The Walt Disney World Resort, informally known as Walt Disney World or simply Disney World, is an entertainment complex that opened October 1, 1971, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and is the most visited such complex in the world. It is owned by The Walt Disney Company through its division Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. The property covers 30,080 acres (12,173 ha; 47 sq mi), in which it houses 24 themed resorts, four theme parks, two water parks, and several additional recreational and entertainment venues.Magic Kingdom is the original theme park on the complex, and Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disney's Animal Kingdomopened throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Designed to supplement Disneyland in Anaheim, California which had opened in 1955, Walt Disney developed the complex in the 1960s, though he died in 1966 before construction on "The Florida Project" began. After extensive lobbying, the Government of Floridacreated the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a special government district that essentially gave The Walt Disney Company the standard powers and autonomy of an incorporated city. Original plans called for the inclusion of an "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow", a planned city that would serve as a test bed for new innovations for city living.
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[hide]History
In 1959, Walt Disney Productions began looking for land for a second park to supplement Disneyland, which opened in Anaheim, California, in 1955. Market surveys revealed that only 5% of Disneyland's visitors came from east of the Mississippi River, where 75% of the population of the United States lived. Additionally, Walt Disney disliked the businesses that had sprung up around Disneyland and wanted control of a much larger area of land for the new project.[1]
Walt Disney flew over the Orlando-area site (one of many) in November 1963. Seeing the well-developed network of roads, including the planned Interstate 4 and Florida's Turnpike, with McCoy Air Force Base (later Orlando International Airport) to the east, Disney selected a centrally located site near Bay Lake.[2]
To avoid a burst of land speculation, Disney used various dummy corporations to acquire 27,443 acres (11,106 ha) of land.[2] In May 1965, some of these major land transactions were recorded a few miles southwest of Orlando in Osceola County. Also, two large tracts totaling $1.5 million were sold, and smaller tracts of flatlands and cattle pastures were purchased by exotic-sounding companies such as the Latin-American Development and Management Corporation and the Reedy Creek Ranch Corporation (Some of these names are now memorialized on a window above Main Street, U.S.A. in the Magic Kingdom). In addition to three huge parcels of land were many smaller parcels, referred to as "outs."
Much of the land acquired had been platted into 5-acre (2 ha) lots in 1912 by the Munger Land Company and sold to investors. Most owners were happy to get rid of the land, which was mostly swamp. Another issue was the mineral rights to the land, which were owned by Tufts University. Without the transfer of these rights, Tufts could come in at any time and demand the removal of buildings to obtain minerals. Eventually, Disney's team negotiated a deal with Tufts to buy the mineral rights for $15,000.[3]
After most of the land had been bought, the truth of the property's owner was leaked to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper on October 20, 1965. A press conference was organized for November 15, when Walt Disney explained the plans for the site, including EPCOT, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, which was to be a futuristic planned city (and which was also known as Progress City). He envisioned a working city with commercial and residential areas that also continued to showcase and test new ideas and concepts for urban living.
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