Frontierland: Disney’s Wild West land

Frontierland is one of the five lands of Disneyland Park, opened on 12 April 1992. It sits to the left of and south of Adventureland, behind Main Street U.S.A., a different layout from the American and Japanese parks, where it is north of Adventureland. Its name means "frontier land", a nod to the last frontier of the United States.

The land’s theme is the conquest of the American West in the nineteenth century, covering more precisely the years 1790-1880. The setting stretches from the banks of the Mississippi to the California border and celebrates the American pioneers. Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon are among the places that inspired its architecture and landscape. The land stands out for its strong, consistent theming: it takes you on an architectural and geographical journey through the West in the form of a small fictional town called Thunder Mesa, which ties everything together. The town has its own legends and characters, including the Ravenswood family, owners of Phantom Manor and of the abandoned mine of Big Thunder Mountain.

You enter through a fort called Fort Comstock, named after a silver mine in Virginia City, Nevada, and after Imagineer Paul Comstock, who was in charge of the landscaping. Shoshone tepees mark your arrival in the land. The bins carry the date 1849, the year of the mass arrival of immigrants in California for the gold rush (the "forty-niners").

The headline ride is Big Thunder Mountain, a 33-metre-high mine train recalling the California gold rush of 1848-1849. The mountain rises on an island in the middle of the Rivers of the Far West (instead of being devoted to Tom Sawyer, as in the other parks). Several forced perspective tricks make it look taller: the trees in the foreground are bigger than those at the back, and the colours are softer towards the rear. All the props in the queue and along the ride date from the late nineteenth century, collected from ghost towns, museums and abandoned mines across the US. Behind the mountain is Wilderness Island, inspired by a real island in Maine.

Phantom Manor is the second major ride. Unlike the Haunted Mansion versions in the other parks, its facade is deliberately run-down, to set the mood without any explanatory signs. The right side is more damaged than the left, as bad weather comes from the east. The original English narration was by Vincent Price, then replaced, at the request of French-speaking visitors, by Gérard Chevalier, Vincent Price’s French dubbing voice. The evil laugh is still Vincent Price’s. The cemetery next door, Boot Hill, is full of humorous epitaphs and references.

The land also includes Rustler Roundup Shootin’ Gallery, Legends of the Wild West (in Fort Comstock), the Frontierland Playground (opened in June 1993 as Pocahontas Indian Village), the Frontierland Theater (formerly the Chaparral Stage from 1993, then the Chaparral Theater, renamed in 2019) and the Frontierland Depot station of the Disneyland Railroad (whose telegraph taps out in Morse code Walt Disney’s opening speech at Disneyland in California). Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing is home to the Molly Brown Riverboat, named after the Titanic survivor whose husband made his fortune buying a mine.

Dining centres on three restaurants each linked to a precious metal: The Lucky Nugget Saloon (gold, fictionally founded in 1858), Silver Spur Steakhouse (silver) and Last Chance Café (copper). Add to these Fuente del Oro and Cowboy Cookout Barbecue (where every chair is different, as in the days when each cowboy brought his own). The shops are grouped in the Thunder Mesa Mercantile Building (Tobias Norton & Sons, Bonanza Outfitters, Eureka Mining Supplies) and at the Pueblo Trading Post, inspired by Taos Pueblo in New Mexico.

The whole land reads as a single story: Thunder Mesa, once a thriving mining outpost of the Wild West in the nineteenth century, became a ghost town after a mysterious disaster linked to the Ravenswood family. Big Thunder Mountain tells the story of the haunted gold mine. Phantom Manor is the cursed mansion where Melanie Ravenswood waits for her vanished fiancé.

The common thread is a tragic local chronicle: the mine, the manor, the river, the trading post and the cemetery are all part of one story imagined by the Imagineers, with narrative links that cross between the attractions.

The land in numbers, pulled together from across the site for a super quick visual summary.

The land opened with the park on 12 April 1992 with Big Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor, Thunder Mesa Riverboat Landing and Rustler Roundup Shootin’ Gallery.

Frontierland Playground was added in 1996. The Frontierland Theater has hosted Tarzan: The Encounter (1999-2009), then Festival of the Lion King (2010-2018) and then The Lion King: Rhythms of the Pride Lands since 30 June 2019.

Several attractions and areas have disappeared or changed. The Indians Canoes ran until October 1994. The River Rogue Keelboats sailed from 1992 to 2002, then from 2007 to 2009. The Mark Twain Riverboat was withdrawn in 2011. Critter Corral, an animal ranch, was replaced in summer 2007 by Woody’s Roundup Village, then by the Marché d’Arendelle in 2015 and later by other seasonal setups. Several original projects were dropped before opening: Geyser Mountain (a lift ride shot out by a geyser), Thunder Mesa Lumber Co. (a log ride dropped because of the weather) and Lil’ Thunder Mine (a kids’ version of Big Thunder Mountain, dropped for budget reasons).

To find out more: all the secrets and fun facts about Frontierland

The land is inspired by Frontierland at Disneyland in Anaheim (1955) and Westernland at Tokyo Disneyland (1983). The Paris version stands out for a layout found nowhere else in the world, on an island in the middle of the lake, and for Phantom Manor (the darkest version of the Haunted Mansion).