In 1959, Walt Disney began to look outside his Magic Kingdom and he wasn't happy with what he saw. The City of Anaheim had let the outside world impinge on the tourist area around DISNEYLAND. Incompatible housing, tawdry neon and outside competition sprang up around the park.
The company owned several parcels of land in and around the park. Mr. Disney pondered what he could do with the vacant land to keep more of the tourism cash brought in by DISNEYLAND in the company's coffers, thus providing him with more money to expand and improve his beloved theme park.
The company actively pursued building another attraction, and Walt's imagineers started putting together ideas. One idea was to build a park that would celebrate California and its varied sights, sounds and tastes. The park would feature restaurants, shopping and attractions that would showcase California and bring the state to DISNEYLAND guests. As shown below, the park would have been built north of the DISNEYLAND Hotel.
Mr. Disney would get too busy with his various projects at DISNEYLAND and beyond, but this idea would get placed in a drawer. Perhaps it would eventually see the light of day...
