Mystery In Central Florida: Disney’s Secret Land Purchase in the 1960s (2024)

Ever wonder how Walt Disney World began?

The success of Disneyland in California led Walt Disney to begin thinking about the possibility of bringing a similar park to the East coast of the United States.

In 1958, he and a group of his trusted company executives began researching areas that would be suitable for such an enterprise.

The popularity of the four Disney attractions at the New York World’s Fair of 1964-1965 reinforced the idea that the East coast would be a very good place to create a new Disney Park.

Looking East

After years of considerable research, it was decided to look at an area in Central Florida. They kept this decision a very closely guarded secret. In 1963 Walt himself decided he wanted to take a look at the area in Florida before making a final choice, and he and his group flew there in his company plane, first making stops in several different states. After arriving in Florida and looking over the land, he made the momentous decision to go ahead with his plan to begin purchasing the Central Florida land.

In 1964, this secret group began acquiring many parcels of land in Central Florida. This was Walt Disney’s “Florida Project” which later became Walt Disney World. The members of this close-knit group did not use their real names, creating a huge mystery about who was behind these large land acquisitions. Each member of the group traveled under fake names, and they didn’t even go directly to Orlando. They hired an attorney and a real estate consultant from Miami, in South Florida, to deflect interest in the Orlando region. The company kept this project shrouded in secrecy, using codes and numbers for any written memos and paperwork associated with the Florida Project. Rumors in Florida flowed about which company was buying up 27,443 acres of land in Orange and Osceola counties. There was much speculation about the various companies that could possibly be responsible. The mystery grew!

News Gets Out

In October of 1965, the Disney company invited reporters from many newspapers in various areas of the country to come to Disneyland for a press event.

Emily Bavar, a reporter and editor for the Orlando Sentinel, a major newspaper in Central Florida, was very intrigued by the mystery. She was one of the reporters who flew to Disneyland. She interviewed Walt Disney and asked him outright if he was the one buying up all the land in Florida. He did not say yes, but did not exactly say no!

The Big Announcement

It was a very well-kept secret until late October 1965, when the Orlando Sentinel published a headline saying that the mystery industry buying up the land was Disney! The morning after this headline appeared, the governor of Florida, with the permission of the Disney company, confirmed that it was, indeed, the Disney Company that bought the land. On November 15, 1965, Disney Company executives, the Florida governor, and Roy and Walt Disney held a press conference in downtown Orlando where they finally officially revealed that they had acquired the land and had plans for the new Florida-based theme Park.

The vision for Walt Disney World was born!

Have you heard the story of how Disney purchased its land in the 1960s?

Mystery In Central Florida: Disney’s Secret Land Purchase in the 1960s (2024)
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