The Western History Association

The Western History Association
Walt Disney's Frontierland as an Allegorical Map of the American West
Author(s): Richard Francaviglia
Source: The Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Summer, 1999), pp. 155-182
Published by: Western Historical Quarterly, Utah State University on behalf of the The
Western History Association
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WALT DISNEY'SFRONTIERLAND
AS AN
ALLEGORICALMAP OF THEAMERICANWEST
RICHARD FRANCAVIGLIA
In thisessay,a historicalgeographer
andcartographic
historianinterprets
Walt
as botha miniaturized
anda stylizedmap.
environment
Disney'sFrontierland
He speculatesthatFrontierland
perpetuates
deeplyrooted,andwidelyshared,
mainstreamAmericanattitudestowardUnitedStatesexpansionism
from the
latenineteenthcenturythroughtheColdWar.
Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps....At
that time
there were many blank spaces on the earth and when I found one that
looked particularly inviting on a map (but they all look that) I would put
my finger on it and say: When I grow up I will go there.
-Joseph Conrad
Heartof Darkness(1902)
M ANY PEOPLEARE FASCINATEDBY MAPS, especially those maps of continents that show empty spaces suggesting unknown peoples
and places. Cartographers draw maps that have the power to both inform and beguile
their users.1 On one level, maps perform the mundane task of depicting places well
enough so that we can locate them, and, hopefully, travel there. Resulting from centuries of artistic refinement and scientific thought, maps are essential in describing the
world and places on it.2To do so, they rely on some ground rules. Cartographers usually
recite a litany of features that make maps effective: they should be drawn with reference to geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude), use recognized projections, be
RICHARD
FRANCAVIGLIA
is a historian and geographerat the University of Texas at Arlington. He thanks MargaretKing,JamieO'Boyle, Michael Duchemin, Michael Steiner, Paul
Anderson, Gene Sands, Wally Boag, and Lois Lettini.
1Denis Wood, The Power
of Maps (New York,1992).
2 In
reality,the westerncartographictraditionbuildson African, Arabic, and even
Chinese traditions,as describedin David Woodwardand J. B. Harley,eds., Historyof Cartography
[a multi-volumeseries](Madison, 1993-1999).
WesternHistoricalQuarterly30 (Summer 1999): 155-182. Copyright? 1999, Western
HistoryAssociation.
156
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drawnto scale, and be clearly oriented (north customarilybeing "up").3Maps,moreover, alwayshave contexts. Cartographichistorians interpretmaps in light of their
sponsors,map makers,society,and other earliermapsthat often serve as their inspiration.4Maps, in other words,serve as barometersof geographicknowledge.5Through
them, for example, the westernportion of North Americawas firstdefinedby Spanish
cartographers,and later refinedby Mexican and American militaryand scientific expeditions.
At another level, however, maps transcendtheir claims to scientific objectivity.
We have a passionfor mapsbecausethey possessthe powerto inspirethe imagination.
At this level, maps are tools of the spiritedmind-the empire builderand the storyteller: they fuel the desire to experience, even claim, the geographicarea that they
represent.Cartographyin this context becomes motivational (or invitational), for it
empowersthe mapreaderto experienceplace vicariously.Readcollectively, mapsmay
thus representbroadlysharedaspirations,fantasies,and beliefs about places. This explains why cartographyand expansion are inextricablylinked. The beautifulhistoric
mapsof westernNorth America seen in catalogs and archivesrepresentnot only the
geographicknowledge,but also the geographicobjectives,of the time. Throughthem,
the frontierwas delineated-given spatialform in referenceto that which was known
and settled, versus that which was unknown and conquerable.In reality,the places
mappedwere known by other (Native) peoples, and their input even found its way
into the explorers'maps,but the voices of these Native peoples were not credited in
the final product.Mapsare powerfultools of appropriation.
As definitions of cartographybroaden to embrace all representationsof place,
including mental maps, so too has the definition of a map expandedto include more
than drawingsof places on flat paperor parchment.Justas non-Westernpeoples used
pictographsand objects such as sticks to representplaces, we now recognizethat maps
can take manyforms.Consider,for example, an acceptedthree dimensionalartifactthe globe-that signifiesthe shape of the earth. It, too, is a map, but one shapedmore
like the sphereit represents.But what aboutmapsthat take greatlibertiesin depicting
places, such as the whimsicalcartogramsor cartoonsthat show Texas stretchingfrom
coast to coast, or even ashtraysin the shape of Texas?6These, too, are maps,but their
purposeis as iconic as it is informational.
At yet another level, even shaped environments may be maps. A farmer'spond
excavated,or a groveof treesplanted, in the shapeof Texascome to mind, but an even
better example is an imperialChinese city that also servesas a map of the cosmos. In
5th ed. (New York,1984).
al., Elementsof Cartography,
4 See J. B. Harley,introductionto David Buisseret,FromSea Chartsto SatelliteImages:
NorthAmericanHistorythroughMaps(Chicago, 1990).
Interpreting
to
in Relationship
of Cartography
5 See Norman Thrower,MapsandMan: An Examination
CultureandCivilization(New York,1992).
3 See ArthurRobinson et
6
The Shapeof Texas:Mapsas Metaphors
(CollegeStation, 1995).
See RichardFrancaviglia,
RichardFrancaviglia
these cases, mapsbecome metaphorsand artifacts.7When studiedcarefully,largescale
featuressuch as miniaturegolf coursesor theme parksoften embodyvisions of placeseither places on earth or utopian places conceived in the mind of their creatorsand
designers.These are also three dimensionaltopographicrepresentationsof places real
or imagined,and are thus maps.
Using the definition of cartographyin this broadestof senses-as iconographyof
the geographicimagination-allows us to explore the vision of the West held by Walt
Disney (1901-1966). Although no one can delineate preciselyDisney'smental mapof
the West, he did configurea portion of Disneyland,his theme parkin Anaheim, CA,
to representit, and the shape of his creationssuggestsits generalcontours.The historian and geographermay thus interpretthis portion of his park, Frontierland,much
like they do real places-deciphering, as it were, what Disney placed on his three
dimensionalmap.Doing so involvesconsiderablespeculation,foras will be seen, Disney
wascircumspectaboutthe actualdesignprocessinvolvedin the creationof Frontierland.
That, however, simply adds to the challenge of understandinghis creations as environments that invite interpretationboth as materialculture and as symbols.
This paperfocuseson Frontierland,one portionof Disneyland,and one of Disney's
most popularenvironments. To facilitate this interpretation,this paperuses a cartographic metaphor to identify the historical and geographicthemes that appearedto
inspireDisney'swesternfrontiervision. It is not coincidental that the theme parkhe
created is called the "MagicKingdom,"for Disneyland builds upon images of places
associatedwith history and fantasy.It is especially significant that Frontierlandwas
specificallydesignedto representa particulargeographiclocale-the American West.
By interpretingFrontierlandas a cartographicmanifestationof a realplace, it becomes
apparentthat this three-dimensionalmental map of the West, like its papercounterparts,is closely tied to empirebuilding and culturalidentity formation.
So powerfulis the name "Frontierland"that its mere mention evokes images of
"theWest"to most people. Those imagesarederivedfromtelevision and novels rather
than serioushistorical research.They are, nevertheless, valid representationsof the
frontierin popularculture.Although the name Frontierlandappearscontrived, it reaffirmsan axiom of perceptualgeography:places, by definition, must be named in
order to enter our consciousness.Words serve as the basis for all place names.8It is
impossibleto conceive of a place without using wordsto describe it.9 Stated another
way,place names are very short stories that summarizea lengthy narrative.Consider,
for example, the names Wounded Knee, Virginia City, Bakersfield,or Austin-they
7See RogerM. Downs, "Mapsand Metaphors,"ProfessionalGeographer
33 (August
1981): 287-93.
8 Keith H. Basso,WisdomSits in Places:Landscapeand LanguageamongtheWestern
Apache(Albuquerque,1996).
9 Yi-FuTuan,
"Languageand the Makingof Place: A Narrative-DescriptiveApproach,"
Annalsof theAssociationof AmericanGeographers
81 (December 1991): 684-96.
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resonatewith culturaland biographicalhistorybecausethey are storiesof originsand
subsequentevents. The names of these individual locations-which is to say stories
abbreviatedin place-are woven into a largernarrativewhen they are placed on a
map. Thus, although it is tempting to think of a map as a purelygraphicdevice, maps,
like the places they represent,could not exist without language.Maps,in fact, occupy
a unique interfacebetween imagesand narratives.
Followingthe geographers'and anthropologists'advice,let us beginwith the name:
Frontierland.Turningto a dictionaryfor help in defining the place name, we immediately recognizeits dual roots in two separatenouns-frontier and land.Frontieris defined either as 1) "a borderbetween two countries,"or 2) "a region that forms the
margin of settled or developed territory,"while land is defined as "a portion of the
earth'ssolid surfacedistinguishableby boundariesor ownership."Note that frontieris
also used as an adjective: it tells us about the conditionof that particularland. The
word land also works to describe the frontier as a realm. Note too that both words
frontierand landare inextricablytied to ownership,either geopolitical, individual, or
both. This is especiallysignificant,for Disney'sFrontierlandworksmetaphoricallyat
severallevels, namely political, cultural,and geographic.Its importance,moreover,is
best understoodcartographically,that is, as a materialmanifestationof Disney's-and,
broadlyspeaking,America's-mental mapof the national experience.A closerlook at
the history and geographyof Frontierlandis in order,for a dispassionatestudy of it
reveals its associationwith American mythology.
