New aerial photos from friend of the site Bioreconstruct have revealed the first signs of new construction for a Cars-themed expansion to Frontierland called Piston Peak National Park. Crews have been working on land clearing, demolition, and grading of the former Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island. While there is plenty of work left to be done, there is an unexpected and encouraging sign of new construction in the area of the new Cars-themed section of Frontierland. Here’s a closer look!
New Construction Underway in Piston Peak National Park
Before we jump into the new aerial photos, let’s first get a bit of a lay of the land. As you may know, there is a massive land preparation project underway in the northwest corner of Magic Kingdom. So far, Walt Disney World has announced plans for a Cars-themed expansion of Frontierland and an all-new Villains-themed land. We’ll cover Villains Land in subsequent articles today, but we’re going to start with the Cars-themed land called Piston Peak National Park.
So far, Walt Disney World has released two pieces of art for Piston Peak National Park. The first piece of concept art is the artwork seen immediately below. This piece of concept art was released in August 2024, and could be considered outdated by now. One key takeaway that remains the same from this 1.5-year old concept art is the location of Piston Peak National Park.
As you can see, we have the current Frontierland walkway and facades to the left, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in the upper right. We have the former Liberty Square Riverboat launch in the lower middle, which puts the Haunted Mansion attraction just off screen in the lower right.
When thinking about the location of Piston Peak National Park, I draw an invisible line between Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Haunted Mansion. Anything to the south of that line is Piston Peak National Park, and anything to the north of that line is earmarked for Villains Land.
Another piece of artwork that was released was the “fun map” seen below. This “fun map” represents an updated vision for the Piston Peak National Park area, although it is less informative when it comes to scale. This fun map was released back in June 2025, and is the most updated version of artwork that we have for Piston Peak National Park. Hopefully we’ll get an updated piece of concept art, along with more details for the area during this year’s D23 Expo in August.
It’s a little tough to try and extrapolate the location of various elements of Piston Peak National Park at the moment, but we have a general idea of what to expect. We’ll likely see the headliner attraction sprawl a bit throughout the southern portion of the land – perhaps even creating a mountain range to try and block out views of Cars with eyes from the rest of Frontierland proper. I know I certainly don’t want to see unrealistic representations of period-inaccurate vehicles while bears sing Disney songs to me.
There appear to be a number of natural geyser-like elements near the border with Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, along with some potentially mountainous features. Ultimately, there is quite a bit of infrastructure that needs to be built here, and the first signs of construction are likely not going to be particularly illuminating at this point.
That said, it is exciting to see some work to create concrete forms in the Piston Peak National Park area during the first month of the year. Candidly, I didn’t expect to see concrete forms for many more months, but I’m not privy to any insider information for this construction project.
Here’s a look at aerial photos from Bioreconstruct, showing the first shapes of concrete forms for new construction in the Piston Peak National Park area of Frontierland!
I think it’s likely worth mentioning that this area is close to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which remains under refurbishment until sometime this Spring. In general, the new concrete forms appear to be roughly where the old boat launch to Tom Sawyer Island used to be. That said, the length of the concrete forms appears to be roughly twice as long as the old dock area. It’s also very likely that crews aren’t done creating the outline of this slab just yet.
Also of note is that there also appears to be some conduit staged nearby. We’re not sure what it’ll be used for, but it’s clear that construction is moving along well in the area. With a Spring timeframe for the reopening of the nearby Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, there is still quite a bit of work left to get this area ready for guests.
For everything we know about the Cars-themed expansion to Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland, check out our dedicated project 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!
