A version of Frontierland can only be found in five of the six Magic Kingdom-style Parks around the world. There is no Pioneer or Old West themed area in Shanghai Disneyland. In Tokyo Disneyland, Frontierland is known as Westernland and in Hong Kong Disneyland, there is Grizzly Gulch. At Disneyland, Frontierland has a rich history. Many attractions have evolved over time but they all stay true to Walt’s original roots for the Land. Frontierland is home to one of my favourite attractions, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! Did you know that the sounds of the trains racing about was recorded and used in the mine car chase scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)?
Disneyland: When Frontierland opened, it was designed to be an open wilderness where guests could explore on walking trails or by riding stage coaches, covered wagons, or pack mules. Opening day Frontierland at Disneyland heavily focused on Disney’s hit series Davy Crockett. There was an entire Davy Crockett Frontier Museum complete with a Davy Crockett arcade. Fess Parker himself came dressed as Davy Crockett and interacted with delighted guests. Fess Parker was honoured with a window in Frontierland on December 15, 2004 on the 50th anniversary of the Davy Crockett premiere. Another popular Davy Crockett themed attraction was the Mike Fink Keel Boats. These boats opened a few months after Disneyland’s opening and travelled around the Rivers of America until their closing in 1997. The two original boats, the Gullywhumper and the Bertha Mae, were the actually two boats used in the episode Davy Crockett’s Keelboat Race. They were later replaced with higher capacity boats. This attraction closed due to one of the boat’s capsizing while carrying guests. Another boat that calls the Rivers of America home is the Mark Twain Riverboat, an opening day attraction. This paddle wheeler takes guests on a 12 minute journey along the Rivers of America and around Tom Sawyer Island, which opened to guests about a year after Park opening. The Sailing Ship Columbia joined the Rivers of America’s fleet in June of 1958 and is a replica of the ship Columbia Rediviva. The Rainbow Caverns Mine Train opened in 1956 and was later revamped into the Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland, an attraction entirely designed by Walt Disney. This miniature mine train attraction would take guests on a tour of The Living Desert, an area of Frontierland filled with over two hundred life-like critters, Rainbow Caverns, and the famous Balancing Rock Canyon. Other forms of transportation, such as the pack mules, also journeyed through The Living Desert. The Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland closed in 1977 to make way for Frontierland’s first thrill ride, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! This runaway mine train attraction got its name from Big Thunder, the large waterfall on the former Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland, and the Little Thunder waterfall was nearby. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was imagined out of Marc Davis’s Western River Expedition idea. This was an entire Western themed pavilion that was designed for the Magic Kingdom but never moved past the concept drawings. Big Thunder Mountain has a very detailed backstory that many guests are not aware of. The town of Rainbow Ridge became a booming mining town overnight after gold had been discovered in the mountains. These mountains were actually a cursed and scared place and a tragic earthquake struck Rainbow Ridge after the settlers disturbed the mountains. The town soon became abandoned but the mining trains still ran, without any crew or engineers. So guests are actually riding processed ghost trains on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! The look of Big Thunder is based on the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.
Magic Kingdom: Frontierland opened with Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes, Mike Fink Keel Boats, Country Bear Jamboree, and Frontierland Shooting Gallery. Magic Kingdom’s Country Bear Jamboree was the debut of this show and was the first major attraction to open first at Walt Disney World and then be replicated at Disneyland. The show was originally designed for Disney’s Mineral King Ski Resort, a proposed resort to be built in California’s Sierra-Nevada Mountains, but that project fell through while the Country Bear Jamboree did not and was built for Walt Disney World instead. The Frontierland Shooting Gallery, currently known as the Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade, is based around the 1881 shootout at Boot Hill in Tombstone, Arizona, commonly referred to as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. There are around 100 targets for guests of all ages to aim at with the infrared-firing rifles. The Walt Disney World Railroad Frontierland Station opened on May 1, 1972. Tom Sawyer Island opened two years after Park opening in 1973. The northern part of Frontierland remained empty at opening, with the intention of building the Western River Expedition there. When the idea was scrapped, this area was used to house Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad opened in 1980 and is a mirror image of Disneyland’s version. The backstory is very similar to Disneyland’s but the mining town is known as Tumbleweed and the natural disaster was a flash flood instead of an earthquake. The look of this version was based on Monument Valley instead of Bryce Canon National Park. Splash Mountain opened in 1991 and this is the only version of the attraction to be located in a Frontierland., with Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland’s versions in Critter Country. Splash Mountain features a 50 foot drop with speeds reaching 40 miles per hour! There are the Rivers of America at Magic Kingdom as well with the Liberty Belle Riverboat, but the docking station is technically part of Liberty Square.
Tokyo Disneyland: In Tokyo Disneyland, the Frontier-style land is called Westernland. The word Frontier is hard to translate in Japanese but the design and concept is the same as the American Parks. Westernland is home to Big Thunder Mountain (here the word Railroad is dropped) which has the same backstory as the previous two Big Thunder Mountains but with a tsunami being the natural disaster. It is designed after Monument Valley, just like Magic Kingdom’s version. The Rivers of America here are home to the Mark Twain, which is such a large riverboat that it needed to be officially registered with a home port. The Country Bear Jamboree is a popular attraction here with three different shows rotating throughout the year. The original show plays from January to June, the Country Bears Vacation Hoedown plays from July to November, and the Country Bears Christmas Special plays during the month of December. The Western River Railroad does not circle the entire park but only Westernland, Critter Country, and Adventureland, with the single station located in Adventureland. There is a station in Westernland, but it is only a prop and the train does not stop here. The Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes were located in Frontierland but were relocated to Critter Country when this new land opened in 1992 and were also renamed to the Beaver Brothers Explorer Canoes. Westernland is also home to the Picture Parlour where guests can dress up in pioneer-style outfits and take commemorative photos.
