More than 1,000 high school band members, drawn from schools all over Florida, marched and played. When the official opening day came, Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom held a big celebration and parade. 'He designed a highly compartmentalized drainage system that stepped the water down and prevented over-drainage of a lot of the wetland areas,' Lee explains.īuilding it cost some $400 million. Potter took a careful approach to preserving wetland areas on the site that Lee says was remarkable for its time. Charles Lee has worked on environmental issues for decades with Audubon Florida and says Gen. The Disneys hired retired Army Gen., William Potter to oversee construction. Walt Disney died a year later, and it was left to his brother Roy to fulfill his vision. Mickey Mouse and Roy Disney during the 25th Anniversary of the opening of Walt Disney World. He found out who his buyer was when he saw it on the front page of the Orlando Sentinel. There was a lot of speculation in Orlando about the identity of the company that was buying so much land, but Demetree says even her father was kept in the dark. 'And that was the wetlands that they had been complaining about.' 'He saw that wetland and said, 'Right there is Tom Sawyer's island,'' Demetree says. But, as she heard the story, that's one of the things that appealed to Walt Disney when he flew over the area in a private plane. Her father and uncle were uncertain they would ever find a buyer for the property because of all the wetlands. 'At that time, Orlando was more of a cow town and literally when you'd come down Orange Blossom Trail, you could smell the orange blossoms,' Demetree says. In the mid-1960s they agreed to sell more than 12,000 acres of swampy undeveloped land to a company whose identity remained secret. Mary Demetree, a native of the area, is CEO of a real estate company her father and uncle founded. The grand opening dedication ceremony included a parade down Disney World's Main Street on Oct.

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