Decades before Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge rose from the northwest corner of Disneyland, one of the company’s most legendary Imagineers planned a completely different expansion for the area. One that, had it been built, could have changed the face of the “Happiest Place on Earth” forever.
In the late 1970s, Imagineering extraordinaire Tony Baxter was riding high after designing his first major attraction, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which was replacing the Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland. As that attraction was under construction, Baxter began pontificating on what to do with the rest of the available land in the area, eventually hitting on the idea of the interconnected concept of Discovery Bay.
As explained in a 1992 issue of Disney News, Baxter’s original concept of Big Thunder Mountain’s backstory was quite in-depth. According to the publication, the Mountain would be based around the legend of young inventor Jason Chandler, who “lived in a town called International Village during the peak gold rush years in the Big Thunder region-circa 1849” and “devised a drilling machine with the capability of boring into the very heart of Big Thunder Mountain. There, the veins of gold ran so deep, it was rumored they could produce a mother lode that would bring a man enough wealth to last a hundred lifetimes and more. But a cave-in occurred on Big Thunder, burying 26 miners alive. They would have drawn their last breath then and there, had it not been for the inventor and his laughable drilling machine. He burrowed down into the Earth’s core, rescuing the miners from certain death. It should have been a moment of joy and celebration, but as the men scrambled to the arms of safety, a massive earthquake shook the ground and a cavernous maw opened up, swallowing the inventor and his machine whole.”
However, that wasn’t meant to be the end of Jason Chandler’s story. In Baxter’s concept, Chandler would have survived and escaped with some of the gold, using it to establish the scientific outpost Discovery Bay in California, just outside of San Francisco.
The land would have been a steampunk paradise, including mountains, waterways and docked watercraft, a hangar for a dirigible, and a glass pyramid, much of which architecturally took inspiration from the works of Jules Verne, including Disney’s adaptation of The Island at the Top of the World.
Proposed attractions for the land included:
- The Nautilus: A submarine adventure and restaurant, both set inside Captain Nemo’s legendary submarine.
- Island at the Top of the World: Another photo simulator attraction that would feature guests traveling on the Hyperion airship to find the “lost civilization of Astragard” in the Arctic.
- Lost River Rapids: A water rapids ride that would allegedly have featured relocated dinosaurs from the Primeval World diorama.
- The Fireworks Factory: A shooting gallery based around “shooting fireworks” at targets.
- Spark Gap Loop: A coaster that would have supposedly used magnetic technology.
- Professor Marvel’s Gallery: A Carousel Theater show featuring strange and unusual things, hosted by a gregarious inventor and his dragon (Sound familiar? Keep reading…)
- Professor Marvel’s Balloon Descent: A skyway-type gondola experience that would connect Discovery Bay to the proposed Dumbo’s Circus expansion for Fantasyland.
- In addition, a new loading dock for the Sailing Ship Columbia and a Disneyland Railroad station were also planned.
Baxter’s plans for the land were so grandiose that there was even a pitch for an accompanying television series to tell the story of Chandler as portrayed by veteran Disney actor Peter Renaday. However, the whole project eventually fell through thanks to changing pop cultural factors. The Island at the Top of the World had bombed in theaters, and overall science fiction – led by Star Wars – had overtaken fantasy at the box office.
However, despite this, elements of Discovery Bay would work their way into several Disney park projects over the years. These include:
- Professor Marvel and his pet dragon being the basis for the legendary Dreamfinder and Figment of EPCOT’s Journey Into Imagination.
- The steampunk/Jules Verne aesthetic of Disneyland Paris’s Discoveryland, which even had a docked Hyperion airship.
- The Fireworks Factory concept was adapted into one of the clubs at Pleasure Island.
- The Verne-themed Mysterious Island at Tokyo DisneySea was also heavily inspired by the land, including serving as the home to a docked Nautilus.
- The Jason Chandler character has been worked into the overall mythos of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers (or SEA) which have become a large part of Disney parks lore.
The idea was briefly considered for revival in the early 2000s. This version of Discovery Bay would have allegedly taken over half of Disneyland’s Tom Sawyer Island and served as the permanent home of both the Columbia and the Mark Twain, both of which would have been turned into restaurants. However, these plans were scuttled after the initial failure of California Adventure.
Though Tony Baxter’s Discovery Bay was never built at Disneyland, the land’s concepts still reverberate across Disney’s theme park empire, with elements featured at various parks around the world. Stay tuned to AllEars for more on Disney history.
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Do you wish Discovery Bay had been built at Disneyland? Let us know in the comments below.
Interesting article. There was stuff here that I didn’t know. If it had gone ahead , I wonder what people would have said at the time about halving Tom Sawyer Island.