The Stories Behind Disneyland's Hidden Wonders (2024)

Yes, this urban myth is true—there are feral cats that roam Disneyland, whose job is to control the rodent population. (They even have their own Twitter account.) Though they are more often seen late at night, daytime sightings do happen. “I’ve seen them, especially in the Big Thunder Mountain area … They are not domesticated or anything, but I believe they are fed and taken care of,” confirms Arthur.

The story goes that Walt Disney originally found a feline colony taking up residence in Sleeping Beauty Castle. Instead of getting rid of them, he allowed the cats to stay, provided they earned their keep. He laid downonly one rule—no chasing the park’s two most important mice, Mickey and Minnie.

The Pirates of the Caribbean boat ride was the last attraction Walt Disney worked on before his death in December 1966. When it opened in March 1967, the ridewas revolutionary for the use of audio-animatronics in its storytelling. But it may have been notable for other reasons, too: “When it opened, my understand is that most of [the skulls and bones] were procured from medical institutions. There weren’t really good, realistic fake skeletons out there at the time, so they had to use real ones,” says Arthur.

As the years have passed, most of the bones have been swapped out for fakes—except, possibly, forone skull.“There is nothing official, but I have heard it is the one in the headboard above the bed. Whenthey did get rid of the real ones, that one was molded into something,” says Arthur.

When the Matterhorn opened in 1959, it wasthe world’s first tubular steel roller coaster, but Disney wanted more. So, he hired real climbers to scale the 147-foot manmade mountain as if they were climbing the original Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps.

But once the climbers reached the top of the Matterhorn, they didn’t have much to do. So, Walt Disney built a basketball hoop in the top third of the mountain to keep them occupied. Contrary to some reports, it's not an entirecourt, Arthur says. “I don’t ever call it a basketball court.You can potentially play a game, but it’s not quite a whole court …It has been there for a very long time.”

In front of Frontierlandsits a rather large, oddartifact—a five-ton piece of petrified wood. The plaque says little more than where it came from—Pike Petrified Forest, Colorado—and that it was presented to Disneyland by Walt’s wife in September 1957. The real story behind thestump sheds some light on Disney’s original intention, which was tomake parts ofthe park a sort of natural history museum, completewith a mineral hall.

In 1956, Walt and his wife were on a road trip in Colorado when they stoppedat Pike Petrified Forest.Touring the forest, he decided that a petrified tree stump would be perfect for his still-new park.Walt purchased thestump for $1,650 from a local dealerand had it delivered to Disneyland. To justify such an extravagant purchase, he told the media and his family alike that it was an anniversary gift to his wife. Since she didn’t want it, he joked, she had donated to the park. Disneyland eventually became more focused on entertainment than education, and the stump seems rather out of place in the park today.

Walt Disney wanted everyone who stepped through the gates of his park to feel like a child, no matter their age. One of the ways he chose to do this was by using the architecture and photography technique known asforced perspective.The technique involvesshrinking(or enlarging)objects to scale in order to make a building or object seem larger (or smaller)than it actually is.

While the entire park has elements of this, the most profound examples are Sleeping Beauty Castle and the buildings on Main Street. Many of the shops on Disneyland’s main road are built to three quarters scale on the first story, five-eighthsscale on the second story, one halfscale on the third story. This givesthe illusion of a full three-story buildingwithout the building actually being as high as a three-story building.

“Walt brought in a lot of set designers and a lot of people who worked on films, who employed a lot of principles from there, including forced perspective. Part of the reasoning was that Walt wanted [Disneyland’s buildings]to be more personal … and to make you feel like a kid because everything is bigger,” says Arthur.

If one listens closely while waiting for the Disneyland Railroad at the New Orleans Square station, a tapping sound can be heard coming from the Telegraph Cable Office.This tapping is actually amessagecoded in Continental Code (and not in Morse Code, a frequent misconception).

There is some uncertainty aboutexactly what it's saying. Originally part of Frontierland, thetelegraph was supposedto tap out a portion of Disney’s famed opening day speech. In order for it to be ready to go for July 17, 1955, a memo was distributedon July 8with an early draft of Disney’s remarks. Of course, as anyone who has spoken in public knows, sometimes what is written onpaper is not what comes out.While the variation in what got coded into the telegraph and what Disney actually said is slight (a few added words), it's unclear whether the telegraph was ever updated. However,an amateur ham radio operator did some digging and claims that he helped to fix a missing gap in the message.

Disneyland holds aspecial place in the lives of many, so it's only natural some might wish it tobe their home forever. While the park has never confirmedthat they have caught people scattering human ashes,according to multiple Disneyland sources, it does happen somewhat frequently, and it's a healthhazard.

The Haunted Mansion and the Pirates of the Caribbean seem to be the most popular spots for the practice. When it happens, health code regulations dictate that rides have to be shut down for draining and cleaning.