EPCOT’s World Showcase is arguably the most beloved area in Disney World, as millions of guests each year visit the recreations of countries from around the world, including Japan, Italy, Norway, and Mexico, each of which offers authentic architecture, design, souvenirs, food, and drinks from the country represented. However, there’s one pavilion — or rather a non-pavilion — that mystifies many of these guests, myself included.
Over the course of my 30+ years visiting EPCOT, I’ve found myself fascinated by The Outpost. Located between China and Germany, this area is lightly themed to Africa… but features little more than themed rockwork and a food stand. So, why is this valuable piece of World Showcase sitting essentially empty? Well, that story goes all the way back to the beginning of EPCOT.
When EPCOT opened in 1982, there were several World Showcase pavilions promoted as coming soon, including Israel, Spain, and our focus today: Equatorial Africa.
Planned for the space where The Outpost currently sits, the pavilion was planned to include a 60-foot treehouse featuring a massive recreation of an African Savanna wildlife observation deck. According to longtime Disney researcher and historian Jim Hill, this illusion would have featured “rear-projected 70mm live action footage that Disney cinematographers had taken of actual African animals drinking at a waterhole in the jungle. The 20-foot-tall screen would then have been framed by an elaborate diorama filled with authentic-looking fake trees, vines, and rockwork. Though the use of the Mouse’s patented 3D sound systems as well as smellizer technology, the very sights, sounds, and smells of Africa would seemingly have surrounded the guests.”
The pavilion would have also featured a soundscape Savana attraction, the “Heartbeat of Africa” live show, as well as the requisite food, drink, and theming of the other World Showcase Pavilions.
This area was heavily promoted during the park’s early years, with the rockwork and placemaking put into place between China and Germany, and well-known Roots author Alex Haley serving as a consultant and public face of the project. However, Haley’s presence would prove to be part of the project’s death knell, as Haley was involved in a plagiarism scandal that tarnished his reputation. That issue, along with the financial issues that plagued many canceled EPCOT projects, put equatorial Africa on hold, with the placemaking and Outpost snack stand being the only remnants of its potential existence.
The project was dealt a final blow in 1998, with the construction and opening of Animal Kingdom, and especially its Africa land. Since the new park used many of the same concepts, most on a much grander scale, any hope of Equatorial Africa ever coming to EPCOT was snuffed out.
That brings us to today, when the Outpost sits essentially in the same state it’s been for decades. The Sub-Saharan Africa placemaking remains as the only hint at what might have been. The Refreshment Outpost offers a seasonal menu of treats, DOLE Whip, beer, and alcoholic beverages.
The Outpost has stood at EPCOT for decades, serving as a reminder of what might have been had World Showcase continued to open new international pavilions at the clip that Disney had originally intended. Stay tuned to AllEars for more obscure tales of Disney history.
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Do you wish the Outpost had become the initially intended Equatorial Africa Pavilion? Let us know in the comments below.
I’ve thought for a long time adding more countries to the World Showcase would be great. But in order to do that you need the space to do it.
Which leads to the question not just about Epcot: how much unused land does Disney have around each of the 4 parks. Can they expand each park or do they only have more or less the existing boundaries in which to expand.That would mean that any upgrades or changes would have to be getting rid of and replacing existing rides or attractions rather than adding more?