Bogden Delaurot Drowns

Philip Straughan Drowns

Walt Disney never produced the movie based on the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but he certainly had an affinity for the novel and shared a Midwestern background with its author Mark Twain both men were alive concurrently.Disney was born in Chicago about 350 miles from Twain's, Florida, Missouri birthplace. Disney was eight went Twain died in 1910 and both men grew up in small, Missouri towns Marceline and Hannibal.Both men also created an island in the middle of a river.Twains' Tom Sawyer did not include a place called Tom Sawyer's Island, but it did have a fictional Jackson's Island about three miles long and 1/4 mile wide out in the middle of the Mississippi River.On the island Tom, Huck and their friend Joe Harper could cavorted as pirates and escaped civilization. Reaching the island via log raft the three boys eagerly roamed the woods and found plenty of things to be delighted with.

Once Disneyland was up and running in early 1956 Walt Disney turned his attention to the incomplete visible but unvisitable island out in the middle of the Rivers of America.Early ideas for the area including a Mickey Mouse island or a Treasure Island based on Disney's 1950 movie. Once the Tom Sawyer concept was settled on Disney did what he typically did for new attractions. He turned over the actual creation to an individual designer who used his bosses general suggestion to map out the details.Tom Sawyer Island, however, got some extra attention from Walt Disney the island was the only early Disneyland attraction personally designed by Disney himself.

Disney did let master planner Marvin Davis have first crack at it, but the results weren't satisfactory for him.Disney took Davis's drawings and worked on them for hours in his red barn workshop. The next morning he laid tracing paper out on Davis's desk and said now that's the way it should be the island was built according to his design.The result is something close to Twains rough-hewn Jackson's Island just as Twains island was 12 times longer than it was wide. So to his Disney's Island long and narrow. Tom Sawyer Island reaches 800 feet from top to bottom and varies in width from trim 50 feet in the middle to about 250 across the Northern end totaling almost 3 acres.

The surrounding shore most of it belonging to Frontierland is 80 to 100 feet away with Rafts to Tom Sawyer Island conveying guests back and forth.When the island finally opened in July of 1956 two winners of Hannibal's most typical Tom and Becky of the Year contest attended the dedication ceremonies.That first year just couldn't use any of their "A", "B" or "C" tickets to enter the island. They had to buy a special 50 cent ticket for admission.There is little to no elevation change in the caves on Tom Sawyer Island. The reasons for this is because of economic and safety concerns. The caves are simply buildings that were built and then covered with mounds of dirt. The hills that are on the island are a result of covering these "buildings".

One of the better examples is the hill that the "rock-like" playground is on. When you stand on this hill you are standing on the ceiling of one of Tom Sawyer caves. Epoxy-crete (the same compound used for rocks in other attractions) were used in combination with concrete to cover the inside walls of these buildings. If you look carefully you notice that there is lighting and ventilation systems in the caves. Some of the vertical rock outcropping are support pilings or pillars. Disney also uses the elevation of the ceiling, and the closeness of the walls to trick the mind into thinking there is an elevation change in the cave.Due to 1970's gas crises the flames in The burning cabin were turned off.

There is little to no elevation change in the caves on Tom Sawyer Island. The reasons for this is because of economic and safety concerns. The caves are simply buildings that were built and then covered with mounds of dirt. The hills that are on the island are a result of covering these "buildings". One of the better examples is the hill that the "rock-like" playground is on. When you stand on this hill you are standing on the ceiling of one of the Tom Sawyer caves. Epoxy-crete (the same compound used for rocks in other attractions) was used in combination with concrete to cover the inside walls of these buildings. If you look carefully you notice that there is lighting and ventilation systems in the caves. Some of the vertical rock outcropping are support pilings or pillars. Disney also uses the elevation of the ceiling, and the closeness of the walls to trick the mind into thinking there is an elevation change in the cave.

Walt Disney drew the original shape of the island

Bill evans designed the landscaping for the island

Vic Greene, Herb Ryman and Claude Coats produced the first designs for the island based on Walt's ideas.

Emile Kuri located some second hand stuffed animals at a museum to install on the remote end of the island

Opening ceremonies were held at noon on June 16, 1956 at the raft landing on the island.

Perva Lou Smith and Chris Winkler (winners of the Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher contest in Hannibal Missouri) with Walt's help christened the raft with a jug of Mississippi River water and planted a box of soil from Jackson's Island (the model for the island frequented by Tom and Huck in Twain's novels) near the foot of the landing pier.

In 1956 the phone extension for Tom Sawyers Island was 381

The island is 800 feet long and varies from 50 to 250 feet wide

Tom Nabbe was the first "Tom Sawyer" character to wonder around the island.