Viewed comprehensively, Frontierland fits into a continuous tradition of
storytellingaboutAmerican frontiers,that is, lands at the peripheryof the settled and
appropriatedworld. FromColumbus to John Wesley Powell, four centuries separate
"the unselfconsciouslylate-medievaldiscovererfromthe self- consciouslymodernexThese discoverersand imperialexplorersoperatedfrom about 1500 to 1900.
plorer."l0
wroteextensive reportsabouttheir exploits forfuturegenerations.To these
often
They
chroniclerswe may add twentieth-centuryinterpreterslike Walt Disney, who ultraself-consciouslyportrayedthe process of exploration and discovery in order to both
educate and entertain. In Frontierland,Disney encouragedvisitors to vicariouslyexperience the unknown, turning theme park visitors into latter-dayexplorersfar removed from the original time and place of exploration. In doing so, Disney also built
on celluloid experiences and historically-themeddocu-dramas,such as his 1960 film
Ten Who Dared,which portrayedJohn WesleyPowell'sdiscoveriesin the GrandCanyon.11These vehicles of literature,film, and theme parkhelped buildupon the nation's
enduring popular fascination with frontiers, notably the interior American West.
Throughthem new generationscould still "discover"wondrouspeoplesand landscapes,
albeit vicariously.
10Anthony Pagden,EuropeanEncounterswiththeNew World:FromRenaissanceto Romanticism(New Haven, 1993), 1.
11William Beaudine,dir.,Ten Who Dared (Walt Disney Pictures, 1960).
RichardFrancaviglia
What Columbustriggeredas an irrepressiblewestwardquestfor new landscontinued unabatedthroughcenturies of exploration and discoveryuntil militarysurveyors
and geologistsessentiallycompleted the processby about 1900.12They cleareda path
for those who would not be satisfiedmerely claiming and settling the periphery,that
is, the more accessible coastal margins of the new continents. They directed their
quests toward the interior-the very heart-and to what lay beyond. Significantly,
Disney was born at just the time (1901) the era of American expansion on the continent was ending, and the United States became a world power to be reckoned with.
This essay suggeststhat the frontier of westwardexpansion is held in the collective
consciousnessas a signifierof the searchfor many frontiers,including individualfreedom, economic growth, and cultural/socialdevelopment. If all westernsare morality
plays reenacted at the marginsof establishedsociety, then the locale of this actionthe western frontier-is rich in contextual meaning. Frontierland is, above all, a
historical,geographical,and ultimatelymythical storygiven formby Disney.
That this energetic westwardcolonization dramacontinues to have broadpublic
appeal is evidenced by the enduring popularityof the taming of the West in song,
movies, cartoons, and theme parks.Consider the westwardmove as interpretedby
shapersof popularculture in the animated film An American Tail (1986) produced
and directed by Don Bluth shortly after he left The Disney Company.13
Building on
tradition
of
An
American
Tail
featured
an
Disney's
anthropomorphizing,
immigrant
family of mice (named, appropriately,Mousekewitz)who arrivein the United States
from Russia after many trials and tribulations.In the popularsequel, An American
Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), still under the influence of the original, the mice remain restless.14Finding their opportunitylimited in the grimycities of the East, they
naturallylook fartherwestwardfor opportunity.After hearingglowing descriptionsof
the region, the Mousekewitzfamily travelswestwardto the Wyoming frontier,where
they triumphover adversity.Their son Fievel becomes a hero in the processof moving
West. In popularstoriesof this genre, the frontierservesas a cruciblein which tenacity
and valor are rewardedby successand possession.That the genre is flexible is verified
in An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, for the mice appearto be cast as ethnically
Jewish (not Anglo American) characters,and the messageof their exploits is decidedly anti-corporate.However,this frontierfable still worksas a tale of liberationfrom
oppression.There is another theme operative in the genre of frontierstories,and that
is re-generation.HoraceGreeley'sadmonition to "GoWest YoungMan"suggeststhat
youth wouldprosper,but it also suggeststhe West'sabilityto sustainyouthfulvigorand
initiative. Even though he discoveredthe West in the 1920s, severalgenerationsafter
12
See John L. Allen, NorthAmericanExploration,vols. 2 and 3 (Lincoln, 1997; forth-
coming).
13 Don
Bluth, prod. and dir.,An American Tail (MCA/Universal Studios, 1986).
14Steven Spielberg,prod., Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells, dirs.,An American Tail:
Fievel Goes West (Universal Pictures, 1991).
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the "real"pioneers,Walt Disneysensednew opportunitiesthere. Perhapshe also sensed
its regenerativepowers. It is importantto rememberthat Walt Disney'sbrotherRoy
(who would play a majorrole in the development and financial managementof the
Disney enterprises)moved to Californiafor health reasons in the 1920s. It was this
move that first brought Walt Disney to the Golden State for a visit, but the move
ultimatelyregeneratedboth brothers.15
The belief in the regenerativepowersinherent in the westward"American"migration is deeply embedded in our popularculture, and Disney capitalizedon it. In
doing so, he built on the sweepingliterarygeneralizationsabout the West that would
outlive Disneyhimself.Publisheda yearbeforeDisney'sdeath, the popular1965 novel,
The Ordways,by TexaswriterWilliam Humphrey,capturedthe essence of the ethnocentric cause-effectqualityof the West as youth and new beginnings:
When a man decides to pull up his roots and set off in search of a new
life, he instinctively heads west. No other point of the compass exerts
that powerfulpull. The West is the true magnetic pole. Ever since his
expulsionfromthe gardento a place east of Eden, man has yearnedwestwardas towardsa state of rememberedinnocence, and human history is
one long westwardmigration.16
It is easy to dismisssuch novels, films, and cartoons about the frontieras drivel,
but they endure despite sustainedwithering criticismfrom academicians.Why? This
essaysuggestsan answer:such seeminglytrite storieshave deepersignificance.As historiansof the West, we can studyThe Walt Disney Companyand Disney'sconception
of the West to gain insights into the broaderrole of the West in Western/American
culture. Disney was a remarkablysuccessfulpurveyorof western icons, stories, and
memorabilia.He used media and technology to tell, and retell, the engaging story of
the frontier.The companytook formwith Walt Disney'sanimatedfilms, beginning in
the 1920s and 1930s (One of the earliest,"SteamboatWillie,"featuredMickey Mouse
aboarda steamboat on the western rivers). Disney's feature films in the 1950s and
1960s, and his masterfuluse of television and theme parks beginning in the same
period,earnedhim a reputationas America'spremiershaperof popularculturein the
mid-twentiethcentury.Although it is now commonplaceto debatethe significanceof
the "Disney version"of history, that vision continues to be conveyed through cartoons, films, products, and theme parks.17And it continues to have broad popular
15Michael Duchemin, "WaltDisney'sWild West" (paperpresentedat the annual
meeting of the Western HistoryAssociation, St. Paul, MN, 18 October 1997).
16
William Humphrey,The Ordways(New York,1965), 54.
This term was inspiredby the title of RichardSchickel'sThe DisneyVersion:The
Art
andCommerceof WaltDisney(1968; reprintNew York,1985) which providedan
Life, Times,
interpretationof Disney in context. Forother interpretationssee ChristopherFinch, The Art of
WaltDisney:FromMickeyMouseto theMagicKingdoms(New York,1975); Bob Thomas, Walt
Disney:An AmericanOriginal(New York,1976); Alan Bryman,Disneyand His World(New
York,1985); Randy Bright,Disneyland:InsideStory(New York,1987). For more recent revisionist
17
RichardFrancaviglia
161
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' . '--"^
ir "V0
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Fig. 1. A map of Disneyland,froma bird's-eyeview, revealsthat its design is basedon a combination
of geometricand naturalshapes:Main Street USA penetratesto the interiorof the park,beckoning
visitors to the plazahub (center), from which they enter the varied lands, including Frontierland
(west). Photo ? Disney Enterprises,Inc.
appeal.Recent scholarshipconfirmsthat historiansin general-and westernhistorians in particular-can profitablystudyDisney'screationsfor their deepercontent and
meaning,and for the multi-layeredmessagesthat resonatefromthem.18As historians,
we aremost effective when interpretingDisney neither as villain nor saint, but rather
as a biographicalfigurewho ablycapturedAmerica'snearlymythicalfascinationwith
the westeringexperience. One thing about Disney is undeniable:he is an immensely
important-perhaps themost important-representative and shaperof twentieth centuryAmerican culture.19
interpretationsof Disney'simpact,see Joe Flower,Princeof theMagicKingdom:MichaelEisnerand
theRe-makingof Disney (New York,1991) and Stephen M. Fjellman,VinylLeaves:WaltDisney
WorldandAmerica(Boulder,1992).
18That scholarsare taking Disney and other shapersof popularcultureseriouslyis evident in a spate of recent book chaptersand journalarticles.See, for example,John Dorst, "MiniaturizingMonumentality:Theme ParkImagesof the AmericanWest and Confusionsof Cultural
andReceptions:AmericanMassCulturein Europe,ed. R.
Influences,"in CulturalTransmissions
Kroeset al. (Amsterdam,1993), 253-70 and Mike Wallace,MickeyMouseHistoryandOtherEssayson AmericanHistory(Philadelphia,1996).
19Steven Watts, The
MagicKingdom:WaltDisneyand theAmericanWayof Life (New
York,1997).
