From WDW History
Location: Magic Kingdom > Western River Expedition
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The Western River Expedition was to be built where Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is currently located. It would have been a large rock formation that would have been home to three different attractions. One of the rides would have been a run away train attraction which eventually became Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The attraction was slated to open 5 years after the park opened. It would have opened around the same time as Space Mountain, the Asian, Venetian and Persian resorts. During the first 10 years of the park there was open land where Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is currently located. This was originally cleared for the Western River Expedition.
The Western River Expedition was also the reason that Pirates of the Caribbean did not open with the park on opening day. Many of the Imagineers did not think that pirates would be exotic enough for Florida and that the West would be. As soon as the park opened, many guests were upset that Pirates was not included in the park. Pirates began the planning stages in 1972 but was not going to change the Western River Expedition by much. As late as 1973, the attraction was still on the plans.
The ride that was planned in the place of Pirates of the Caribbean would have taken guests back to the old west. It was to be more animated than the original Pirates and also follow a musical theme. Concept work for the attraction was done Marc Davis who was the key designer for Pirates in Disneyland. The concept for the attraction went as far as having actual animatronics created for it that were eventually used in Epcot's The Land.
The attraction was finally cut as a cost-saving measure. Other versions of it were planned for Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland but never happened.
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