Disneyland Paris: Frontierland in Paris is in a slightly different location than in the previous three Parks with this Land having swapped places with Adventureland. In Paris, the entirety of Frontierland has a single backstory based around the town of Thunder Mesa and guests enter off of Main Street USA through Fort Comstock. Big Thunder Mountain and Phantom Manor, Paris’s version of the Haunted Mansion, are the two main attractions here. Big Thunder Mountain, the only version to be an opening day attraction, is on an island in lieu of a Tom Sawyer Island. The Rivers of the Far West encircle the runaway mine trains. Guests board the trains on the mainland and then go zooming through a tunnel under the water and pop up on the island. There are two riverboats that travel on the Rivers of the Far West, the Mark Twain and the Molly Brown. The Molly Brown is the only side wheeler and is named after the Titanic survivor. The story of Thunder Mesa is that it became a booming mining town when Henry Ravenswood discovered gold in the mountains and started mining around Big Thunder Mountain. He became very rich and built himself a mansion up on Boot Hill (Phantom Manor). Here is where his daughter Melanie was born and when she grew up, she became engaged to a train engineer, one whom Henry did not like because they were planning on moving far away from Thunder Mesa. Big Thunder Mountain was rumoured to be home of the powerful Thunderbird, a spirit who’s wrath would cause earthquakes and Henry was killed in an earthquake before he had a chance to stop the wedding. This earthquake caused the mining company to shut down and the town started to fade. On Melanie’s wedding day, a phantom hanged her groom in the attic. Melanie then refused to take off her wedding dress and spent the rest of her days wandering aimlessly around the mansion. The phantom invited all of his ghostly friends to an eternal party and the place became known as Phantom Manor. Phantom Manor is an attraction that was once again inspired by the abandoned Western River Expedition concept. The story line also took inspiration from The Phantom of the Opera and Great Expectations. The architectural style is known as Victorian Second Empire.
Hong Kong Disneyland: Hong Kong Disneyland did not open with a Frontierland, nor is there an official Frontierland today. In 2012, seven years after Park opening, Grizzly Gulch was opened, a much smaller version of a Frontierland. Grizzly Gulch is also the name of the fictional mining town that the Land is based around. The town was established on August 8, 1888: the luckiest day of the luckiest month of the luckiest year! The number 8 is considered lucky in Chinese culture if you did not pick up on that. The town had a difficult start as there were many geysers in the area but their luck changed when a family of bears led a prospector right to gold! Bears were then considered to be a source of good luck for the town. This land is home to only one attraction and that is Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars. This mouthful of an attraction is one of Disney’s best roller coasters. The train leaves the station in the main building of the mining company and heads for tunnel 8. Rocky the bear is scratching is back on the track switch and accidently sends the train zooming down tunnel 4 (the number 4 is considered unlucky). The train then heads up a large hill when the cable suddenly snaps and the train goes speeding back down the hill, backwards! Then the train comes across two more bears, Mother Lode and Nugget, who accidently set off some TNT, which blasts the train off again. Don’t worry; the Audio-Animatronic bears are just fine and not hurt by the TNT. Imangineers travelled to the Sierra-Nevada Mountains and to Yellowstone National Park for inspiration in making Grizzly Gulch. The centre landmark is Grizzly Peak, a similar version of the one on Grizzly River Run in Disney’s California Adventure.
Below is a chart to break down all of the attractions that can be found in each Frontierland around the world.
| Disneyland | Magic Kingdom | Tokyo Disneyland | Disneyland Paris | Hong Kong Disneyland |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Thunder Mountain Railroad | Big Thunder Mountain Railroad | Big Thunder Mountain | Big Thunder Mountain | Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars |
| Frontierland Shootin’ Exposition | Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade | Westernland Shootin’ Gallery | Rustler Roundup Shootin’ Gallery | |
| Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer Island | Tom Sawyer Island | Tom Sawyer Island | ||
| Mark Twain Riverboat | Mark Twain Riverboat | Mark Twain | ||
| Sailing Ship Columbia | Molly Brown | |||
| The Golden Horseshoe | The Diamond Horsehoe Presents “Mickey & Company” | |||
| Country Bear Jamboree | Country Bear Theatre | |||
| Walt Disney World Railroad – Frontierland Station | Disneyland Railroad – Frontierland Depot | |||
| Fantasmic! | ||||
| Splash Moutain | ||||
| Horseshoe Roundup | ||||
| Phatom Manor | ||||
| Pocahontas Indian Village | ||||
| Geyser Gulch | ||||
| Grizzly Gulch Welcome Wagon Show |
Walt Disney’s dedication of Frontierland on opening day, July 17, 1955.
“Frontierland. It is here that we experience the story of our country’s past. The color, romance and drama of frontier America as it developed from wilderness trails to roads, riverboats, railroads and civilization. A tribute to the faith, courage and ingenuity of our hearty pioneers who blaze the trails and made this progress possible.”
Check out other Comparing Lands Around the World blog posts!
Differences do make sense, each park is their on frontier