Good afternoon from Magic Kingdom, where Walt Disney World has begun the demolition of the Tom Sawyer Island cave systems. Last week, we took a look at the latest demolition progress, where most of the buildings on Tom Sawyer Island had been demolished. Over the weekend, new aerial photos showed that all buildings had been demolished. Now, we’re back at Magic Kingdom, and we noticed that Disney is in the process of demolishing the caves on Tom Sawyer Island.
Caves Demolished on Tom Sawyer Island at Magic Kingdom
As you can see in the photos below, there is fresh demolition taking place on Tom Sawyer Island. From what we can tell, the demolition seen in the photos below is of the cave system on the southern island. We’ll have two angles that we look at today. The first will be from near The Haunted Mansion, looking west. The second will be from near Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, looking east.
If we really squint, we can see the yellow/orange stalactites, still visible in the rubble. They’re next.
Before we take a look at the demolition from the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad side of the Rivers of America basin, here’s an establishing shot from the same vantage point. The demolition you see in the photo below is that of Huck’s Landing. What I want you to focus on is the low stone wall in the middle of the frame. Beyond that is one of the entrances to the caves. It is shrouded in ivy and foliage in the photo immediately below, but it will be exposed in our updated demolition photos.
Ok, here’s a look at the ongoing Tom Sawyer Island cave demolition from the same vantage point. As we can easily tell with the foliage removed and dirt displaced, the cave systems were simply another building with highly themed hallways. Note the low stone wall, showing that this is the same angle. We can see the entrance to the cave system as a “doorway” on the left side of the red “building”.
Why is Tom Sawyer Island Being Demolished?
As to the why, Walt Disney World simply looked at the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island as an “underutilized area”, according to Walt Disney World President Jeff Vahle. Last year, Disney announced ambitious plans for the largest-ever expansion of Magic Kingdom, transforming the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island into a Cars-themed land at the southern end, and an all-new Villains Land at the northern end.
We recently explored a new permit that offered some hints as to how the two themed lands will be positioned. While the positioning and theming of the Cars-themed expansion to Frontierland, called Piston Peak National Park, has been known for a while, the permit offered some potential insight as to the layout of the upcoming Villains-themed land.
For everything we know about the Cars-themed expansion to Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland, check out our dedicated project page below!
For everything we know about the upcoming Villains Land at Magic Kingdom, check out our dedicated Villains Land page below!
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
If the cars land attraction Piston peak does not have planes 1 and 2 and cars 3 characters like Jackson storm, Cruz, dusty crophopper and other planes characters featured on the ride and a forest fire story ride for the cars at ride, I’m going to be very disappointed and upset if they make it a cheap barebones retheme like what they did with Tianas Bayou Adventure ride and not acknowledge the 1927 Mississippi river flood disaster and left out spoonbill birds, lady butterflies, Lawrence, spooky spirits and Dr facilier. I don’t think Disney world will last and may end up closing like six flags in New Orleans that closed after the 2005 hurricane flood disaster unless villains land is a hit. Also prices are too high for most Disney guests.
There really was no need for this. They destroyed something that was made – a great work of art – by the people who spent their lifetimes working with Walt Disney himself and they knew his wishes, methods, designs and most of all his heart. That’s now lost forever because of a rabble of woke managers who have somehow managed to creep into the Disney company and take over. This is not something to celebrate. It’s a tragedy of tragedies and a great loss of a National treasure. Even having a villain’s land is very poor idea and totally misguided. What would absolutely never have done anything like that. The villains are there merely to create something in the story for the heroes and heroines of the story to overcome. They were never meant to be the main characters, so to make an entire villain’s land is not only not in keeping with Walts values, but it’s going the absolute opposite direction. As one of the great Disney imagineers has said, the old American frontier and water feature a frontierland and Tom Sawyer Island created a juxtaposition to the rest of the park that made the Magic Kingdom unique and special and magical. This brood of vipers in management today have ruined it for all posterity. If anyone could buy the Disney company with the purpose of restoring it by first firing these people, and then putting back everything that they’ve destroyed, as best as possible, they should do it.