Goodbye Fort Wilderness!

[Disneyphile]

This just came in on MiceAge:

5/16 BREAKING NEWS: R.I.P. Fort Wilderness 1956-2007 Team Disney Anaheim has just decided to demolish Fort Wilderness after years of trying to ignore the looming problems with the aging wood structure. With Pirate's Lair debuting next week the demolition will be handled overnight for the next 30 days. A cement log stockade for Cast Member use only will replace the Fort in the same area that the original stood. Stay tuned for all the details in the next update. Discuss it here (http://www.micechat.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1754661#post1754661). - Al Lutz

Holy ****ing hell. :mad:

[Snowflake]

Oh, now I'm not wholly adverse to change, but this is something I thought would remain and hopefully get ressurected for future generations of kids. So many happy childhood memories, now tinged with sadness.

:(

[innerSpaceman]

Oh my fvcking Christ!






This does not inspire the renewal of my expiring-at-month's-end AP.

I'm pissed. :mad:

[Alex]

I won't know how I feel until I see whatever ends up in its place.

I was inside the fort last year and there was no way they were going to restore it without doing a complete rebuild. Which probably means it was never going to get restored. If what they point in is worse than a log wall then I'll be upset about it. If it is better then I'll be happy with it.

If it is just going to be another log wall then I don't really see what difference it makes.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

I wonder what will happen to the secret tunnel that used to go to the fort. Was that filled in years ago? Is it still there and closed off? Could it be used again?

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Sorry guys, I just don't believe that FW deserves a Space Mountain-style rebuild, which is what they'd have to do. Goodbye to the Fort - may your journey into Disney legend be a kind one.

[Capt Jack]

I'd take it all and put it together in my yard if I could. it'd go great with the rest of the wilderness decore out there.

bummer. always kind of liked that one.

[AllyOops!]

Wait..I'm confused (big surprise there)! :confused: After working many years for Disney (including Disneyland) it frightens me that I'm not sure what Fort Wilderness is. Are we talking about Tom Sawyer's Island? Are we talking about the fun activities like the barrel bridge and the caves?

If this is the case, it does make me sad & nostalgic. :( Injun Joe's piss soaked cave, I hardly knew ye.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Fort Wilderness is/was the big log fort at the back of Tom Sawyer island, with the graveyard behind it. It's been closed to the public for several years now.

[AllyOops!]

Thank you for answering me, GD! :)

Oh, that dealie?? What's even more frightening is I barely remember it. However, while change is good and allows for fresh ideas, I'm always heartbroken to see a part of my past retire to the recesses of my memory & my memory alone. Especially Adventure Thru InnerSpace- I can't let that sucker go.

Bye Bye, old ass fort. :(

[innerSpaceman]

I'm annoyed because Disney did it's usual bull$hit, lying backpedal when Al's story about the destruction of Tom Sawyer Island hit the L.A. Times. So they dug out that great Mark Twain quote from the novel about Tom and Huck playing Pirates, and used that to advertise the new trend on the Island to all Disneyland guests who wandered by the raft dock to wonder what's up - - portraying Pirates Lair to the guests, and to the press, as a Tom Sawyer Island overlay.

Then they went on to demolish and remove every single (and now) last vestige of the Tom Sawyer FRONTIERLAND theme.


I don't so much mind the Pirate overlay. I am just bummed about the loss of such prime Frontierland property. I daresay this will be more fun for kids than the recent, neutered version of the Island ... but this strikes me both as an AmericaSings-in-Tomorrowland theme mismatch, and a Cut-Down-Cascade-Peak and Put-Nothing-In-Its-Place net loss.



* * * * *

On a happier note ... I'm doubly glad my last visit to the Island just before it closed featured a fun interlude at Fort Wilderness. The rear entry door to the Fort was ajar, so naturally I wandered inside. I wasn't there long, though, before some CMs using it as a break area came into the open and I had to retreat.

But as I exited the Fort, a crowd of tourist guests were milling about, wondering aloud if the Ford were open. I told them 'of course it is,' and held the door for them as the dozen or so walked inside :evil:

[Isaac]

This is lame.

The fort could have been what the pirates were attacking.


:(

[mousepod]

I'm surprisingly unmoved by the news. In the past, I've visited Fort Wilderness and it's been a diversion - but I've always had more fun playing in Fort Sam Clemens in The Magic Kingdom. I wonder if there are similar plans for WDW?