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Disneyland,too, is of vast importanceas an environment of popularculture that
shapes world views. That magic kingdom is dialectically complex; it is traditionalin
that it built on popularmainstreamvalues, but it is radical in that it helped revolutionize the way most people conceptualize and interpret the American experience.
Understanding how the park functioned in this ambivalent role requires putting
Disneyland in its historic context: as a phenomenon in time and space, Disneyland
representedthe decentralized,automobile-orientedentrepreneurismof SouthernCalifornia in the early 1950s. When Walt Disney and his designerswrested Disneyland
fromthe rectangulargridlandscapeof orangegrovesnearAnaheim in 1954-1955, the
park'sdesign and small size necessarilyrepresentedboth the genius of its creatorsand
the compromisesthat they made in orderto accommodatelargenumbersof visitors.
But Disneyland definitely shaped, and was shaped by, the American psyche of the
times. Disneyland'sdesign even influenced the recent urbanand suburbansettlement
of the real West.20
Viewed from the air, Disneyland presents a non-euclidean, but beautifullygeometric, design that suggestsa sense of cosmic orderand symmetry.(See Fig. 1.) The
design is simple enough at first blush; visitors to Disneyland enter the park through
Main Street USA, that serves, metaphoricallyspeaking,as a key by which the contents of the theme parkare unlocked. Upon reachingthe end of Main Street USA at
the park'scenter, visitors make a taxing decision: here at the plaza hub, they must
decide which land to enter first. To the southwest is Adventureland, to the east
Tomorrowland,to the north Fantasyland,and-significantly-to the west and northwest lies Frontierland.Hinting at the theme park'soverall cartographicdesign, Walt
Disney himself noted that Frontierlandis located "to the west, of course,"of the central plaza hub.21This confirms that Disney conceptualizedhis creations geographically; like our culture, he constructeda mental map that was likely based on actual
mapsof the American West.
Although the word"west"is not used in its name (as it was in Westworld,a masterful 1973 film parodyabout theme parks), Frontierland,in this theme park,is obviously the American West.22We can tell this by the clues Disney provided:simulated
cacti, false front buildings, and colorful characters.It is noteworthy that even the
Main Street, USA by which visitors reach Frontierlandalso hints at the West, for it
was based in part on real streetscapesin the towns of Marceline, Missouri,and Fort
Collins, Colorado.23Disney believed that his railroad-straddling,market-oriented
hometown of Marceline was not very far removed from the western frontier of the
20John M. Findlay,MagicLands:WesternCityscapesandAmericanCultureAfter 1940
(Berkeley,1992).
21 Walt Disney, "Frontierland,"
TrueWest5 (May-June1958): 10-1.
22Paul LazarusIII and Michael L. Rachmil, prod.,Michael Crichton, writerand dir.,
Westworld(MGM Studios, 1973).
23 RichardFrancaviglia,Main StreetRevisited:
Time,Spaceand ImageBuildingin Small
TownAmerica(Iowa City, 1996), 142- 51.
RichardFrancaviglia
163
It was in Marceline that Disney developed his love of the Misnineteenth century.24
souri countrysidethat so enchanted him with its legends, railroads,steamboats,frontier characters,and Indian peoples. Of all the lands in Disneyland, however, Disney
himself revealed that "Frontierlandevokes a special response"and "occupieda great
deal of my thought."25
Significantly,it is the largestpart of the 95 acre theme park.
A Disney interpreterwrote, "The Disney vision was clear. Scale meant everything, whether it was the fairy-talesize of the railroad,or the nostalgic foreshortening
of Main Street, or the romanticismof Frontierland."If this is so, then Disneylanditself
must be viewed as a stylized model of the world (if not the entire universe) and
Frontierlanda microcosmof that largeruniverse-the West.26Like most of Disney's
creations, however, Frontierlandis richly layeredwith meanings derived from both
American folklore and literature.Disney'srepresentationof the West involved linking a vivid narrativeaboutthe region to a design that could sustainthe storyline. Each
part of the story was carefullyconceived, named, and arrangedin space to create a
representationof a place. This makes Frontierlanda cartographicmanifestation of
reality-a map-by which people may also collectively get their bearingson the landscapeof imagination.(See Fig.2.) Continuing the cartographicmetaphor,Frontierland
is actually a historical, or antiquarian,map. It representsDisney'svision of what the
West was like in the time periodthat ended just beforehis birth.This golden time that
Disney immortalizedended in the 1890s, the same decade during which Frederick
JacksonTurnerwrotehis provocativefrontierthesis.Using this erasuggeststhat Disney
called upon late-nineteenth-century sentiments from his parents' time. Thanks to
Disney and others, such sentiments about the frontierlingeredwell into the twentieth
century.
In contrastto literarywriterswho cast doubt on the indefatigabilityof the western
spiritin the late nineteenth and earlytwentieth century,Disney'sbelief in the value of
American society and technology was unshakable.If FrankNorris castigatedwestern
railroadsin novels like The Octopus(1901), Disney latervindicated these same corporations in his theme park.27Disney's faith persisted, despite his fatigue and mental
breakdownin 1931, and his refusalto yield to the numeroussetbacksthat threatened
him and his family with financial ruin. Disneyland, in fact, representedthe blueprint
of an obsession (euphemistically called a "dream")that Disney refused to give up
despite its seeming impossibility.Frontiersmanthat he was, Disney mortgagedeverything that he had to build the theme park. But if Disney was tenacious, he was also
surprisinglynaive. Many observersclaim that Disneyland representsDisney'schildlike vision of the world, if not universe, a fact often attributedto its appealingto the
24 Walt Disney, "Frontierland,"
10-1.
25
Ibid., 11.
26
Bob Thomas, WaltDisney,266.
27 FrankNorris, The Octopus(New
York,1901).
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Fig 2. Deliberatelylocated in the westernportionof Disneyland,Frontierlandwas carefullydesigned
by Walt Disney himself. As seen on this map, it featuresa core and periphery:The prominentTom
SawyerIslandis surroundedby the Riversof America, which is in turn borderedby Nature'sWonderlandand the railroadencirclingthe perimeterof the theme park.Photo ? DisneyEnterprises,Inc.
(detail)
child in all of us. That being the case, some see Disney as a man who never matured,a
man who retained his child-like innocence. This attitude, however, was not simply
impotentinnocence; it wasthe innocence of youth envisioningnew empires.If Disney
never lost his youthful,even naive, fascinationwith both the vanishing frontierand
the peoples and machines that transformedit, then that naivete or faith became his
strength or asset. It clearly distinguishedDisney from the cynics of his age. Thus, as
Sinclair Lewis wrote Main Street(New York,1920) to share his discontent with the
pettiness of small town life in America, Disney countered by "imagineering"Main
Street USA as a paean to it.28By his actions, Disney created a simplifiedAmerican
West in Frontierlandthat, like literatureand film, had undeniable power to shape
popularperceptions.
Despite his appreciationof popularAmerican literature,Disney wrote surprisingly little. He did, however, write an occasional article for popularmagazines.Of
special interestto studentsof the West is Disney's1958 article in TrueWestmagazine.
28 Sinclair
Lewis,MainStreet(New York,1920).
RichardFrancaviglia
In it, he used the travelogueformat to advantageby taking readerson an imaginary
tour of Frontierlandfrom its portal at the log stockade, throughFrontierVillage, and
then fartherinto the wilderness.Disney's appreciationof the topography,flora, and
fauna of the West is evident in the featuresthat he depicted and described:colorful
Rainbow Canyon, mysteriousDevil's Paint Pots (mud geysers),ruggedRock Gorge,
stylized Coyote Rock, peculiar Elephant Rock, and the realistically-pricklyCactus
Gardens.Note that these names are all Euro-American;there is no hint of other culturesin these ostensiblyEnglishnames. These names reflect Disney'sfascinationwith
the region'sunique naturalhistory as immortalizedin his popularearly 1950s nature
films, The Living Desert and The VanishingPrairie.29
As experienced in Disney's words and in the theme park, Frontierlandunfolds
much like a cyclorama,that is, a sweeping panoptic vision of American expansion.
Disney packagedthis frontieras a seriesof memorablephysicalor scenic featuresinto
which human activity was placed. He intuitively recognizedthe significanceof geographyin American historyand in the American imagination.Stated anotherway,the
West's"distinctiveand unfamiliarlandscapes,"that "defiednotions about utility and
beauty"also helped to "shapethe cultureand characterof the United States."30
Disney
waswell in tune with popularhistoricsentiment aboutthe role of naturein the nation's
destiny.Taken together,Disney'sTrueWesttravelogue-style article and Frontierland
itself reveal a deeply conflicted vision of the region as possessingincredible natural
beauty that should both be exploited and preserved.
Disney laid out the parametersof Frontierlandmuch like a cartographerdrawsa
"Riversof America"
map.Of all of the sectionsor landsin the themepark,Frontierland's
(the largestsingle geographicfeaturein the entire theme park) trulyenchanted him.
