Tom Sawyer Island

Tom Sawyer Island, alternatively known as the Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island and formerly as Tom and Huck Island is an artificial island attraction found in Disneyland, Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland. It is technically listed as an extension of Frontierland but additionally holds connections to New Orleans Square in Disneyland and Liberty Square in the Magic Kingdom.

Description

Background

Disneyland

The island was found in the state of Missouri along the Mississippi and was known to be home to indigenous American peoples, quite possibly of the Lakota peoples. Pirate activity on what would become known as Tom Sawyer Island first occurred at some point likely during the 18th century. The island had a history with a good number of pirates and sailors who had been active during the golden age of piracy, most notably being Captain Jack Sparrow and his companion William Turner who had a blacksmith's shop on the island. A number of shipwrecks came to be found on the island with their own hulls of treasure and the skeletal corpses of the crew left behind with possible indications of supernatural forces having been to blame such as the mythical Kraken.

In lore, the official name of the island is Jackson Island, named for infamous historic U.S. president Andrew Jackson and was found along the Mississippi river. During the war of 1812 (1812-1815), the island served as a headquarters for the American army which included the likes of Andrew Jackson, Davy Crockett and smuggler/privateer Jean Lafitte. The army stationed itself in Fort Sam Clemens and Lafitte's and/or his men came to open up a tavern on the island named after the captain. A number of presumed soldiers and colonists from the 1810s would come to be buried on the island. The island would also come to serve as a home for one Mike Fink, the legendary, "King of Keelboaters" who lived on a cabin on the island's coast where his keelboat The Gullywhumper made port. Crockett and Fink were known to hold familiarity with one another and Davy supposedly spent time visiting Fink's cabin.

At some point in time, the island would come to hold a good number of relics from the Golden Age of Piracy. Whether these artifacts came to the island during the 18th century when these golden age pirates would have been active or if they would have been brought to the island by the likes of Jean Lafitte is unknown. This included the likes of a cursed gold hoard protected by undead pirates, a treasure chest once belonging to the infamous Blackbeard, a mass of treasure which disappeared as mortal hands touched it, a lamp containing a piratical genie, and an iron chest containing a beating heart. Much of this loot would be stored in the underground Dead Man's Grotto in addition to a chained up pirate, cursed with undeath.

In 1835, three boys were documented as using the island as a lair; Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and Jim Harper (all characters from the works of Mark Twain). The three boys had previously been presumed as dead following their disappearance on the Mississippi river. Among their additions to the island was a treehouse which they used as their personal base and the three also uncovered treasures belonging to the previous inhabitants of the island. The three decided to declare themselves pirates and live apart from the corrupt American society of the time, Tom in-particular took up the alias of, "The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main".

History

Disneyland

Tom Sawyer's Island is themed around the stories about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) in-addition to incorporated elements from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. It is only accessed by raft across the Rivers of America but many of its features and show-scenes can be viewed from the Sailing Ship Columbia and Mark Twain Riverboat. Tom Sawyer's Island is also where the nighttime spectacular Fantasmic! is held, specifically on the landing area.

Over the years, many changes to the island were made that replaced original features with features inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean. In addition to tying in with one of Disney's more popular franchises, this was largely done as a result of objective racism and white-nationalist revisionism being found in the original park; sometimes even featuring racial slurs and vilified stereotypes in-addition to glorifying figures like Andrew Jackson who were famous for their oppression of indigenous peoples.

The Magic Kingdom

The Magic Kingdom version of Tom Sawyer's Island does not have the incorporated pirates theme and is much more based in adapting the stories and characters of Mark Twain.

Features

Disneyland

The Landing/Pirate Point

The landing holds Lafitte's Tavern and is where guests enter the island. Here they will find pirate decor and minstrels. In addition to this there is the W. Turner Blacksmith where guests can see pirate weaponry being forged in moving contraptions.

