Tom Sawyer Island in the Magic Kingdom is a kid's paradise. Take a raft across the Rivers of America, and step back in time to Mark Twain's Missouri of the 1800s. In fact, most of the locations on the island, from Aunt Polly's to Injun Joe's Cave, take their name and inspiration directly from Twain's classic novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The fort out on the back island, Fort Langhorn, actually takes its name from Mark Twain himself. "Mark Twain" was the pen name used by the author Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
The references aren't exclusively tied to the island, either. Take a closer look at the crates sitting on this dock across the river:
The labels mention S.L. Clemens, Hannibal, Missouri and "Doc" Robinson, a character from Twain's books.
There's one other reference here that doesn't come from literature. Harper's Mill on the island is a nod to Imagineering Art Director Harper Goff, best known for his designs of the Jungle Cruise, Main Street and the Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Shawn, I love your posts. As I mentioned in an earlier comment, I love to see the differences between the Orlando Magic Kingdom and the Disneyland that I know and love here in California.
ReplyDeleteJust yesterday, I read a post on the Disneyland Tom Sawyer Island over at Voyages Extraordinaires (http://voyagesextraordinaires.blogspot.com/), another excellent Disney-related blog. It's so cool to compare the two islands. Seems like the Florida version has retained most of its original charm (now that Disneyland's island has gone all pirates).
Also, just a minor note, and I'm not totally sure where the inspiration actually did come from, but I thought I would point out that one of Tom Sawyer's best friends was Joe Harper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Tom_Sawyer_characters
So it's entirely possible that the Harper's Mill reference does indeed come from Twain's tales (or it comes from Harper Goff... or both!).
You beat me to it Paul. I was going to bring up the Harper's Mill point too. :)
ReplyDeleteI guess we will never know!
So I did some digging and asking around of those in the know... it seems it is a bit of both. The name for Harper's Mill comes from the Twain character, but its prominence on the front island (with the name painted on the front, as opposed to Potter's Mill which faces Big Thunder and is more subtly identified) provides tribute to Harper Goff. Whew!
ReplyDeletejust a cool fact:
ReplyDeleteIf the lines are two long for Thunder Mountian and Splash Mountian go across the river to Tom Sawer Island. Several (5?) paint brushes with white paint on the tip can be found and brought to a near by cast member who will trade you the brush for a fast pass for either of the 2 mountians