Disney wrote that "one of the biggest joys of my life is sitting on the levee in the
Frontierlandsection of our park . . . watching the steamboatMarkTwainbelching
smoke and skirtingalong towardthe tip of Tom SawyerIsland."31
Disney adoredthis
part of Frontierland,with its pirates,keelboats, MarkTwainsteamboat, "IndianVillage," and the wilderness. (See Fig. 3.) He describedTom Sawyer Island in nearly
mystical terms in the TrueWestarticle. To him, its caves and harborsresonatedwith
Indianand frontierlore. On Tom SawyerIsland,Disney constructedthe mythicalFort
Wilderness.Crowninga bluffoverlookingthe river,the fort servedas headquartersfor
29
JamesAlgar,dir.,The Living Desert (Walt Disney Pictures, 1953) and JamesAlgar,
dir.,The Vanishing Prairie(Walt Disney Pictures, 1954). See MargaretJ. King, "The Audience in
the Wilderness:The Disney Nature Film,"Journalof PopularFilm& Television24 (Summer 1996):
60-8 for an interpretationof Disney'srole in heightening awarenessabout the environment of the
West.
30
Anne F Hyde, "CulturalFilters:The Significance of Perceptionsin the Historyof
the American West,"WesternHistoricalQuarterly24 (August 1993): 351.
31
Walt Disney, "Frontierland,"10.
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Fig.3. The "Explorer's
Mapof TomSawyerIsland"revealsthat this prominentportionof Frontierland
contains several features-such as Fort Wilderness,Smuggler'sCove, and Indian Territory-that
help sustainpopularliteraryandfolknarrativesaboutthe historicalgeographyof the westernAmerican
frontier.Photo ? Disney Enterprises,Inc.
Davy Crockett and George Russell, who, Disney noted, "reportedto MajorGeneral
Andrew Jacksonin the Indian campaignof 1813."32
To the public, Frontierlandpresented living history based on actual historical
events and the Disney films in which these events were depicted. Disney wrote his
TrueWestarticle on Frontierlandas an introductionto what he hoped to accomplish
there, addingthat it "isn'tthe end of the story,"for,"aswith all the park,I want to keep
adding new featuresto Frontierland,new exhibits that will show today'syouth the
America of our great-grandparents
Continuing the cartographic
day-and before."33
that
the
of
realized
Frontierland,
too, would change through
metaphor,Disney
map
time. This, of course,was progress.Disney,as mastercartographer,empoweredhimself
and his designersto change the map from time to time.
Ibid.,13.
33 Ibid.
32
RichardFrancaviglia
Designed to be expanded and improved,Frontierlandhas indeed changed over
the years.34Although those four decades are fascinating, Frontierlandin its first decade (1955-1965) stayedunderDisney'sclose supervision,that is, remainedclosest to
the ideals of its creator.Significantly,as Michael Steiner recently observed,Disney's
Tomorrowland
quicklybecamepasseas it wasimpossibleto keepfuturistic.Frontierland,
however,was propheticin that it sustaineda popularvision that led to the creation of
the "New West"where the designerlog cabin and computercoexist.35In other words,
Disney intuitively sensed the strong role that the past would play in America's
postmoder and post-industrialfuture.His romanticizingof the "OldWest"helped lay
the groundworkfor the "New West"of amenity tourismand chic residence.
Disney'swritingsand reminiscencesreveal a Turerian view of the frontier.Like
historian FrederickJacksonTurner(1861-1932), Disney felt that both his own life
and that of the nation had been affected,even forged,by the frontierexperience. He
suggestedas much in the TrueWest article when he alluded to the pluck, grit, and
characterof the pioneers. As if taking cues from Turner'sessay,the worksof Disney
help enshrine the frontier and sustain the dialogue about its validity that continues
into the twenty-firstcentury.As westernhistorians,we debate the importance(even
the existence) of a singularfrontier,but for a generationof political conservativeslike
WalterKnott, creatorof Knott'sBerryFarm,and WalterEliasDisney,and most Americans, there was simply no argument about its significance: to them, the frontier
defined the American experience and synergisticallyshaped the American character
and spirit. It made Americans a different (and better) people than even their (European) forebears.The EastsuggestsEuropeand Europeanroots, and hence is tainted by
the Old World, while the West suggestsa tabularasa, readyfor new beginnings and
opportunities.
Although Disney's Frontierland celebrated the triumph of Anglo American
manifestdestiny,his frontieractuallyreached beyondthe West becauseit was synonymous with the American spirit. That spirit is ultimately political in that it is closely
linked to the national expansion that continued long after the frontierceased to be
geographicaland became ideological.This is to saythat the frontiercame to symbolize
our national charactereven after the fact.
Disneyland and Frontierlandare best viewed in the context of the Cold War.
During that ideological dispute following World War II-a dispute that found the
United States and other "free"countries pitted against the socialist and communist
34 This change is revealedby comparingthe many illustrationsin BruceGordon and
David Mumford,Disneyland:The NickelTour-A PostCardJourneythrough40 Yearsof theHappiest
Placeon Earth(Santa Clarita,CA, 1995).
35Michael Steiner, "Disney'sFrontierlandand Western History"(paperpresentedat
the annual meeting of the Western HistoryAssociation, St. Paul, MN, 18 October 1997). See also
Michael Steiner, "Frontierlandas Tomorrowland:Walt Disney and the ArchitecturalPackagingof
the Mythic West,"MontanaThe Magazineof WesternHistory48 (Spring 1998): 2-17.
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Western
countries-Disney weighed in heavily on the patrioticallyconservative side. During
those volatile times when the United States became obsessedwith defendingits ideology againstcommunism,the word"frontier"also signifiedthe boundarybetween two
political systems.To pursuethis thought further,Frontierlandcan perhapsbe viewed,
in an ideologicalsense,as a Cold Warstatementaboutthe irrepressible
spiritof America
in overcoming the hostile frontierof that part of the world behind the Iron Curtain
where individual aspirationswere crushed. To a political conservative like Disney,
who grew increasinglyconservative as the Cold War heightened in the 1950s, the
triumphsof the westernfrontierwere applicableto meeting the internationalpolitical
challengesof both the presentand future.This time, however,the battle would not be
for land or resourcesperse, but for the minds and heartsof humanity.It is thereforeno
surprisethat a man who would claim to do just that, Ronald Reagan, was present at
the grandopening of Disneyland in July 1955. Reagan and Disney sharedmany conservativevaluesregardingthe evils of communism,the inviolabilityof individualrights,
and the essential purityof the American spirit. Disney also sharedthese values with
anotherpoliticalconservative,WalterKnott,whose Ghost Townin Knott'sBerryFarm
was created in 1953 with a political agenda in mind. In a booklet about his theme
park,Knott candidlynoted that:
Ghost Town depicts an era in our nation'shistorywhen men were forging ahead and crossingnew frontiers.Ghost Town also representsan era
of free people who carved out their salvation without let or hindrance.
The people, the things, the buildingsof Ghost Town are long dead, but
the same pioneer spiritstill lives on.36
Like Ghost Town, Frontierlandis ultimately a statement about the role of the individual in achieving success through faith, tenacity, and perseverance-without the
intervention or oppressionof government.In the Disney version, the victory could be
couched in a play on words:the West was won, and the West won.
Just as Disney never lived to see the victorious conclusion of the Cold War,he
likely never understoodthat the American West was not actuallywon at all. As the
New Western historians demonstrate,there remained much unfinished business on
the frontier,businessthat now forcesthe rethinkingof the concept of conquest:those
indigenouspeoples headed for oblivion in Frontierlandwere not ever completely subdued or assimilated, but rather survived well enough to be participants in the
multiculturalWest we know today.However,becausethe Disney version of history is
closely connected to American popularculture,which views progressand civilization
marchingto the Pacific and settling everywherealong the way, it simplifiesthe western experience. It does so through allegory-defined as the expressionby means of
symbolicfictional figuresand actions of truthsor generalizationsabout human existence, and a symbolic representation.Frontierlandis allegorical in both a historical
sense. Through its creation, Disney shapedthe West
and a geographical/cartographic
36
Knott'sBerryFarm,GhostTown& CalicoRailway(Buena Park,CA, 1953), 59.
RichardFrancaviglia
into a stylized iconic form, a place where heroes make history and pave the way for
civilization. To do so, he called upon historicalwesternfiguressuch as Davy Crockett
and Mike Fink to affirmthe conservative tenet that there is no civilization without
individualfreedom.The fact that two famousand conservativeactors,FessParkerand
BuddyEpsen,werepresentat the opening of Frontierlandconfirmeda basicfact about
the entire theme park. It was an elaborate set where Disney'sfilms could be further
dramatized,and where the park'svisitors could actually take part in the dramathey
had seen on movie and television screens.
Temporally,Frontierlanddepictedmythicallyheroic,herculeaneffortsover a vague
and ratherlong period of time, from about 1790 to 1890. And yet, Disney presented
this historyas if it were currentlyin progressbecausethis would convey a deepermessage: the spirit of the frontier was not dead. He thus furtherrefined Walter Knott's
tenet about the frontierWest, but with a twist in the plot line. Although Disney and
his designerswere intriguedby nearbyKnott'sBerryFarm'sdecadent western flavor,
Disney elected not to recreatea decrepitghost town in Frontierlandbecausethis would
implyfailure.Rather,Disney went one step fartherthan Knott and re-createda vigorous West in its period of booming growth.37
A closer look at the spatial configuration of Frontierlandreveals much about
Disney'sworld views. To Disney, the penetration and settlement of the West was an
ongoing dramathat, by its continued replaying,taught both history and geography
lessonsaboutmanifestdestiny.This Disney version of the relationshipbetween people
and place forms the basis of Frontierland'shistorical geography,both real and imagined. It underscoresFrontierland'sfunction as both an environment and as a map.
