When the island opened in 1974, it acted mainly as a sanctuary for birds, reptiles, mammals and other species of wildlife. On April 8, 1974, Treasure Island, as it was now called officially opened to the public. Plants from China, the Himalayas and South Africa were transplanted to give the island a tropical lush feel. They also brought in 500 tons each of boulders and trees to create an entirely new landscape. The company brought in 55,000 cubic yards of soil to build up the islands acreage and elevations. Construction began clearing the island of any and all of its original scrub growth. When Walt Disney World opened in 1971, the island appeared on guide maps as Blackbeard’s Island. While many ideas were thrown around, it was ultimately decided to give the island a pirate motif and would draw heavily from the Disney movie Treasure Island. Riles Island as it was later called was sold in 1965 to Walt Disney as part of the secretive property acquisitions he was undertaking in preparations for his new theme park.ĭisney officials knew from the beginning that the island was prime real estate for some sort of attraction. When Nicholson became really ill, he sold it to some local businessmen to be used as a hunting retreat. Nicholson, along with his wife and pet crane lived on “Idle Bay Island” as he called it for nearly 20 years. In the late 1930’s the island was purchased by Florida’s first radio disc jockey, Delmar “Radio Nick” Nicholson for $800.00. ![]() The Raz family lived on the island and farmed the land. From 1900-1937 the island went by the name Raz Island sharing the same name with its owner. The island was owned by several different families before Disney became affiliated with it. After he purchased all the land for his new resort, he ultimately liked the island so much, he decided that the surrounding property would be the first to be developed. When Walt was flying and taking repeated arial surveys of central florida, an 11 1/2 acre island in Bay Lake was one of the main spots that caught his eye. So sit back and relax while we float on over to Discovery Island. A place a lot of people may have not even known existed or just never had that extra day on their vacation to go and experience it. In this portion of the first newsletter of 2011, we are going to take a stroll over to an often over-looked island. He never really got to see live animals incorporated into his par, but that would all change with the planning and design of the florida project, Walt Disney World. So this led to Walt’s first use of three dimensional animated animal figures. The animals would have minds of their own, sleeping during the day and more active at night and since most visitors would be visiting during the day, all they would get to see would be sleeping and inanimate animals. ![]() ![]() He was eventually dissuaded from using real animals because experts believed that the animals would be unmanageable and difficult to present to guest in the manner that Walt desired. It’s no secret that when Walt Disney was planning and creating Disneyland he eagerly wanted to include real animals into the Jungle Cruise ride experience.
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