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One day Walt Disney had a vision. It was a vision of a place where children and parents could have fun together. The more Walt dreamed of a "magical park," the more imaginative and elaborate it became.
The original plans for the park were on 8 acres next to the Burbank studios where his employees and families could go to relax. Although World War lI put those plans on hold. During the war, Disney had time to come up with new ideas, and creations for his magical park. It was soon clear that 8 acres wouldn’t be enough.
Finally in 1953, he had the Stanford Research Institute conduct a survey for a 100-acre site, outside of Los Angeles. He needed space to build rivers, waterfalls and mountains; he would have flying elephants and giant teacups; a fairy-tale castle, moon rockets and a scenic railway; all inside a magic kingdom he called "Disneyland".
The search for the best venue for the park ended in the rural Anaheim, California with a purchase of a 160-acre orange grove near the junction of the Santa Ana Freeway (1-5) and Harbor Boulevard.
Construction for Disneyland began on July 21, 1954, 12 months before the park was scheduled to open.
Some 160-acres of citrus trees had been cleared and 15 houses moved to make room for ’the park. However, when the real designing came around, Disney met with inevitable questions. How do you make believable wild animals, that aren’t real How do you make a Mississippi paddle ship How do you go about building a huge castle in the middle of Anaheim, California Disney asked his movie studio staff for answers. The design of Disneyland was something never done before. There would be four uniquely different theme parts: Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland,Tomorrowland. Bit by bit, Disneyland got ready for opening day. The staff worked around the clock to get ready.
But opening day was a terrible disaster. Beside the terrible opening day conditions, the park did eventually pick up. By 1965, ten years after opening day, 50 Million visitors had come through the gates.