Mineral King ski resort and St . Louis indoor Disney park?

old lady

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 15, 2007
Why didn’t they get completed? I would like to see an indoor Disney park , but I like the Malls of America, too.
 
Why didn’t they get completed? I would like to see an indoor Disney park , but I like the Malls of America, too.
Well, Mineral King is part of a national park now. That happened in the late 70s. I doubt that it could be resurrected.

Regarding St Louis:

It almost happened a half-century ago when Disney drew up plans for an indoor theme park in downtown St. Louis before giving up in a dispute over money and turning attention to Florida. St. Louis' loss was the Orlando area's gain: Walt Disney World became one the world's top tourist attractions.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/tra...-world-almost-in-st-louis-20151207-story.html
I seriously doubt that either of these plans will come to fruition.
 
The problem with Mineral King was that there probably wasn't an adequate road for that level of traffic - especially in the winter. The US Forest Service (which issues permits for many of the best known ski resorts in the US) would only issue a permit if a decent road was built, like the section of US-50 from Placerville to Lake Tahoe. There was also environmental opposition.

What probably killed it was all the money spent on opening WDW. Then the area was added to Sequoia National Park which pretty much ended any talk about a ski resort at Mineral King.
 
Also, Walt became ill right around the time that the biggest decisions for Mineral King were being brought to the table; I'm pretty sure that Roy knew that Walt was fading, and he may have deliberately let Mineral King die, since the Florida Project was such a huge undertaking, and he suspected that it might all fall on him sooner rather than later.

Technically, an indoor park was tried; that was DisneyQuest Chicago. The truth is that parks with the size and theming of Disney or Universal need sunshine; they need viable year-round operations in a place people WANT to travel to in cold weather. Locals alone can't support a park if there is a true winter off-season for tourism in the area as a whole.
 



GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top