California — Probably the most interesting cancelled ski resort project ever came from the Walt Disney Company. Following the success of Disneyland, Walt Disney aimed to build a resort based on one of his passions: skiing.
Walt played his part in creating Tahoe’s ski industry, including serving as an investor at Sugar Bowl Resort and helping Olympic Valley host a memorable Opening Ceremony for the 1960 Olympics. This ceremony inspired Walt to look for a mountain resort across the US.
In the 1960s, the U.S. Forest Service accepted bids from developers seeking to develop Mineral King in Southern California. Walt Disney won a bid by the U.S. Forest Service to develop Mineral King in 1965. The ski resort would have included various ski lifts and a base village.
In a video by The Mouselets, she broke down the history of the proposal and why it never came to life. It also dives into Disney’s proposal to develop a ski resort at Independence Lake at Lake Tahoe, which never came to fruition.
A few key factors led to the demise of the proposed project at Mineral King. The first was Walt Disney’s death in 1966. While the company continued to pursue the project following his death, losing the key messenger was a significant setback in controlling the narrative. The second was advocacy from the Sierra Club, which put Disney through a messy legal process for years. The third was figuring out how to get skiers up to the mountain, with the proposed road to access the monorail, which would have brought guests to the village, becoming a contentious issue among environmentalists.
Eventually, federal legislation was passed that added the area to Sequoia National Park, effectively ending Disney’s ambitions. Today, Mineral King remains a part of Sequoia National Park. This means that it’s protected from development.
For more information about these plans, I recommend reading a few books. The first is Dawn at Mineral King Valley, which explores how this sparked a new era of environmental activism. The second is Disneyland on the Mountain: Walt, the Environmentalists, and the Ski Resort That Never Was, which delves into the proposal and its impact on the ski industry.
Image/Video Credits: The Walt Disney Company, The Mouselets, Skimap.org
