Splash Mountain

Splash Mountain is an attraction located in Frontierland

Attraction History

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 scarcely visited Bear Country land in Disneyland. Also on his mind was the fact that the America Sings attraction in Tommorowland was about to close, in with its 114 animal Audio Anamatronics. To add to all of that, Dick Norris who oversaw Disneyland wanted his Imagineer to create a log flume for the park. Finally while stuck in rush hour traffic Tony Baxter thought of a solution.

The attraction he came up with was to be a log flume ride called Zip-a-Dee River Run. The ride would be based on the 1946 Disney film Song of the South. The movie 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 knew that he would also be able to reuse the Audio Anamatronic animals located in America Sings, thus solving two problems with one attraction. Although Dick Norris had demanded a log flume ride, Imageneers were not sold on the idea. Many felt that log flume rides were beneath Disney since they were in every average amusement park. Eventually however, it was decided that Disney would be different, because of the story they would tell.

In 1984, the name of the attraction was changed to Splash Mountain. Michael Eisner suggested the change, in order to promote the new Disney-Touchstone film Splash. Although Eisner's other suggestion of adding a mermaid to the ride to further tie in with the film was rejected, the new name stuck. On July 17, 1989 Splash Mountain opened in Disneyland. The attraction proved so popular that Michael Eisner decided to add it to the other Disney theme parks, including Walt Disney World.