones that were scrapped?

 

Here is the second page of the article. Its the last paragraph.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/07/AR2006080701182_2.html

 

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.

[methylene]

Disney pulled out because the locals threw a fit about Disney moving in.

 

 

edit: There's an article in Wiki about it, but phpbb can't seem to parse links properly that contain apostrophes, so I can't post it.

 

Matt

[redfoot12]

I remember this as well. I was very excited at the time but somehow knew it would never happen.

[larrygator]

Disney's America

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Disney's America was a theme park that was to be built by The Walt Disney Company in Haymarket, Virginia. After concept plans were drawn up for the history-based attraction in 1993, it became Michael Eisner's pet project [1], and he even obtained the support of the Virginia Commission on Population Growth and Development [2].

 

The plan was withdrawn on September 28, 1994, after Protect Historic America organized national opposition to the park. Protect Historic America's Director Rudy Abramson had selected Shelby Foote, made famous by Ken Burns' Civil War series on PBS, as one of the opposition spokespersons. Local press revealed that the Foote family once owned the land where the park was to be built. Many Haymarket insiders believe this revelation may have finally forced Eisner to withdraw his support.

[redfoot12]

It's interesting to think of what the landscape for Virginia parks would be if Disney's America had gone through. Would BGE have gotten such and such a ride, how PKD might have progressed, would Six Flags have tried to snatch up Adventure World (SFA).

[mcjaco]

If I recall, the park was to be heavily themed on America's history. Much of the first artist renderings were of the Civil War era, which didn't go over well. Protests were more about the nature of the park and how certain eras were going to be "presented."

 

I've got some of the artist renderings in a Imagineering book....somewhere....

 

I thought the idea would be cool, not sure if it would draw alot of people and the choice for development area was poor.

[J-ELLO]

This was actually Disneys second try at getting into the market up North. What there were foaming at the mouth for originally was Coney Island, they were planning to knock down everything except the Cyclone (which would have been modified to current saftey and mechanical systems), the Wonder Wheel ( modified also), and the Parachute ( which would have been reopened). The rest would be turned into one of the multi-billion dollar theme parks, with attractions concerning the evolution of entertainment and ages like the roaring 20s and Teens when amusements took a leap.

 

Being that they did not get there way CI is the same as always, but if you do notice that Disney built the Boardwalk resort section at WDW after they realized that the real project in CI was not going to work. They even have models of rides of CIs past in the lobby of one of the hotels in the section.

 

My father is a historian of Coney Island and in my home is the worlds largest and finest museum of memorabila from the very beginning of CI to the present and Disney actually called my home offering us a decently large sum of money for the collection so they can place it in the ( then planning)boardwalk section but we kept it becuase it took my father 41 years of collecting to get where we are.

[okinawaboy11]

Odly enough there was just an report on the news about this tonight on ABC i think. Weird.

Also, they mention the Army themed amusement park.

[QueerRudie]

I took a short road trip to the Disney's America 'preview center' in Haymarket VA that summer to take a long look at the proposed park and it's expansion plans over the years.

 

The staff were from the Florida park primarily, and mostly were press type people, very friendly and outgoing- they gave me a huge packet of material on the park, with the timeline to the diffent aspects of the park and it's hotels, etc. (Unfortunatly, the packet along with the pictures and press releases was burned in a fire which destroyed most of my coaster collections and personal items several years ago.)

 

I do remember a model of the planned park, and some very striking similarities to portions of the existing California Adventure park- The large wooden coaster in the model appeared to be very close to the California Screamin' coaster- which makes me think that the imagineers had a ride planned that just switched locations. A very large river rapids ride was also planned, as was a 'Factory' themed inverted coaster through a large building (Perhaps an Industrial Revolution themed ride?)- Although the model was amazing, detail was best reserved for a park that never materialized- sadly.

 

Some other things that were planned (based on my memory, so please forgive any details I may have forgotten!)

 

A water park was also planned for the site, along with a smaller 'second' park- whether or not this was inteded to be ridepark or a campground, I don't remeber.

 

Several Disney Hotels (The first would have opened with the park, with three others following shortly thereafter) Plus space for additional 'licenced' hotels on site. I do recall that property along that section of HWY 15 shot up, with many of the large resort operators buying up land before they even got approvals to build the park in.

 

The park was planned to have been 140 acres to start, with buildout being up to 220 acres, or roughly the size of the Magic Kingdom in Fla. The actual park was to have been centred in the middle of the triangular shaped acreage, with the subsuquent parks/hotels/ancillary items surrounding the park at the core.

 

When Disney threw in the towel (I Stand by the term Gave up too early!) they had made signifigant concessions to areal jurisdictions for road improvements (Wideing rt. 66, adding road access to the park and surrounding areas and restricting traffic through the battlefields) plus noise and curfew provisions. Prince William County was all for the plan- at least that was what they stated in early releases- as the tax revenue would have been staggering. However, the NIMBYs in that part of the state had become too bothersome for most people to deal with- and their crying and shouting brought down even mighty Disney- with one benefit. The BoyScouts of America inherited the land for future use in their own projects.

 

I'm not saying that the NIMBYs didn't have a real case- they do, as traffic here can be appalling at best even on Sunday. Personally I feel Disney had a real plan to redevelop that area without undue stress to the populous as a whole.

[DLA]

My brother and his family live in Winchester, Virginia, and from my visits there during the winter, I have to assume that this park would have been either Seasonal or operating only the indoor attractions during the very cold months. I remember seeing some big stories on the park in some magazines years ago (I especially remember the photo of the "Industrial Revolution" rollercoaster). The park seemed like a cross between Epcot and Disney's California Adventure----not sure if locals would have enjoyed it or if tourists would pay to see recreations of history when actual historical sites are right in the area.

