Over the next few years, Frontierland will be changing into Frontierland. A better Frontierland, with cars that talk. Walt Disney World has announced ambitious plans to drain and demolish the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island to prepare for the construction of a Cars-themed land. Work on the Cars-themed expansion to Frontierland will start this year after Disney gets through the permitting process and closes the aforementioned experiences. In the meantime, Frontierland is still in a state of flux.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will be closed until 2026, and construction walls remain in place for the transformation of the Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade into a Disney Vacation Club lounge. Then, there’s the case of the missing signage.
Frontierland Entrance Signs Removed
Some 16 months ago, the first Frontierland sign disappeared. It wasn’t too big of a deal at the time, but now, we’re starting to wonder why it hasn’t returned. The sign in question is the entrance sign from Liberty Square.
It was a nice sign, simple in its messaging, yet effective. It hung freely on a small wooden structure near the Disney Vacation Club kiosk that still stands to this day. Here’s a look at the sign in the context of the area as a whole before a closer look at the sign that was removed sometime in late July 2023 or early August 2023.
Below, we take a look at where the sign should be, from a visit to Magic Kingdom earlier today. How will we even know where Frontierland starts and Liberty Square ends? I suppose the log cabin is a good indicator, but I miss the sign. As a matter of fact, I’ve been thinking about this missing sign for 16 months now…
…what if the lack of a sign is, itself, a sign? To put the removal of the sign into perspective, let’s go back to Summer 2023. We knew that something was going to happen Beyond Big Thunder Mountain, but the skies were decidedly blue and the dreaming was in overdrive. As it turns out, the announced September 2022 plans for Beyond Big Thunder Mountain were, perhaps, already transforming into something else by the time the Frontierland sign was removed in Summer 2023.
As Summer 2023 turned to Fall and then Winter, the Frontierland sign didn’t return. We knew that a reimagined version of the Country Bear Jamboree would open in 2024, so that meant that Walt Disney World had plans of keeping the Frontierland name for the land, right? In a January 2024 announcement, Disney teased that they had more plans for the land and referred to it by name: Frontierland.
We have a lot of growth and investment planned for our theme parks in the coming years and look forward to sharing more announcements about Frontierland … so y’all come back now, ya hear?
Phew. This all but confirmed that Frontierland was here to stay. Case closed. Or was it? By the time Winter turned to Spring and Spring turned to Summer, I started to wonder where the Frontierland sign was. As the August 2024 D23 Expo drew nearer, no Frontierland sign. The 1-year anniversary of the removal of the sign came and went, still no sign. It can’t possibly take this long to refurbish a sign, right? My wheels were spinning again.
Well, the 2024 D23 Expo saw the announcement of two Cars-themed attractions coming to Magic Kingdom. In the Disney Parks Blog announcement, Chris Beatty Portfolio Executive Creative Director of Walt Disney Imagineering, mentioned Frontierland by name twice. In a follow-up blog post from Disney announcing the closure of Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America, Frontierland is mentioned by name three times. Case closed.
Unfortunately for me (and you, if you’re still reading), there has been a recent development. Last week, the other Frontierland entrance sign was removed from near the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. Here’s a look at what the sign should look like.
And here’s a look at where the sign was removed, as seen from our visit to Magic Kingdom today.
Both Frontierland entrance signs are likely just out for refurbishment (you know, just your standard 18-month refurbishment of a sign) and will be back in all their glory shortly, but what if Walt Disney World will be renaming Frontierland and that’s why the signs are missing? Is the lack of a sign a sign? Only time will tell, and with so much change on the horizon for this corner of the park, I wouldn’t be surprised if a new name was in the works.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
