What is the biggest missed opportunity in Disney’s theme park history?
Disney fans could probably name a few candidates. Many Disneyland visitors might wonder what the resort would look like today if management had chosen to go with the proposed Westcot theme instead of Disney California Adventure for the resort’s second gate. Or what if Disney instead had developed the land around the Queen Mary in Long Beach and created a version of what became Tokyo DisneySea in Japan?
On the East Coast, many Disney fans in the mid-Atlantic region might feel wistful for the proposed Disney’s America park, which would have brought a history-themed Disney park to Virginia.
But for me, the biggest “what if?” at Disney was the company’s failed attempt to get into the ski resort business, in California’s Mineral King valley. That missed opportunity is the subject of a new book, “Disneyland on the Mountain,” by Colorado authors Greg Glasgow and Kathryn Mayer.
Glasgow and Mayer have reported one of the best Disney history books I have read in a long time. It provides a well-balanced recap of what was a contentious battle over Disney’s proposal to turn Mineral King into an innovative resort destination — one that would have set a new standard for what a ski resort could be.
Mineral King’s story begins with Walt Disney’s involvement in the 1960 Winter Olympics at what is now known as Palisades Tahoe. While the Games may have sparked Walt’s interest in creating a European-style ski resort in California, his interest in nature and the environment preceded that by decades, as illustrated by his company’s True-Life Adventures documentaries.
Walt’s death in 1966 robbed the Mineral King project of its greatest advocate, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that Congress finally killed the project. Glasgow and Mayer detail how the Mineral King case inspired the Sierra Club to find new legal methods to protect natural areas. But was Mineral King’s demise really a win for the environment?