Throughcartography,people conceive of, and then represent,places even as vague as
"the frontier."Frontierlandis a rich subjectfor cartographicinterpretation,for it too
has identifiablegeographicantecedents and resultedfromindividualvision and group
collaborationabout where and when the frontierexisted. If a map is, as dictionaries
claim, "arepresentation... of the whole or partof an area,"then Frontierlandindeed
serves as a stylized,three-dimensionalrelief map.
Although Disneylanddeveloped througha complex processof sketch mappingmost of which wound up in the trash bin-Disney himself had a strong hand in
What did Disney and his designersinclude in this map of
designing Frontierland.38
the frontier?What, likewise, did they omit? Less concerned with the formalitiesof
scientific map making, Disney nevertheless used direction, scale, and proportions.
Through miniaturizationand stylization on one level, and constant refinement on
another,Frontierlandservedseveralcartographicpurposes.It was used for navigation
(that is, to get people from one discreteplace to another), but it was also didactically
used to instructindividualshow to view places and the peoples who occupy (or should
37Wally Boag, Disney employee, phone interview with author,28 May 1997, Santa
Monica, CA.
38KaralAnn Marling,commentaryat the Walt Disney and the West session, annual
meeting of the Western HistoryAssociation, St. Paul, MN, 18 October 1997.
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occupy) them. Disney used
Frontierland as a stage on
which to tell the story of how
the western part of the country functioned in American
history.Although Frontierland
is idiosyncratic(i.e. Disney's),
it is also populist in that it incorporatedpopularviews. Embraced by large numbers of
people, it tells or endorses
"our"story,not Disney'sstory
alone. Disney had a phenomenal ability to capture public
sentiment in his products,stories, and theme parks; thus,
Frontierlandworksso well because it fits popularly-conceived imagesof the frontier.39 Fig. 4. The world's oldest known map-the so-called
BabylonianWorld Map-was originally inscribedon a clay
It servedas a simplifieddepictablet and dates from approximately600 B.C.E. As this retion of how the West became
drawingof the map indicates, the known world centers on
Babylon, and is traversedby two rivers encircled by water,
part of America through the
beyond which other lands are suggested.Map by author as
construction of towns and
adaptedin partfromWhitfield, New FoundLands(1998).
forts, and the development of
transportation systems, that
reached into the heart of the region. "Cartographyis often intimate with imperial
necessity .. ." and Disney's cartographicdesign of Frontierlandis a less than subtle
recollection of American empire-building.40
Disney'sdesign of Frontierlandalso exhibits intriguingsimilaritiesto other stylized maps, some utopian, some ancient. When compared,Frontierland'sdesign and
that of an ancient Babylonianmap are strikinglysimilar.(See Fig. 4.) Although the
formeris a stylizedand miniaturizedmap of the frontier,while the latter depicts the
known world and even the heavens surroundingit, both, significantly,are closely tied
to narrativesof origin and evolution. Both also featurecenters that are, in effect, insular and surroundedby waters.Towardthe outer edge of the Babylonianmap, features
become increasinglyabstractand peripheralto local narrativebecause less is known
about them; so, too, in Disney'sdesign there is a distinct core and a periphery.Both
39 Margaret
andWaltDisneyWorld:Traditional
Valuesin FuturisJ. King,"Disneyland
tic Form,"
Culture15 (Summer1981):116-40.
Journal
ofPopular
40JohnSeelye,Beautiful
Machine:
RiversandtheRepublican
Plan,1755-1825(New
York,1991),45.
RichardFrancaviglia
designs are, in effect, cosmological statements given recognizableform through the
processof imaginativemap making. Frontierland'scartographicdesign is also similar
to Chinese world maps (ca. 1500 CE) and to the earliernarrativesof Homer, which
featurewater as a central part of the narrative.41
Like his cartographiccounterpartsin ancient and historic times, Disney used water to create boundariesand delineate arteriesof travel. If Frontierland'sessentially
circularor kidney shapeencloses a body of waterand islandat its center,these features
are at once geographicaland metaphorical:in the American West, especially in the
West of popularimaginationof the nineteenth century,waterboth beckoned settlers
and entrepreneursinto the frontier and defined the perimeterof the known world.
WaterfascinatedDisney as it has our culturefor centuries.To Disney and generations
of Americans precedinghim, the western waterswere alluring,even seductive. They
both defined the physicalworldand hinted at the rejuvenationor regenerationof the
American characterthat would be attained by following them to their sources, and
then beyond. The goal of this search was either youth(as Ponce de Leon'ssearch for
the fountain or springsimplies), or restoredhealth-both mental and physical. It is
thus not surprisingthat American culture,ever in searchof renewalin the (westward)
move into the interior,would cast the rivers as entrywaysand passagewaysto both
opportunityand adventure.As hydrographer,Disney touched a deep chord that may
even resonateacrossculturalboundaries.Water is often associatedwith creation, and
especially spiritualbirth/rebirthin recurrentcreation myths of culturesworldwide.42
Water serves as a powerfulsymbol in Frontierland,where Disney used it to convey
visitorsback into the American past.
Although Disney'slove of the rivers in the trans-MississippiWest is beautifully
revealed in the Rivers of America, it is not simply a personal infatuation. Rather,
Disney'sview is deeply embeddedin popularcultureand history,where the riverswere
widely portrayedand promoted as beckoning explorers into the interior of the region-and even throughit to the Orient. One can speculatethat these waterswere in
a sense symbolicallyuterine, drawingthe travelerdeeperinto mysteryand, ultimately,
to the forcesof creation. In buildingupon this metaphorof explorationand discovery
in the Rivers of America, Disney thus perpetuateda folk narrativereaching back at
least five hundredyears.As early as 1498, on his third voyage, the beguiled Christopher Columbusreportedlyused sexually-chargedand metaphorically-loadedwording
Foran interpretationof the latter two, including a map of "The Homeric World:A
ConjecturalReconstruction,"see Peter Whitfield, New FoundLands:Mapsin theHistoryof Exploration(New York,1998), 1-11.
41
42Waterfiguresheavily in myths of emergence:see, for
example, Northrop Frye,The
GreatCode: theBibleand Literature(New York,1982), 144-7; JosephCampbell,The MythImage
(Princeton, 1974); Carl G. Jung,Man andHis Symbols(GardenCity, 1964); MirceaEliade,Images
and Symbols:Studiesin ReligiousSymbolism(New York,1961).
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to describethe interiorhe had not yet seen.43In the centuriesthat followed, the quest
continued as the river or water passagespromised a rebirth of empires. Both the
Spanish explorers'searchfor the Straitsof Anian and the British,French,and Anglo
American quest for the Northwest Passageare manifestations.Aware of these quests
and visions, both historians and common folk came to believe that "the river is a
defining agent in the metamorphosisof colonies to republic,serving as entrance or
borderbut alwaysa symbolof what might be obtained beyond."44
It is worth restatingthat Disney played a crucial role as both storytellerand cartographerin Frontierland.He personallydesignedthe riversystemand its centerpiece,
the intriguingTom Sawyerisland. Becausehis designersseemed stymiedby the challenge, Disney "laid out the island to scale, with all the little inlets on the island"
admonishinghis designersto "quitfooling aroundand drawit as it should be."45The
Rivers of America have their mythical headwatersin the springsthat issue from the
mountainclose to the geographiccenter of Frontierland.Cascadingfromtheir source,
they soon take on the status of full-fledgedrivers in a creative example of selective
compression.Due to theirrelativelysmallsizeandheight, the mountainsin Frontierland
appeardistant (hence increasingtheir mysteriousness):they representthe higherpeaks
of the West that rise above the timberline.Like the Rockies and SierraNevada, these
peaks are devoid of trees and perpetuallysnow clad. Despite the prominence of these
mountain peaks, however, it is the rivers that they feed that are obviously the most
importanttopographic-or ratherhydrographic-feature in Frontierland.Waterfalls
and rapidsare seen near their headwatersin the mountains, but throughoutmost of
their course, the riversare broad,and fairlyplacid. The depiction of riversconsiderably downstreamfrom their source (that is, where the gradienthas flattened at the
Great Plains) is significant, for that is where Disney experienced them in his youth.
(See Fig. 5.)
As cartographer,Disney manipulatedAmerican geographyto conformto his perceptions of the frontier. He insisted that a part of the Rivers of America depict a
distinctly southern locale, as evidenced by a plantation house located on one bank.
Likethe earlynineteenth-centuryfrontier,Disney'sWest evidentlybeganin the South,
in the vicinity of New Orleans, a reminder,perhaps,that this partof the countrywas
popularlycalled the "Southwest"in the early nineteenth century.Disney'sWest also
began on the great Ohio River, that "shininggateway"to the Old Northwest in the
late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.Frontierland'sRivers of America thus
representsthe generic"WesternRivers"that risewest of the Appalachiansand extend
into the fabledlands of the LouisianaPurchase.But Pacific slope riversare also repre43See the chapter"Genderand Discovery,"in MargaritaZamora,ReadingColumbus
(Berkeley,1993), 152-79.
44John Seelye, Prophetic
Waters:The Riverin EarlyAmericanLifeandLiterature(New
York,1977), 7.
45Gordon and Mumford,Disneyland,99.
RichardFrancaviglia
sented,at leastsubliminally,by
Disney-as suggested by the
name of the Columbiasailing
ship that plies the Rivers of
America.The actualColumbia
became the gem of the ocean,
on one occasion sailing into
the aptly-named Columbia
River,the arteryby which the
Pacific Northwest would be
exploredand settled.