[Not Afraid]

I suspected this would go. I find my real concern is for the graveyard. I love that thing.

[Snowflake]

I suspected this would go. I find my real concern is for the graveyard. I love that thing.

I thought of that too, since I remembered last February we did not pay a visit to the Island and I did not remember the graveyard until I saw some pics posted. Naturally, then I wanted to see it. :( Guess I won't have the chance now.

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

Its a fairly tragic event IMHO. I think its a shame they let it deteriorate to such a state. The right thing to do is rebuild it to its former glory - but I doubt TDA has the guts to do it.

What's next? Pirates ransacking the Indian Village? Maybe Davy Jones poping up from the water and snatching the little girl and dog off the log???

:(

[Kevy Baby]

I suspected this would go. I find my real concern is for the graveyard. I love that thing.Well, if the graveyard does go, I hope they properly re-inter the bodies.

[Capt Jack]

dunno. if they do a pirate themed island, the graveyard should fit well I would think.

nothing so appealing as a good graveyard

[innerSpaceman]

I guess our beloved Eliza Hodgkins 1812 is going to have to change her screenname to something like Red Handed Jill, or whatever frelling pirate wench they decide to faux inter.

[Isaac]

I guess our beloved Eliza Hodgkins 1812 is going to have to change her screenname to something like Red Handed Jill, or whatever frelling pirate wench they decide to faux inter.
LOL! Says the man from 'innerspace' ;)

[flippyshark]

I'm surprisingly unmoved by the news. In the past, I've visited Fort Wilderness and it's been a diversion - but I've always had more fun playing in Fort Sam Clemens in The Magic Kingdom. I wonder if there are similar plans for WDW?

For now, our Fort is alive and well, with no rumors of changing over. I'll probably visit it a little more often now, just in case. I really do hope our Florida Tom Sawyer Island stays just that. I've got major childhood mojo going on out there. On the other hand, I'll have to be philosophical if it goes away, as so many other things have. (Loss of 20K subs and a real Tiki Room were much bigger bummers.)

[innerSpaceman]

I have fond memories of Florida's Tom Sawyer Island as well. There was the time we set sail to the Island and a sudden storm broke out, flooding the deck of the raft before we reached the other side of the river.

It was such a torrent that we took shelter in Injun Joe's Cave, and the rain went on so hard and so long, that my friend Jim actually peed in a cup found in the cave rather than run to Aunt Polly's or wherever the rest rooms were.

When the rain stopped, he chased us all over the island with that damn cup of pee!




Ah, good times :iSm:

[alphabassettgrrl]

It's sad to hear this. I never got to see the inside, which definitely makes me sad. I wasn't really a fan of the pirates overlay, but I was hoping they'd keep some vestige of what TSI was but it seems history must give way to current fads.

::sigh::

[Morrigoon]

I'm sad for the loss of the Fort, but I wouldn't mind so much IF they were replacing it with something GUESTS COULD USE.

[Prudence]

I don't really blame them for tearing it down. Or, rather, I blame the people who let it get run down in the first place. I'd rather it be torn down than sit, run down, in such a visible location.

[Disneykat]

I am sad to see Fort Wilderness go. I used to have fun there "back in the good old days". My sister, on the other hand, HATED working there in the 80's when she was a CM

[Alex]

Currently it is a fort-themed CM use area. Based on one sentence of information, it sounds like when they're done it will be a fort-themed CM use area.

Status quo ante (ante being the last few years). Since there've never been any real plans to rebuild and reopen the place for public use it is hard to see any new loss other than the small window through which hope shines.

I just want them to make the executive ropes course on the back half of the island open to the public.

[NickO'Time]

The really sad part is Disney will probably sell parts of it on Ebay. :( I would not put it past them.:mad:

[CoasterMatt]

Just what is the Columbia going to be firing it's cannon for now?

[innerSpaceman]

Guests could not crawl all over Cascade Peak either. It was simply a beautiful, waterfall-strewn mountain that was part of the Frontierland scenery.

Fort Wilderness may have been better as an interactive guest area, but it continued to serve as beautiful and unique Frontierland scenery after it was off-limits.


The mound of dirt or concrete bunker they replace it with will, I daresay, not be quite as evocative of Frontier America.

[Alex]

Probably not, but I'll wait and see what they build before I get upset about it

[€uroMeinke]

Just what is the Columbia going to be firing it's cannon for now?

uh, pirates?

[ozron]

Just what is the Columbia going to be firing it's cannon for now?

Cast members.