3. Disney's Mineral King Ski Resort

Location: Sequoia National Park, California

Planned in: 1960s

Theme: Swiss Alpine-style ski resort

The background

At the same time that he was developing plans for Disney World in Florida, Walt was also working on another, very different concept for a tourist destination. He had set his heart on developing a ski resort.

Just before Christmas in 1965, the U.S. Forest Service announced that it had awarded Disney the rights to develop the Mineral King Valley area of Sequoia National Forest into just such a resort. Walt himself was quoted as saying: "When I first saw Mineral King five years ago, I thought it was one of the most beautiful spots I had ever seen and we want to keep it that way."

Disney expected to attract 2.5 million visitors a year to the Mineral King Ski Resort, and planned to spend some $35 million on creating it. In the same way that Disneyland had transformed the public's perception of what an amusement park could be, Disney hoped to redefine expectations of a ski resort.

The plans

At the heart of Disney’s Mineral King Ski Resort would have been an Alpine Village, complete with a shops, restaurants, a chapel and an ice-skating rink. Further restaurants (a total of 10) would be scattered through the valley and atop mountains. Two large hotels would provide accommodation.

Although there would be no theme park as such, Disney would bring its brand of themed entertainment to the resort. Notably, one of the restaurants would contain a musical Country Bear Jamboree show featuring audio-animatronic characters.

Cars would be excluded from the valley itself, with guests parking some distance away and being transported into it. There were discussions about installing a steam train, or possibly even a monorail system to fulfil this function.

A total of fourteen ski lifts would be installed. These would be camouflaged to avoid blighting views of the valley. To the same end, service areas would be buried in a 60,000-square-foot facility underneath the village.

What went wrong?

A previous plan to install a ski resort at Mineral King had fallen apart when it was realised that road access to the area was inadequate. For Disney's plan to succeed, a highway would have to be cut through the surrounding Sequoia National Park. In the months leading up to Walt's death, much progress was made. California Governor Edmund G. Brown announced a $3 million Federal grant towards building the road, and planned to seek further funding.

After Walt died in 1966, the company continued to work on the Mineral King plans. The master plan was approved by the U.S. Forest Service in January 1969, and the resort was expected to welcome its first skiers in 1973.

By this time, however, there were significant objections to the ski resort plans. These were mostly based on environmental grounds, with fears that the road and resort would destroy the natural beauty of the valley. Eventually, in May 1972, Disney reduced the planned number of ski lifts (which by now had reached 22) to just 10, as well as scaling down other aspects of the resort. It even planned to install a cog railway instead of the new road. This, though, was not enough to placate its opponents, with the Sierra Club pursuing legal means to stop it. Eventually, in 1978 Congress removed Mineral King from the National Forest and made it a part of Sequoia National Park. The ski resort project was dropped.

The legacy

One element of the plans did live on. The Country Bear Jamboree at the Magic Kingdom was based on the show that was originally designed for one of Mineral King's restaurants.