Splash Mountain was originally developed as an attraction for Disneyland. In the summer of 1983, Imagineer Tony Baxter was trying to figure out a way to attract guests to the park's scarcely visited Bear Country land <ref name= "Jack1"> http://land.allears.net/blogs/jackspence/2010/06/splash_mountain_part_one_1.html </ref> . Also on his mind was the fact that Dick Norris who oversaw Disneyland wanted his Imagineers to create a log flume attraction for the park <ref name= "Jack1"/>. On top of all this, Tony was also concerned about the closing of America Sings and its 114 Audio Animatronics. Baxter would later recount:
{{Quotation| I kept thinking, ‘What a terrible waste of all those Audio-Animatronics characters. Isn’t there something we can do with them?’”| Tony Baxter} <ref name= "avenue"> http://www.disneyavenue.com/2015/06/making-of-splash-mountain.html </ref>}}
Finally, while driving to work on day, Baxter came up a solution to all three of these problems. Working with Bruce Gordon and John Stone, the attraction he came up with was to be a log flume ride called Zip-a-Dee River Run <ref name= "Jack1"/>. The ride would be based on the 1946 Disney film Song of the South, which was chosen because its main characters- Brer Fox, Brer Bear and Brer Rabbit- had been popular walk-around characters since the parks opening. By choosing Song of the South, Baxter also knew that he would be able to reuse the Audio Animatronic animals located in America Sings, thus solving two problems with one attraction <ref name= "avenue"/>. Although Dick Norris had demanded a log flume ride, Imagineers were not initially sold on the idea, with many feeling that log flume rides were beneath Disney since they were in almost every average amusement park. Eventually however, it was decided that Disney’s log flume would be different due to the story they would tell <ref name="Korkis"> https://www.mouseplanet.com/10394/Splash_Mountain_Double_Anniversary</ref>.