The Story of Disney's Abandoned America Theme Park

Once upon a time, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner dreamed of building a new kind of Disney theme park: one that combined all the fun and thrills of a traditional amusement park with lessons on America’s history. The ambitious park and resort would include scenes from throughout U.S. history, including a full-size Civil War fort and battlefield for war reenactments, and a WWII airfield with full-scale aircraft and hangars.

Disney announced plans to build the theme park, which would be called Disney’s America, in a Virginia suburb in 1993. But by 1994, they had officially scrapped the project. In the short documentary, Abandoned: Disney’s America, Bright Sun Films tells the story of the forgotten theme park.

While Disney’s America was something of a passion project for Eisner, it was met with resistance from all sides. Virginia residents didn’t want a Disney park built near them, while others were worried about Disney’s “corporatization” of American history. Though Disney’s America is just one of the many strange projects the company proposed but never built over the years, its story is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating. Check out the video above to learn all about Disney’s America—the historical theme park that could have been.

Banner Image Credit: Bright Sun Films, YouTube