1964 Average time a guest spent on the island was 30 minutes

From WED Disneyland Dictionary 1968
Is a young adventure-seeker's paradise. The island is surrounded by the Rivers Of America. A maze of pathways leads through the forest to "Fort Wilderness" with its log walls and guard posts where marksmen fire through chinks at attacking Indians. They climb through a hollow tree-trunk to "Tom Sawyer's Tree House," wander through the "Old Mill," climb "Castle Rock," explore a cave, or sway on the "Suspension Bridge.

The burning cabin:1970's Gas crises Disneyland turned off the flames. Simulated fire was added. The settler had an arrow through him.

From Steve Birnbaum brings you the best of Disneyland 1982:
Disneyland is home to what must be two of the three best treehouses on earth-the Swiss Family Treehouse in Adventure- land and Tom and Huck's Treehouse, atop Indian Hill on Tom Sawyer Island, the landfall that the Mark Twain, the Columbia, the Gullywhumper, the Bertha Mae, and Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes encircle as they ply the Rivers of America. Once the highest point in Disneyland, this is the archetypal treehouse, right down to the spyglasses and peepholes that let visitors see out over the tree- tops to the Mark Twain dock across the river-and to the graffiti that records the legacy of a quarter century of visitors: Debbie, Karen, Moe, Pam, Ruby, Mary & Helen (BEST FRIENDS FOREVER, 1981), and others. The treehouse is only one of the wonders on this island planted with sweet gum and Southern red cedar, Carolina cherry, sycamores, live oak, honeysuckle, and blackberry bushes. There's the Suspension Bridge, which heaves and bounces wildly enough to make a weak stomach churn, and the Barrel Bridge, where it's nearly impossible to maintain a stride more decorous than a lurch. (The more energetic have occasionally been known to fall in.) Near the Suspension Bridge, there's a small hill studded with log steps that kids like to scramble up. And then there's Castle Rock Ridge, a fantastic group of boulders that includes the mightily spinning Merry-Go-Round Rock; the aptly named Teeter-Totter Rock; and, inside the Ridge, the spacious Pirate's Den and the smaller Castle Dungeon, full of niches and cul-de-sacs.just the right size for a six-year-old, but so narrow and low-ceilinged in places that grown-ups who don't bend double or turn sideways risk getting stuck, just like Pooh Bear. Even cooler, darker, and spookier than either of these, though, is the labyrinthine Injun Joe's Cave, one of the very best spots on the island. At the landfall's southernmost extremity, not far from its entrance, there's the perpetually creaking Old Mill. Then, at the island's opposite end, there's Fort Wilderness, where there are air rifles (free), which make lots of noise but emit no bullets, and statues of a buckskin-clad Davy Crockett and George Russel that look for all the world like Fess Parker and Buddy Ebsen, who acted the parts of those historical figures on the old Disneyland show. In this scene they're conferring with Andy Jackson, who was played by Basil Ruysdael on the same show. The flag that flutters above the fort is the same 15-star, 15-stripe model that inspired Francis Scott Key at Fort McHenry in 1814.There are small signs pointing to all of these landmarks on the island, and maps are available on request at the turnstiles of the Tom Sawyer Island Rafts dock near Fowler's Harbor. Even though the footpaths are decidedly well trodden, the time spent on Tom Sawyer Island always seems like an adventure and may well offer some of the happiest moments at Disneyland.Be sure to see all the wonderful details: leather thongs that bind the split rails together to fence the landing for the rafts to Tom Sawyer Island; the wooden packing cases on the landings that punctuate the pathway along the east side of the island; and the trash bins, here designed to look like over- size logs. The names on the graves near Fort Wilderness are, for the most part, fictitious.On the island, there are two sets of restrooms- one set in Fort Wilderness, the other on the south- east corner near Injun Joe's Cave, opposite the mainland's Mark Twain dock. Snacks are available at the Fort Wilderness Snack Bar, in the Fort, and at the Fishing Pier Snack Stand near the second set of restrooms (open during holiday periods and in summer only).Note that the island closes at dusk.

1984: The fire was turned back on. The settler no longer had an arrow through him and was referred to as a moonshiner.
1991: The settler was removed and the flames were referred to be endangering a nest of birds.
2007: flames were turned off
2010: Cabin has been restored to look like Mike Fink lives there with his keel boat tied up in front

2007: Pirates have taken over another part of Disneyland when Pirate's Lair at Tom Sawyer Island opened May 25, 2007. All those pirates — including Jack Sparrow, ladies — who have been milling around New Orleans Square singing sea shanties, posing for pictures and insulting tourists as only pirates can will now be permanently stationed on Tom Sawyer's Island.