Walt Disney (right) visits his "Dreaming Tree" with his brother Roy at their old family farm in Marceline, Missouri.
Courtesy of Kaye Malins/Walt Disney Museum
Show Me The State: The Lost Disney Park
Walt Disney famously spent a good chunk of his youth growing up in Missouri. Just ask the residents of Marceline, Walt’s boyhood town.
Walt was born in Chicago in 1901 but moved to a farm in Marceline in 1906. It’s in Marceline that Walt finds his inspiration for many moments in his films (like Peter Pan, Ferdinand the Bull, Lady and the Tramp) and in his plans for Disneyland's Main Street U.S.A. But it’s also the place where Walt falls in love with rural America and the idealistic, small-town vibe.
He fears the charm and tight-knit community feeling of the Midwest will eventually disappear preventing future generations of kids from experiencing a childhood like his.
How does he want to preserve that slice of Americana? With a theme park, of course. And so begins the ill-fated journey to build a theme park in Marceline.
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