Category: Possibilitylands

To all who come to this place of possibility: welcome. Possibilityland is your land. Or… It could’ve been!

Here at Park Lore, our Possibilitlyand series contains the stories of rides, attractions, lands, and even theme parks that almost were. With each entry, we’ve explored never-built, could-be classics from the Western River Expedition to Muppet Studios; Disney’s America to Westcot. But today, our trips into Possibilityland set their sights on an entire alternate-reality version of a park we think we know…

Today, we’ll walk through themed lands of Disneyland that look quite different from the ones we know and examine the attractions that were cut just before they came to life. In Possibilityland, we can find attractions, areas, and even full lands that simply never came to pass. Think about it: if someone had said “Yes!” instead of saying “No!” (or vice versa), this could be the Happiest Place on Earth!

Long ago and a world away, great adventures await… In the pantheon of beloved cancelled concepts at Disney Parks, there’s perhaps no project as legendary as that of Discovery Bay. Once envisioned as a continuation of the story of the Rivers of America, this retro-futuristic steampunk land of time machines, submarines, lighthouses, greenhouses, inventors, and adventurers was set to become an icon of Imagineering… but it was never built.

Luckily for us, anything’s possible in Possibilityland, our ever-expanding alternate reality walkthroughs of never-built attractions from around the globe. So even if Discovery Bay never saw the light of day, today we’ll trace the true history of the concept straight from page one and explore the could-be classic attractions this land might’ve contained… Then, we’ll see not only why this city by the bay was scrapped, but where its DNA lives on…

What will tomorrow bring? Since Disneyland’s opening day, Imagineers have been tasked with the impossible feat of creating the future. And more often than not, they’ve gotten it surprisingly right. The trouble is that “tomorrow” never stays that way for long. Throughout American history, our collective ideals of the future have shifted from bright, white, geometric landscapes of the Space Age to gritty, industrial, polluted wastelands and everything in between.

All the while, technologies and culture and imagination were changing, and Disney Imagineers spent most of their time playing catch-up. By the 1990s, designers were tired of the constant chase for tomorrow, and of the perpetual and never-ending updates needed to keep Disney Parks’ Tomorrowlands current. They had an idea: that each and every Disney Parks resort would get a New Tomorrowland. These New Tomorrowlands would be romanticized and built-out and – most importantly – timeless. They’d never need updated again.