Water is a dominant element in Frontierland, occupyinaproximatel
3 percen
of the area of this part of the
park. This is significantfor, in
reality, water bodies occupied
173
Fig. 5. The Riversof Americaportionof Frontierlandis cen-
t tral to the ongoing narrativeof the West as both source of
inspirationand rejuvenation,and a vehicle by which westwardmoving EuropeanAmericans
reachedtheirgoal. Here,
the steamboatMarkTwainpasses through stylizedwestern
scenery.Photo? DisneyEnterprises,
Inc.
only about 2 percent of the Trans-Appalachianand Trans-MississippiWest. Some
might arguethat Disney and his designershadto devote that much space to waterfor
simple logistical reasons. River boat rides, for example, take space. However,
Frontierland'sdesign reaffirmsboth the actual importanceof the western rivers to
transportationand their symbolic importanceto Disney's (and America's)imagination. Also significantis the mannerin which Disney configuredFrontierland'sRivers
of America to form a circular,ratherthan linear or dendritic,system.The riverssurroundthe land at the center of the riversystem,which is configuredas a large,irregularly-shapedisland.This designreflectsa deepliteraryheritagethat is evident in Disney's
appreciationof the writingsof MarkTwain(and the islandsof the Missouri/Mississippi
system that Twain depicted). It also reflects the thrilling discovery-and-explorationbased eighteenth century and early nineteenth century novels, such as TreasureIsland.46
By placing literaryevents and charactersin an islandsetting, Disney geographiisolated
them-an action that furtheremphasizedtheir importanceand sacredcally
ness in Americanpopularculture.Frontierland'sdesign suggeststhat the frontierwas,
forDisneyandAmerica,both geographical/historical
and imaginary/literary.
Although
Disney himself intimated that he designed the Frontierlandexperience to provide a
historylesson to the public, one suspectsthat Disney'shistorywas-both metaphorically and literally-never farfromfantasy[land].
As cartographer,Disney configuredthe frontierto depict manyecotones. Closely
related to hydrographyand topography,Frontierland'sdiversityof vegetation varies
fromborealforestto sub-tropicaldesert.Stylizedsaguarocacti and Joshuatrees evoke
the desert areasof the Southwest (Sonoran and Mojave deserts,respectively). The
46 RobertLewisStevenson, Treasure
Island(New York,1923).
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nearly barren,colorful, stratified, and heavily eroded sedimentary rocks in parts of
Frontierland personify the
badlandsseen in parts of the
semi-aridWest. Disneyundertook an ambitiousgeographic
depiction: he created in
Frontierlanda microcosm of
the AmericanWest, capturing
a glimpse of the environmental variationthat exists there.
Disney's role as storytellerof
both naturaland cultural history is underscored by his juxtaposition of man-made fea-
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Fig. 6. Through selective compression,abstraction,and stereotyping,Walt Disney and his designersre-createdportions
of diverse western American scenery in Frontierland.This
includes the memorableNature'sWonderland,with its geysersandcolorfulrockformations
reminiscent
ofYellowstone
Inc.
NationalPark.Photo DisneyEnterprises,
?
tures, notably towns, with
and
deserts
natural/wildernessfeatures,including
spectacularrock formations.In the
portion of Frontierlandcalled Nature'sWonderland,he abstractedmany of the distinctive featuresof western topographyand vegetation found throughoutthe entire
region. (See Fig. 6.) By way of analogy,Disney'sFrontierlanddepicts the scenic highlights seen in the national parks of the West, which, like their counterparts in
Frontierland,were reachedby an elaboratetransportationsystem that included railroads.To people of Disney'sparents'generation,the national parksand the railroads
were closely tied in an elaboratepattern;Glacier, Yellowstone,Grand Canyon, and
These parksbecame mecBrycewere reachedby-and promotedby-the railroads.47
to
reaffirm
one'ssense of nationwas
natural
wonders
To
see
their
cas for the patriotic.
alism and to confirm that American civilization respectedthe sublime. Spectacular
topographycontinued to be equatedwith political strengththroughoutDisney'slife,
as evidenced by 1966 Californiabillboardsthat featuredthen gubernatorialcandidate
Ronald Reaganposing in front of a mountain rangebackedby the slogan "A Man to
Match our Mountains."
Despite its suggestionof unconquerablewildernessin Frontierland,the human
presenceis also palpablethere. To the culturalor social historian,Frontierlandexhibits considerableculturaland ethnic diversity.It also depictsthe frontieras the proving
groundof both agrarianpioneers and industrialcapitalists.Disney wanted the public
to experiencethe colorfulhistoryof the frontierperiodof the West in this specialpart
of the park, the economic agenda of private enterprisebeing an importantsubtext.
areAnglo Americansperformingvaryingroles,
Thus, most of Disney's"frontiersmen"
such as miner, riverboatcrew member,saloon keepers, and dance hall girls (all, of
47See Alfred Runte, Trainsof Discovery:WesternRailroadsand theNationalParks
(Niwot, CO, 1990).
RichardFrancaviglia
course, sanitized)-occupations popularlydepicted as "openingthe West"for settlement. But if Anglo Americansdominate Frontierland'sculturallandscape(in keeping
with the prevailingpopularinterpretationof westernhistory as the progressive,westwardmove of "civilization"),they are not the only people representedhere. A closer
look at the social geographyof Frontierlandreveals that Disney did indeed populate
this land with other peoples-notably Hispanicsand Native Americans.Reminiscent
of the way in which cartographersdepicted "Apaches"here and "Comanches"there,
Disney provideda place for ethnicity. That these ethnic peoples lived in separatecommunities is telling, for it mirrorsthe racial segregation that only became illegal at
about the same time (1954) that Disney'stheme parkopened.
And yet, despite segregation,Anglo America has long had a fascination with
ethnicity vis a vis mainstreamculture. No popular depiction of the West, such as
restaurateurand hotel owner FredHarvey'sstringof attractionsacrossthe region, left
out Indians.Workingclosely with the Santa Fe Railroad,Harveyhelped both popularize and preserveaspectsof Native American culturesin the West and Southwest.The
Indians'communities and "primitive"or "ancient"cultureswere contrastedwith the
"civilization"of the Anglo-American travelerswho gazed at them from railroadcar
windows.Given Disney'sability to perpetuatecommonly-heldsentiments and his admirationfor FredHarveyand the Santa Fe Railroad,Native Americanswere destined
to be part of Disney's characteristicallyAmerican drama. Present in the frontier of
Disney's youthful imagination, Indians were portrayedat river'sedge as part of the
Frontierlandexperience. Disney would concur with the observationthat "asthe river
opening inland provides the epic route for the New World hero, so the Indian becomes his chief ally and his most treacherous and ubiquitous threat."48When
Frontierlandopened in 1955, Disney located Native Americans peripherally,that is,
at the far [western]edge near the railroadthat circles the perimeterof the park. (See
Fig. 7.) These Indians(many of whom were Native American actors)were depicted as
a variablepart of the "drama"of the West. The script recited on the Santa Fe and
DisneylandRailroadridearoundthe parkin 1962 is noteworthy.It commented on the
"authenticIndian Villages ... where Indiansof thirteen tribesperformancient ritual
dances."After noting that the Frontierlandstation was "alsothe embarkationpoint
for the Indian War Canoes which encircled Tom Sawyer'sIsland,"the messagethen
admonishedpassengersto "watchfor Indiansand wild animalsalong the riverbanks."
It furthernoted that "some Indians are hostile, and across the river is proof ... a
settler'scabin afire.The pioneer lies in his yard... victim of an Indian arrow."
That not all the Indianswere menacing was apparentin the script'snext words:
"Ahead is a friendly Indian village with the inhabitants active in their daily tribal
chores."49These were industrious,"good"Indians that existed on Disney'sfrontier.
48 John
Seelye, PropheticWaters,12.
49This
quote and those in the precedingparagraphthat referto the railroadscript
come from Michael Broggie,WaltDisney'sRailroadStory(Pasadena,1997), 256-8.
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Although some of the
Frontierland Indians were
non-threatening, Disney cast
othersas savages.The burning
settler's cabin thus made a
statement at several levels. It
obviouslysignifieddangerand
loss, but at yet anotherlevel it
maybe interpretedas a mythic
"need fire,"which is to say it
had a role in "reenactingthe
fundamentaldramaby which
humanity distinguished itself
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at
i
asgeoFig.7. The IndianVillagedepictsNativeAmericans
graphicallycentral to the narrativeof Frontierexpansion.In
Indiansbothendangered-and
earlyFrontierland,American
were endangeredby-the westwardcourseof "civilization."
Photo? DisneyEnterprises,Inc.
fromthe restof creation,playing on myths in which fire deand rrenewed,
appeasstroye
eneweA,appeasstroyedancld
the
burnt
sacrifice."5If so, this would be the ultimate "trialby fire"
ing
gods through
whereina culture'smettle is tested.The individualsettlerwouldthus be vanquishedto
confirmthat the ultimate sacrificehad been made. This trope would in turn validate
the colonizationof the wildernessby a chosen people. One suspectsthat visitorsto the
parkintuitively know that regenerationwill occur fromthe ashes;that for every such
cabin burneda dozen will sprout,endorsed,as it were, by a higher power.It is worth
noting that in morerecent times, all referencesto Native Americansas threateningor
war-likewere expunged.The burningcabin is now describedas the result of a lightning strike,not human conflict!
