Why Disney World is in Florida

Beyond the boundaries of Walt Disney World, there is a larger boundary that has been at the heart of a dispute between Disney and Florida’s new governor, Ron De Santis.

This tourism oversight district began long before DeSantis’ war with Disney. It tells the story of Florida’s history, and the lost city, EPCOT, “it will be the community of tomorrow, never to be finished.” Most importantly, it tells the story of why Disney World exists... and why it’s not going anywhere. When Disney World opened in 1955, the area wasn’t as densely populated as it is now. Period photos show that the area didn’t begin to develop as densely as it does today, but a 1965 map shows just how quickly things began to change. With the addition of schools and shopping centers, Disney had more control over the future of the site than ever before. Disney wanted more land for their new park, so they published an internal publication saying that the site provided enough land for future growth. They also wanted the East Coast for their new park. In order to do this, he needed a large amount of land. He didn't want dense urban areas, and he didn't want cold either. That's why he chose Florida. He also wanted to avoid competing with the ocean, so he bypassed coastal locations. When he flew over Orlando, he spotted I-4 and I-95, as well as the Sunshine State Parkway, which sealed the deal.

Locals began to notice large land deals being made by mysterious companies. Floridians soon began to suspect their mysterious industry was Disney. The size of Disney World would have been the size of Disneyland. And here's the land they bought for Disney World. Even though some of the land was sold off, Disney kept it.

After the land story broke, Disney held a press conference, along with Governor Hayden Burns and his brother Roy Disney, to discuss the plans for Disney World. “This is going to bring a whole new world of entertainment and economic development into the state of Florida,” he said. Let’s take a look at this next quote from Walt Disney: “After you’ve done something you see, with the experience and all that, what would you do if you were to start from scratch?” Disney wanted to capture the essence of what he had missed in Anaheim. Looking at the land today, I would say we’re starting from scratch. There was a lot of work that needed to be done on the land. Drainage, development, everything. If you take a look at a map of the area from 1962, it shows some orange groves, but the symbol means swamp. The area was called Reedy Creek Swamp at the time. But Disney had bigger plans for the land. "Here in Florida, we have something we've never seen at Disney. We have enough land to hold all the ideas and plans that we could possibly imagine." In order to convince the Florida government to back the project, Disney released concept art such as this: It showed much more than just a theme park. A giant industrial complex. An ever-evolving city of 30,000 people. And they were successful with this because… they could.

All in all, Disney has already announced plans to expand Disney World by $17 billion. They've also changed the name of their district and their board of directors may be changing around a bit. But Germany and Morocco won't be going anywhere, so it looks like the Disney kingdom is here to stay. They will remain one of the most successful companies in the entire world, throughout history.