Western River Expedition (Walt Disney World History)

When Walt Disney World was being built there were no plans to install the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction as we know it today. Instead they were going to begin work on a ride called the Western River Expedition. The thought was that Pirate lore was more common in Florida. So Imagineers thought they would tell a story about cowboys instead.

Upon the opening of Disney World huge numbers of guests immediately began asking where the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction was. This outcry from the park-goers eventually led to the Western River Expedition being scrapped in favor of. This is also the reason that the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction in Florida is shorter than it's Disneyland counterpart. In the original planning for the Florida Project it wasn't supposed to be there.

The Western River Expedition was planned for the location in which Big Thunder Mountain Railroad now resides. There was originally meant to be a ride very similar to Big Thunder Mountain that would have been integrated into the the Wester River Expedition area.

The creation and design of this attraction is largely credited to Disney Legend Marc Davis. Marc is known for his work drafting and creating scenes for such classic attractions as the Haunted Mansion, Pirates, It's a Small World, and the Jungle Cruise just to name a few. His reputation is one of the many reasons that so many people still wish that this ride had been constructed. With his name attached to it there is a belief that this attraction could have been as popular as any of the other classic rides.

The ride was to be narrated by a talking owl named Hoot Gibson. It would include a much larger flume drop than Pirates of the Caribbean and feature as many, if not more animatronic figures. There were several pieces of concept art produced for this attraction. It's not surprising that so much information about this attraction is know since it is believed that Marc Davis worked on the plans for at least five years.

Parts of this attraction have since been integrated into several other rides at Disney parks around the world. First and most obvious are Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain in WDW. Big Thunder Mountain is very similar to a runaway mine car ride that was to be integrated into the Western River Expedition area. Splash Mountain is a similar layout to the Western River Expedition as it was supposed to be an indoor and outdoor attraction with a very high flume drop.

One interesting point about the mine car ride is that at one point it went backwards. Some rumors speculate that this idea was floating around Walt Disney Imagineering until finally it was used in the Expedition Everest attraction at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park.

At Epcot, the now extinct World of Motion attraction used ideas from the Wester River Expedition for a scene involving a train robbery.

Disneyland Paris was very close to actually integrating the Western River Expedition into it's Frontierland area. In fact the name Thunder Mesa that was used for the town in Disneyland Paris was originally the name used for the project designs containing the Western River Expedition and the runaway mine car ride. Unfortunately, according to sources provided in the web links, this was another project that was killed by Micheal Eisner. In all fairness the money was used to build several other popular attractions including the version of Space Mountain in Paris, which is a pretty popular ride.

The Phantom Manor in Disneyland Paris actually integrates several scenes from the original plans for the Western River Expedition into it's ghost town sequence called Phantom Gulch. The name of which is derived from the Western River Expeditions town of Dry Gulch.

There's a lot more information on this attraction out there on Web. I've included several links to some really in depth articles about this ride. So you can do as much or as little research into this subject as you would like.