Justwhat Indiansdid Disney depict on his allegoricalmap of the AmericanWest?
As designed by Disney, the Indian village glimpsedfrom the MarkTwainriverboat
suggestsa Plains Indian encampment,perhapsalong the Upper Missouri.Their dress
suggestsCheyenne and Arapaho,but others are also represented.Disney felt obliged
to include these Native Americans,for they were not only partof the real West, they
also figuredheavily in the Wild West shows and dime novels readby Disney and the
preceding generation. Although Disney depicted ethnicity selectively, he built on
widely-held racial stereotypes.Disney'sgenerationcontinued to believe that Native
Americans could become good citizens by assimilating(a central tenet of the Dawes
Act of the late nineteenth century-that Indianscould even become pioneeryeoman
farmers).Yet,Americansalso recognized,even endorsed,Indian tribalidentity by the
1930s, as manifested in the passageof the Native American ReorganizationAct of
50Stephen J. Pyne, VestalFire:An Environmental
History,ToldthroughFire, of Europe
and Europe'sEncounterwiththeWorld(Seattle, 1997), 69.
RichardFrancaviglia
1934. This legislation helped set the scene for today's widely accepted tribal selfdetermination.
But what of the other ethnic peoples?How did they fit into Disney'smap of the
West?In contrastto the independent (war-likeor defiant) Native Americans,Disney
depicted Mexican/HispanicAmericans as somewhat innocuous, even passive. Disney
romanticizedthe action-orientedZorro(originallya 1919 Anglo Americanpulpnovel
about Spanish/Mexican California) and thus perpetuatedmainstreammyths about
the golden daysof Spanish California.As sets for this frontieraction, the architecture
of vestigialNew Spain,or Mexico, wasstereotypedand commercializedin Frontierland.
The original Casa de Fritos, and the stylized adobe "CasaMexicana,"reaffirmthe
Hispanic presence.The design and culturalcomplexion of earlyFrontierlandsuggests
that Disney himselfwas likely ambivalentaboutthe multiculturalmakeupof the West.
He evidently recognizedthat non-Anglo peoples were importantin the historyof the
region. Yet, he stereotypedthem and put them in their "place"(often peripheral)in
the Anglo-centric cartographicorderand design of Frontierland.
Frontierlandreminds visitors that the American westwardmoving frontier was
both irrepressibleand tyrannical,for "the United States was ... an unusuallysevere
imperialstate, not just because of its enormous and ever expanding materialpower,
but because it was intolerant of culturaldiversityin territorialform."5The Cold War
Eraromanticizedthe power that Americanswielded over other non-Westernpeoples
and over the environment. Disney captured the consequences of this unstoppable
westwardmove on variousindigenous ethnic peoples in Frontierland.Like the postcolonial West itself, Frontierlandcompartmentalizedpeoples of Indian and Mexican
origin, so that they lived in enclaves, when in fact they were once nearlyomnipresent.
Disney certainly did not initiate the cruel processof expansion, but he justified it by
inclusion in his map of Frontierland.Although it is easy to criticizesuch treatmentof
peoplesfromtoday'smoreculturally-sensitiveperspective,Disney simplyreflectedand
espoused the mainstreamvalues of his time. In the final assessment,Disneyland is
largelyabout assimilationand conformityto American (i.e. Anglo American) values
in the 1950s.52
There was, however, a glimpse of non-conformity in Frontierland.Disney cast
some characterson the frontieras roughor shady.These includedpirates,outlaws,and
other miscreants.Their presencesquareswith Disney'svision of the frontieras a place
of adventure and risk taking. In perpetuating this image of the frontier, many of
Frontierland'srides emphasized"close calls"with both naturalhazards(ragingrivers,
falling rocks) and cultural/socialmisfits (stage coach robbers,maraudingIndians). By
overcoming these physical and cultural hazards,Frontierlandallowed properAnglo
American civilization to penetrate to the very interiorof the untamedWest.
51 D.
52
W. Meinig, "Strategiesof Empire,"Culturefront(Summer 1993): 12.
Francaviglia,Main StreetRevisited,175-6.
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This was accomplished,in
part, by an elaboratetransportation infrastructure.Frontierland-which is connected to
the restof the themeparkby the
Santa Fe and DisneylandRailroad and a series of walking
paths that convey the guestse
from either the plazaor (later)
New OrleansSquare-is internally servedby a transportation
network that doubles as rides.
This networkis the only wayto
experience much of the landscape.Centralto the circulation
the Rivpatternof Frontierland,
ersof Americashowcasesdeveltechopmentsin transportation
keel
boat, sail,
nology, notably
and steam power.(See Fig. 8).
These various transportforms
arein turnlinkedto variedfrontier experiences;for example,
swashbuckling sailing adventuresor a more genteel and serene steamboatjourney. (The
pirate ship was said by Disney
to depictJean Lafitte,and thus
has a Gulf of Mexico connection,) The Columbia
sailingship
that traversesthe riversprovides
areference
direct to U S. ex
pansionism: because it replicates the real sailing vessel Co-
i
e
r
i
m p
/:
Fig. 8. The Rivers of America in Frontierlandexemplifies
Walt Disney'sfascination with transportation history. It
featuresseveral types of vessels (such as keel boats, sailing
vessels,andsteamboats)
thatsuperceded
eachother,although
in Frontierland they coexist harmoniously. The original
Columbiasailingship, a replicaof which is seen here, helped
establishAmerica'spresencefarbeyond the West from 1787
to 1790.Photo? Disney Enterprises,Inc.
lumbiathatcircumnavigated
the
S.
the
U.
globe carrying
flag in 1787-1790, one suspectsthat Disney's"frontier"actually
transcendedthe American West. It was, in a sense, the entire, not-yet-Americanized
globe.
No late-nineteenth-centurymap of the West was complete without railroads,and
FrontierlandalsorevealsDisney'snearobsessionwith them.5 Frontierlandhad a station
on the line that encircled the entire park,and featuredanother railroadline that ran
53 See
Michael Broggie,WaltDisney'sRailroadStory(Pasadena,1997).
RichardFrancaviglia
into the heartof Nature'sWonderland.Beginningin 1956, the narrowgaugemine train
throughRainbowCavernsconveyed visitorsthrougha simulatedundergroundcave. In
1960, the expandedmine train began operatingthroughNature'sWonderlandin yet
anotherintrusionof the machine in the garden.Frontierlandalso hints at other industrialdevelopmentsthat transformedthe mapof the AmericanWest. One of the region's
the backdrop for the
stereotypes-a
booming mining town-forms
narrowgaugetrain ride. To furtherlink the westernexperiencewith industry,Disney's
early railroadequipment in Frontierlandbore the evocative name "RainbowMining
and ExplorationCompany."That referenceto "exploration"suggestsDisney'sneveradventureand its corollary,exploitation.
ending fascinationwith geographically-based
Although mining is still representedin the runawaymine train (which is in reality a
smallrollercoasteraddedin 1979), a wreckednarrowgaugemine trainis now preserved
as a reminderof the earlierrailroad.Seen fromthe MarkTwainriverboat,this wrecked
trainconfirmedthat even a theme parkhas its own history.
If railroadsgirdledmuch of the West (and much of the colonizedworld)by the late
nineteenth century,they also girdledthe theme park,wherethey serveseveralpurposes.
They symbolicallyopen (and hint at the tamingof) Disney'sfrontier,while servingyet
anothermoreimmediatepurpose.Disneyactuallydevelopedthe park'sencirclingSanta
Fe and DisneylandRailroadas a huge model railroadthat he could operate,in part as
therapy,on the daysthat the parkwas closed to the public.54This railroadreplacedthe
large-scalelive-steamrailroad-the CarolwoodPacific-that encircled Disney'shome
in the hills aboveLosAngeles.Significantly,the 5/8 scale,steampoweredrailroadaround
Disneylandhad only one other majorstop-Main Street. The locations of the two stations appearto reflect Disney'snever-endingfascinationwith both the small town and
the West.55
Disney'scartographicinterpretationof the West was built on the changingrole of
technology.The transportationtechnologydepictedin Frontierlandspansa broadtime
in the industry,notablythe nineteenth-centuryshift from
period,celebratingtransitions
and
sail
manual,animal,
power to steam technology.For Disney,the Frontierwithout
both the riverboats,andthe railroadsthat ultimatelyreplacedthem, wouldbe unthinkable. This transitionto steamcaptivatedDisney,for it symbolizedthe Anglo American
domination of the West by technology. The touted superiority of steam-driven
54 KarlAnn Marling,interview by author,27 January1995, Anaheim, CA; see also
Marling'sessay "Disneyland,1955:JustTake the Santa Ana Freewayto the American Dream,"
AmericanArt 5 (Winter-Spring1991): 168-207.
55Disney'sromanticismcame face to face with realitywhen he depicted transportation
in the West. Statistics show that nineteenth-century travel by rail and riverboat was hazardous,
and horse and wagon travel was especiallyso. In transportingthe theme parkvisitors, Disney compromised(as did other parks,including Six FlagsOver Texas):Whereasparkguestsoriginallyrode
horse-drawnstage coaches and traversedFrontierland'swatersin real canoes, these yielded to
more vicarious,and safer,rides after a numberof minor accidents and close calls raisedDisney's
concerns about liability and adversepublicity.To Disney'sdisappointment,the more or less "authentic" formsof transportationwere replacedby saferrides that were more controllable.As originally designed, the Frontierlandtransportationexperience was, in retrospect,too realistic.