[ECZenith]

I guess that makes this pin ultra rare.

This park woul dhave been so cool...

[GAcoaster]

This was actually the second park proposed for that area which the locals blocked. Marriott was supposed to build a third Great America park in Manassas, but local protests over increased traffic made them cancel their plans. Great America III was scheduled to open in 1978 but construction never began.

[disneyfan1313]

Someone who lives in the area might know for sure - but I have heard all the protests are kinda ironic because the area where Disney's America was supposed to be built now has 'Big Box Shopping Centers' and Condos and such that cause more traffic issues than a theme park would have.

[talisker]

Disney's America was supposed to have a film or presentation that celebrated immigration that would have been housed in a recreation of Ellis Island. That morphed into Golden Dreams and the Palace of Fine Arts in DCA.

 

DA was going to have a farm area, just like the Bountiful Valley Farm at DCA. It was also going to have a section with factories or workplaces. The above mentioned roller coaster was going to be part of that - it was a roller coaster through a steel mill.

 

It was also going to have an amusement pier. Disney also had an amusement pier planned for the Port Disney project in Long Beach.

 

DA also had Liberty Field, a recreation of an old airfield that I think was going to be themed to WW2, but it's the ancestor of Condor Flats. And there was going to be a Lewis & Clark expedition raft ride, similar to Grizzly Peak.

 

DCA is pretty much DA, with the addition of the Hollywood Pictures Backlot.

[Gnome]

I remember it being in the news a bit. People were mad that disney was going to come in and make a fake world in a place with a lot of US history... And crap like that.

Well, let me tell ya, that fake world is 10x better then the real world.

[BeemerBoy]

For those of you interested, I stumbled across this old article which I had clipped and saved in 1993. For the record, I'm glad this park never happened.

 

 

 

 

 

I've also got a huge pullout section on the proposed park and the fight that ensued. I'll try and scan it, shrink it, and piece it together if anyone's interested.

[darklingscribe]

This all sounds very interesting. I wonder how many of Disney's planned parks never got made.

 

I remember that there was a rumor that Disney was planning on purchasing Treasure Island (a former military base located on an Island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay). But I think reason why this never happened is because it would be such a headache to control the traffic. The only way to get to Treasure Island is the Bay Bridge, and commuters bring the traffic on the bridge to a stand still every weekday without the help of a theme park. Not to mention the problem of all the pipes Disney would have to lay down under the bay to bring enough water and electricity to the area.

 

I remember hearing a lot about this around ten years ago, but untill I can find an artical about it I'll just list it as a rumor.

[morbid_riddler]

 

I love the typo, how many I's in Virginia? Shouldn't be as hard as Mississippi, right?

[BeemerBoy]

^ Nice pickup. I hadn't even noticed that.

[gtaylor]

I have lived in Manassas nearly all my life and I believe not allowing Disney to build here was a huge mistake. We, as local taxpayers have ended up paying for everything Disney would have taken care of. Like widening I-66, which at the moment is still a 4-lane interstate at some points(granted they are working on it, but Disney would have had this done years ago). 66 has always been neglected in favor of 95, who cares about the local traffic.

 

And after building about 20+ new housing developments on Rt 15(the road Disney would have been built on), some of that road is still 2 lanes! My brother lives on land right next to the Disney parcel, and he said that traffic in the morning can be horrendous. And Disney would have been a cash cow for the community, and a great job source.

 

Oh well, whats done is done.

 

I did find a link with a bunch of information(mostly text, but for what its worth) here - http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/mana/adhi11b.htm

 

Battle reenactments on land would be accompanied at night by a restaging of the naval showdown between the ironclads the Monitor and the Merrimac on a manmade lake called Freedom Bay.

 

That would have been quite the show.

A B&W photo of the model - from the website noted above

[Geoff]

Interesting reading. Wonder how Mickey would have fitted in with it??!

 

Check out this link for additional artwork http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Set/2825/america.html

[morbid_riddler]

Interesting reading. Wonder how Mickey would have fitted in with it??!

 

Check out this link for additional artwork http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Set/2825/america.html

 

I highly doubt he would have fit in. If this project did go through, your best bet is to show up within the first 6 months before they start "altering" it to add more rat appearances and sappy song and dance shows and parades. Next thing you know, that 'recreation' will have a few new hit broadway numbers and some former acrobats from cirque du soleil. Entertaining, maybe, but not what you came for, right? If they'd just leave some of their best attractions alone without altering them, I'd have more respect for the rat (ie: mr. toad replaced for pooh, alien encounter toned down with stitch, countdown to extinction lamed down to have tie ins with a crappy movie no one remembers about talking dinosaurs) need I say more?

[BeemerBoy]

^ I hear you loud and clear! I said it back then, and I'll say it again. If you wanna learn about The United States of America's early history, then go to Boston. Go to Philadelphia. Go to Washington, D.C.

No one ever needed the lovable mouse providing an afternoon parade to teach us about Francis Scott Key or Betsy Ross! Would it have benefitted the local community, as someone mentioned above? Probably. Does America need anymore "dumbing down" of the educational system? No.

 

If you've ever seen Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" segment on his show, then this is what I imagine the clients of the park to have been. And frankly, that scares me. I know this argument is pointless now, but hey, we didn't have the internet to whine about things back then, right? We're just making up for that now.

 

Scott "Disney has it's places in American history. Virginia is not one of them." B.