The Keel Boat Landing is a location in Liberty Square in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.
Description[]
Background[]
The Keel Boat Landing is the name applying to a riverboat landing found in the same village as the Haunted Mansion. It is found along the Hudson River, outside of the Haunted Mansion's gates. It is adjacent to horse-stables possibly used by the owners of the mansion.
History[]
The Keel Boat Landing used to be the entrance, queue and load area for the Liberty Square attraction, "Mike Fink Keel Boats". This attraction was themed to the 1956 Disney film, "Davy Crockett and the River Pirates" which itself was a compilation of two episodes from the popular Davy Crockett segments of The Magical World of Disney and Davy Crockett TV mini-series which inspired the creation of Frontierland. The attraction had guests board one of legendary river-boatsman Mike Fink's keelboats, the Gullywhumper or Bertha Mae and set out on the Rivers of America where they passed by many sites and other water-crafts such as the Liberty Belle Riverboat, Rafts to Tom Sawyer Island and Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes. This was an opening day attraction for Walt Disney World and was modelled after a Disneyland attraction of the same name.
In 2001 the attraction would be shut down as part of a cost-cutting campaign encouraged by Disneyland's Gullywhumper having capsized in 1997 and economic troubles brought upon by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre of September 11, 2001. The landing for the keel boats would continue to stay up albeit unmarked and without being used for boat attractions.
Connections[]
The Keel Boat Landing serves as an extension to the queue for the Haunted Mansion. It is found outside of the manor's gates with guests waiting in the landing during longer lines. The landing in modern-day is found across from the mansion's gift-shop of Memento Mori and holds the penny-crusher machine for the Haunted Mansion. It can be assumed that the landing is located within the same in-world New York village as the Haunted Mansion.
Trivia[]
- Tributes continue to exist to the Mike Fink Keel Boats in the parks.
- In the Jungle Navigation Company Ltd. Skipper Canteen, there is a book labelled Keel Boats of the Mississippi by Fink.
- One of the keelboats is docked on Tom Sawyer Island and visible from the Liberty Belle Riverboat. It is docked near the pirate's lair of Wilson's Cave, presumably being used by the river-pirates who call the island home.
- Disneyland Paris continues to have their own version of the Mike Fink Keel Boats called River Rogue Keelboats found in Frontierland and set in the locale of Thunder Mesa.