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technology may have helped Disney and others of his generationdefine the West racially/culturallyin much the same way that Euro-centric,technologically advanced
peoples thought of themselves as racially superior to indigenous people
who did not possesssuch technology.56However,as early as the nineteenth century,
Euro-Americancultureitself often looked back with a mix of nostalgiaand derisionat
early technology and the peoples-sometimes their own forebears-who possessedit.
progressthat transAnglo Americansreveredthe industrial/technological
Paradoxically,
not
formedthe West (and helped exclude the peopleswho did
possessit), yet they also
As Washington
frontier
receded.
longedforthe lost or vanishederaof the pioneeras the
before
steamboatsand
Irvinglamentedas earlyas 1852, gone were the "goodold times
That
word-travelof
travel."57
all
and
romance
out
railroadshad driven poetry
magic
suggeststhe mobilitythat Disneybuilt into his evolving mapof the West. Unlike Washington Irvinga centuryearlier,Walt Disney had it bothways in Frontierland.Like Irving, he romanticizedthe earliest(i.e. most "primitive")aspectsof Native Americanand
Anglo Americantechnologyto the region (canoe, keel boat, and the sailingvessel Columbia)and,withouta hint of anxietyaboutanachronism,he alsojoined the baronsand
magnatesin celebratingthe most "modem"developmentsof the mid-nineteenthcentury,such as the ornatesteam train and elaboratesteamboatMarkTwain.
The steampowerthat so enthralledDisneywas itselfa complexand arrestingmetaphor for geographicexpansion. In wedding two of the basic classicalelements, water
and fire, steam suggestedboth urgencyand power.Throughthe machines it propelled,
steamproveda perfectmetaphorfor the marchof civilizationinto the wilderness.Simply stated,"steamreplacedflameas the symbolof humanpower"by the late nineteenth
Throughboth the commandingnote of the steamwhistle and the persistent
century.58
of
chugging cylinders,the steamboatand steamlocomotivemaybe interpretedas bringing the Victorian'ssense of regimentationand control to the frontierlands they penetrated.The use of steampowerconnoted, above all, the ingenuityof Westerntechnology in shapingthe map of the West. As the diesel-poweredstreamlinedtrain came to
symbolizethe 1940s and 1950s, Disney enshrinedits steampredecessorin Disneyland.
But by the time he depictedit, steampowerwas doomed,and Disney knew it.
Walt Disneybeautifullyexemplified"technostalgia"-the nostalgicappreciationof
earlierformsof technologyforwhat they conveyedaboutourlost connectionswith time
and place.59Although he and his designerspartlycopied the pioneer wester-themed
Knott'sBerryFarm,which featuredoperatingrestoredDenver and Rio Grandenarrow
gaugeequipment,Disney also built upon the traditionsof nineteenth and earlytwentieth centuryfairsand expositions. In the companyof railroadbuff and designerWard
and Ideologiesof
56 Michael Adas, Machinesas theMeasureof Men: Science,Technology,
WesternDominance,(Ithaca, 1989), espec. 112-3.
or AmericanScenery,Art, and
57 Washington Irving, The Home Bookof the Picturesque
Literature(New York,1852), 73.
58 Pyne, VestalFire,255.
59RichardFrancaviglia,HardPlaces:ReadingtheLandscapeof America'sHistoricMining
Districts(1991; reprintIowa City, 1997).
RichardFrancaviglia
Kimball,Disney attendedthe 1948 Chicago RailroadFair,a majorexposition at which
the more modem formsof railroadmachinery/technologywere exhibited side by side
with the old for comparison.As in all such expositions, that comparisonwas never
value-free,for one would secretlyadmireand fearthe new, while simultaneouslyberating and romanticizing the old. This dichotomy had both technological and
culturalimplications;in Frontierland,the presenceof Native Americans,that most romanticizedgroupof pre-technologicalpeoples,suggestedwhat the West, andperhapsall
humanculture,had been like beforeindustrytransformedit. In this regard,the Disney
messageagainmirroredthat conveyed by the FredHarveyCompany,which workedin
close harmonywith the Santa Fe Railroadto depict Native Americansas a people both
lost/doomedand yet pure/noble.60
The three elements of Frontierlanddiscussed in some detail above-scenery,
culture,and technology-reveal that everythinghad both a meaningand a place in this
carefullyengineered,but ever-evolving,partof the park.These elements were enunciated as historicalmetaphorspositionedin time. Throughtheir placementin a carefully
arrangedspatialpattern,Disneycreatedmorethan a contrivedplace.In Frontierland,he
presenteda simplifiedimage of the region that reaffirmedwidespreadpopularbeliefs
aboutthe historicalgeographyof the West. It may be temptingto dismisssuch popular
conceptions,but we do so at our own peril:like the dime novels and Wild West shows
originatingin the nineteenthcentury,theysustainthe region'spastas a significantmythological element in Americanculture.
Viewed symbolically, Frontierland's design reveals deeply-embedded binary
distinctions-such as naturevs. man, them vs. us, past vs. present,technology vs. pretechnology-that continue to characterizenot only American,but also Westerncivilization. It is ironic that Disney depicted the western frontieras a place of individual
initiative when, in fact, its settlement resultedfrom largescale federalpresencein the
formof troops,infrastructural
improvements(roads),and economic incentives such as
land grants.This ironyis doubledwhen one realizesthat Disney romanticizedthe West
of the individualfrontierat just the time that federaldollarspouredinto the region's
Cold Wardefense industry.
It is telling, too, that in designingthe Riversof America,Disneyelected to omit the
storyof the active constructionof canals and dams, much of it subsidized,that transformedAmerica'swesternwatersin the nineteenth century(althoughhis entireproject
was, in fact, just such a hydrologicengineeringcoup). Those untamedriverswereessential to Disney,who employedthem to contrasttransportationtechnologywith the force
of nature.This juxtapositionrevealsDisney'snostalgiaand romanticism.To Disney,the
primordialWesternAmerican landscapewas an instructionalstage setting. It demonstratedboth the purityof that supposedlypristinelandscapeand the inevitabilityof the
frontiersmantransformingit into civilization.That inherentlyunresolvabledilemmais
essentiallytragic.And yet, it is a common theme that reachesback to the Enlightenment and the Renaissance-if not into earlierclassicaltimes.
60
MartaWeigle and BarbaraBabcock,The GreatSouthwestof theFredHarveyCompany
and theSantaFe Railroad(Tucson, 1996).
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Frontierlandis a cartographicicon with a deep narrativestoryline. It is ultimately
a story about, and a longing for, what would be lost in the transitionfrom nature to
civilization.Disney,that masterof visual imageryand design, plumbedAmericanculturefor inspiration.Cartographically
essentiallyconcentricdespeaking,Frontierland's
sign-with its coreembeddedin narrativesof creation, its circularwaterway,surrounding the core and serving as a middle ground, and its periphery of wild lands
andcommunitiesthat portendthe encroachmentof civilizationand the orderthat would
soon follow-is significant.Frontierland's
designimitatesa mandala,the abstractrepresentationof the cosmoswithin a circle. However,in keepingwith Disney'spragmatism,
the design would change, as would everythingin a progressiveAmerica. To continue
the cartographicanalogy,Frontierlandas a mapof the West is not static. It is constantly
evolving to accommodatenew valuesandphilosophiesin edu-tainment,and so mustbe
revisedfrom time to time. Viewed in this way,Frontierlandis a constantlyrevisedsequentialmap,much like the Sanbornfire insurancemapsthat areupdatedperiodically
through the addition of new overlaysto answerpresent needs. As in Six FlagsOver
Texas, the history lessons in Frontierlandhave yielded somewhat to the demand for
fasterand more thrillingrides;yet, Disney'sfundamentalvision of historyand geography is still visible in Frontierland.61
In its spatialorganization,Frontierlandrepresentsthe cartographyof expansion:it
is a locale in which the processof imperialcolonizationis constantlydepicted and celebrated.As an allegoricalmap, Frontierlandis perpetuallyanimated, much like the
sequentialweathermapson the evening news or on the WeatherStation. In much the
same mannerthat the sequentialreplayingof these maps depicts changes in weather
patternsthat we grasponly by replaying,the dramaof westernexpansionis reenactedin
Frontierlanduntil the sequenceis learnedby heart.The loopingof railroad,sailingvessels, steamboatand mine train, all reaffirmthe circularityof a model that runs like
clockwork,conveying the observerthroughthe once-exotic, now-familiar,territoryof
the stylizedWest.
Likeall maps,Frontierlandis also a representationof place in time(s) that contains
deeply-embeddedmessagesaboutpowerand ownership.As a microcosmof one section
West-Frontierland reveals
andTrans-Mississippi
of the world-the Trans-Appalachian
that the supposedconquestof the West was an event so significant,and so instructive,
that it needed to be repeatedendlesslyas partof both the educationand entertainment
of first American, and then world, culture. Walt Disney himself concluded that "in
Frontierlandwe meet the America of the past, out of whose strengthand inspiration
What better way to reaffirmthat uncame the good things of life we enjoy today."62
andstylization-processesthat,
miniaturization
than
through
abashedlypatrioticmessage
like all map-making,transformplaces like the real West into both icons and symbols.
m
61 RichardFrancaviglia,"TexasHistory in Texas Theme Parks,"Legacies:A History
Journalfor DallasandNorthCentralTexas7 (Fall 1995): 34-42.
62
Gordon and Mumford,Disneyland,53.