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For many fans, Disney Parks are as well known for the projects that didn’t come to fruition as the ones that did. We’re fascinated by closed attractions, forgotten concepts, and plans that simply never made it off the drawing board. That's why Theme Park Tourist set out to recall and record the spectacular, never-built parks, attractions, and lands that – for one reason or another – aren’t around today.

That's why our Possibilityland series is here. Over the years, we've explored the mystical Beastly Kingdom once planned for Disney's Animal Kingdom, toured the Disney-MGM Studios' lost Muppet Studios, summitted Disney's never-built "Mountains," been launched into the future in Tomorrowland 2055, and many more in our In-Depth Collections Library. But today, we'll step into the most inventive lost land ever planned for Disney Parks.

In the 1970s, Walt Disney Imagineers officially announced a stunning new area to join Disneyland’s seven – an extension of Walt’s love of Americana and the impossible fantasy environments that only Disney’s Imagineers could create, Discovery Bay would’ve been the flagship land of Disney’s theme park empire. The gorgeous, thoughtful, brilliant concepts of Discovery Bay would’ve easily been one of the strongest lands at any Disney Park, even unto today. But Discovery Bay never opened. Today, we’ll explore the tumultuous tale leading up to its design, what this magnificent land would’ve contained, why it never opened, and where you can find its DNA scattered around the globe. Hold on tight as we uncover the sunken mysteries of Discovery Bay. 

Hints in the West

Image: Disney

If you’ve visited Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, or Disneyland Paris, you’ve likely been awe-struck by the towering, geometric “natural” formations of Big Thunder Mountain. At each of those parks, the ride’s iconic rock towers were modeled very precisely after the inspiring stone monoliths of Arizona’s Monument Valley, a massive and expansive desert National Park. Like their (relatively) massive and overpowering castles, those three parks all built imposing, harsh, angular, geometric peaks in expansive desert settings on purpose - it builds a larger-than-life scale (above).

But did you ever notice something subtly different about Disneyland's version of the ride?

Sure, the roller coaster track itself in California is a scaled-down replica of Florida’s, meant to fit more snugly into the miniscule park’s cramped quarters. But there’s something else about Disneyland’s that simply doesn’t match the others.

Image: Disney

There, the iconic mountain range is not modeled after the geometric, harsh, intimidating towers of Monument Valley. Instead, famed Imagineer Tony Baxter opted to use the softer, rounded “hoodoos” of Utah’s Bryce Canyon, a National Park famous for its eroded desert formations nestled amid a dense forest. The hypnotic towers are not gigantic, powerful and strong. Like Disneyland's castle, they're not about size and dominance. Rather, they're more charming and warm. The hoodoos are somewhat… well… unbelievable. They’re more fantasy than forceful (above), and of course, it's not just a coindence that Disneyland's is different from the others. In fact, that’s just the way Baxter wanted it.

The softer towers of Disneyland’s Thunder Mountain tell a subtley different tale... The fanciful formations are certainly more appropriate for the quaint park (and the ride’s proximity to Fantasyland), but they also signal the existence of Discovery Bay.

Manifest destiny

Imagine this: when you step into Frontierland, you’re supposed to feel that you’ve been transported to the 1860s Old West, when prospectors discovered gold in the fresh mines of Thunder Mountain. And for all we know, the miners there simply settled into the town and spent their winnings at the saloon, right?

But what if they didn’t? What if, instead, those prospectors – now flush with gold – continued their Westward Ho journey to manifest destiny and found themselves along the Golden Coast of California? Imagine, then, if those prospectors settled into San Francisco, right at the start of its economic boom – right as it became known as the “Paris of the West?”

Imagine if they created in San Francisco an international coastal city for explorers, adventurers, thinkers, artists, and scientists – a golden, seaside port of crystalline towers, technology, cogs, hot air balloons, steel, gadgets, and wonder? Welcome to Discovery Bay.

On the next page, we’ll begin our in-depth exploration into this seaside mechanical Mecca and its origin story, then we’ll go in-depth into the rides and attractions planned for Disney’s most impressive lost land.

 
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Comments

This would be a fantastic addition to walt disney world and would make a specal trip back just too see it.

Thank you again for yet another great article. A little late getting around to reading this one unfortunately.
Very excited to see you tackle the never built attractions/lands and also give a bit of insight into Tony Baxter's genius.
Can't wait to see what the subject of your next retrospective will be.
Cheers!

Great article. I wonder if the town (San Fransokyo) in Big Hero 6 was inspired in any way by this back story?

I think this concept would have worked perfectly in the Disney's America park had it been built.

If built I believe this lost concept would still be hit. I can see EPCOT's old Horizon pavilion fitting in there. I would like to see some of the rides mentioned added to Disney World. As far as Island at the Top of the World goes I loved that movie when I first saw it.

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