Frontierland

**Frontierland** is one of the original themed, "Lands" of the Disney Parks, being themed to the American west from the pioneer era to the turn of the century.

## Description

Frontierland is a 19th century old West which goes as far back as the days of pioneers in the early 19th century. Additionally, it goes up to the 1890s while highlighting the gold-rush and the Wild West.

The plaque for Frontierland is decorated with two crossed rifles and Davy Crockett's satchel and reads:

> "*Here we experience the history of our country's past...the colourful drama of Frontier America in the exciting days of the covered wagon and the stagecoach...the advent of the railroad...and the romantic riverboat. Frontierland is a tribute to the faith, courage and ingenuity of the pioneers who blazed the trails across America.* -Walt Disney".
>
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### Locations

* **Arizona**:
	+ **Big Thunder Mountain**:
	+ **Grand Canyon**:
	+ **Rainbow Ridge**:
	+ **Thunder Mesa**:
	+ **Tumbleweed**:
* **Colorado Rockies**:
	+ **Grizzly Hall**:
* **Missouri**:
	+ **Jackson Island**:
	+ **Mississippi River**:
* **Texas**:
	+ **Critter Country**:

### Inhabitants

#### Arizona

* **Barnabas T. Bullion**:
* **Black Bart**:
* **Cousin Elrod**:
* **Goliath**:
* **Mélanie Ravenswood**:
* **Old Prospector**:
* **Pecos Bill**:
* **The Phantom**:
* **Prof. Cumulus Isobar**:
* **Sheriff Lucky**:
* **Slue Foot Sue**:

#### Colorado Rockies

* **Baby Oscar**:
* **Big Al**:
* **Buff**:
* **Ernest**:
* **Gomer**:
* **Henry**:
* **Liver-Lips McGrowl**:
* **Max**:
* **Melvin**:
* **Teddi Berra**:

#### Missouri

* **Becky Thatcher**:
* **Huckleberry "Huck" Finn**:
* **Mike Fink**:
* **Tom Sawyer**:

#### New Orleans

* **Doctor Facilier**:
* **Louis**:
* **Mama Odie**:
* **Prince Naveen**:
* **Princess Tiana**:

## History

### Development history

Frontierland was created due to the success and popularity of Disney's Davy Crockett miniseries and was built as a tie-in to the famous frontiersman. However due to this, much of Frontierland was based on a historically-revised and often outright racist depiction of America's 19th century which glamorized America's colonial past. This included frequent usage of slurs against Indigenous peoples, glamorizing the murder and genocide of Indigenous peoples, and including romanticized depictions of historic-figures best-known for their human-rights violations against black and Indigenous peoples such as Andrew Jackson and Jim Bowie.

As the Davy Crockett serials faded into obscurity and attracted more guest-complaints regarding overt racism in the parks, Disney imagineering came to phase out the Davy Crockett theming for a wider assortment of I.P.s. Leading up to 1971, Disney planned on including a *Pirates of the Caribbean* inspired attraction in Walt Disney World's Frontierland known as the *Western River Expedition*. However a combination of budget-issues with fan outrage at the exclusion of Pirates of the Caribbean meant that ultimately the space for the attraction went unused.

In 1979, the attraction *Big Thunder Mountain Railroad* was developed for the Frontierland's across the parks. This attraction reused many concepts created for the Western River Expedition and in Disneyland replaced the Frontierland attraction *Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland*. Over the years, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad became the centre of Frontierland's new story-theming in replacement of the Davy Crockett stories.

In 1992, Frontierland's perpetuation of racist properties was furthered with the creation of the attraction *Splash Mountain*. Splash Mountain was based on the 1946 film Song of the South, a film so overtly racist that it was protested against during its release and outright banned from being sold. The film itself was based on the *Uncle Remus Stories*, a collection of African-American folk-tales which were stolen, altered and filled with offensive black-regional dialect by white author Chandler Harris. The inclusion of Splash Mountain meant that Disney could cut budgetary corners and reuse audio-animatronic figures from the defunct Tomorrowland attraction *America Sings* which was had aesthetics identical to those of Song of the South. It also meant that Disney could make merchandise, soundtrack, and theme-park profits off of a property that they could no-longer sell while covering up the film's history.

In Disneyland Paris, Frontierland was designed to appeal to Parisian storytelling sensibilities and as such had a heightened focus of storytelling and theming. This resulted in Paris' Frontierland being interconnected through the fictitious Arizona town of Thunder Mesa and which had a storyline connecting Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Big Thunder Island (a reimagining of Tom Sawyer Island), and Phantom Manor (the park's counterpart to the Haunted Mansion). Behind-the-scenes several Disney Parks imagineers in-charge of backstories have claimed that Paris' Frontierland is non-cannon however this authorial-intent has not been followed through with and virtually every version of the park has been overtly connected to one another.

In 2020, the *Black Lives Matter* movement ignited by the murder of black man George Floyd at the hands of American police spurned public-outrage against the large amount of racism present in theme-parks such as Disney, Efteling (see: *Carnival Festival Ride* and *Cannibal Carousel*) and Universal Studios (see: *The Wizarding World of Harry Potter*). Following a widespread petition against Splash Mountain, Disney subsided shut down all but Tokyo's Splash Mountain to be rethemed to the 2008 animated-film, *The Princess and the Frog*.

## Appearances and allusions

### Big Thunder Trail

On the gates to the Big Thunder Trail in Disneyland is a painted sign reading, "Big Thunder Trail to Frontierland".

### Legends of Frontierland: Gold Rush!

In this game, Frontierland is treated as an in-world location which is rivals with Rainbow Ridge. The regions compete over land with one another after Rainbow Ridge begins running out of gold to extract from Big Thunder Mountain.

### Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom

In this attraction, the greek god Hades offers Governor Radcliffe the position of ruling all Frontierland under the guise of Lord Indigo of the East Underworld Trading Company. In return Radcliffe must assist in stealing the, "Crystal of the Magic Kingdom" from the wizard Merlin however this plot is foiled.

## Trivia

* The nature of Frontierland being referred to as a literal place are unknown given how its respective stories rarely (if-ever) support this. Theories and speculation do exist however.
	+ It is possible that the use of the name, "Frontierland" is non-diegetic and shorthand for the audience to replace the name in their readings with whatever the setting for a respective attraction is.
	+ It is possible that in-world Frontierland is not one specific place but rather a term used for several western locations that meet certain criteria and as such share a name.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr3lRCMR24Q