Dead Man's Grotto

These caves feature the chest containing the heart of Davy Jones, cursed treasure being guarded by the undead pirates Pintel and Ragetti, disappearing gold, a pirate genie in a bottle, and a chained up pirate cursed to be undead.

Smuggler's Cove

Smuggler's Cove holds the wreckage of a small sailing-ship which carried vast amounts of treasure. The skeletons of greedy souls can still be seen guarding the loot across the island. There is also a large cage made from human bones.

Pirate's Den

This pirate's den is made from the remains of a ship-wreck, implied to have been caused by the Kraken of nautical-folklore. Within, ghostly voices warn guests as the lighting turns to supernatural hues.

The Captain's Treasure

A great treasure which at some point belonged to Captain Jack Sparrow.

Tom & Huck's Treehouse

The accessible treehouse where Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn would play pirate together.

Haunted Mansion Connections

Jean Laffite Mega-Theme

In the 1990s, there were plans to install a mega-theme which would connect the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean and Tom Sawyer's Island into an interconnected story-experience. The plan would be to connect the stories of the attractions via historic 19th century pirate Jean Lafitte who was already referenced in New Orleans Square and the Pirates of the Caribbean respectively.

In this plan, Jean Lafitte's crypt would have been located on the grounds of the Haunted Mansion and connect to subterranean caverns and catacombs which lead to Tom Sawyer's Island.  The underground lair would have been filled with the remains of Laffitte’s victims, a shipwreck, a pirate’s court, the gundeck, and a treasure room.

These plans were never brought to fruition, however remnants of them do still exist within the Disneyland park.  A bricked up archway with the date 1764 remains in New Orleans Square, and following the success of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Tom Sawyer's Island would become home to pirate themed experiences. This would include the Lafitte's Tavern and it would later be elaborated via newspaper clipping on the island that the island once served as Lafitte's lair.

Ken Anderson artwork compared to pirate on Tom Sawyer's Island. Credit to long forgotten [3].

Other Connections

• Several of Constance Hatchaway's mariticidal souvenirs in the Haunted Mansion's attic are repurposed props from the original incarnation of Tom Sawyer's Island. Notably, the wardrobe and photographs belonging to American president Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) who appeared in the original Fort Sam Clemens of Tom Sawyer's Island. The fort sequence closed in 2002, in-part due to (rightfully made) complaints by indigenous-American park-goers as Andrew Jackson was famously genocidal and cruel against Native-Americans with the affects of his presidency still being felt (most notably via the Trail of Tears in the 1830s).
  • Jackson can still be found in animatronic form in the Hall of Presidents in Walt Disney World's Liberty Square, the same land which holds that park's Haunted Mansion.
• The lost Spider-Web Man figure from the Magic Kingdom version is alleged to have been repurposed into the sleeping guard in Fort Sam Clemens.
• Following the Pirate's Lair theming of Tom Sawyer's Island, an undead pirate would be added to the Dead Man's Grotto attraction which was visibly based off of unused ideas for the Gore Manor draft of the Haunted Mansion by Ken Anderson.
• The undead Pintel found in Dead Man's Grove pops up to scare guests in a fashion reminiscent of the Haunted Mansion's pop-up ghosts in the graveyard.
• In the cast-member created Ghost Gallery, the Caretaker's dog, the ghost dog and the Hellhound are all descendants of a dog which used to be found at the Fort Sam Clemens part of Tom Sawyer Island, who was also stated to be a descendant of the dog from Pirates of the Caribbean.
• In the Ghost Gallery, a group of river-pirates go to a tavern with Little Leota who are possibly representations of the river-pirates of Cutthroat Corner and the Wilson's Cave Inn as seen from the Liberty Belle Riverboat on Tom Sawyer Island.

Trivia

• Tom Sawyer's Island at Disneyland was fully designed by Walt Disney himself. This was of-course before the pirate-themed overhaul.
• Continuity is unreliable regarding the geographic location of the island (in Disneyland). Namely with it being unclear if it is intended to be set in Louisiana (namely New Orleans) or Missouri. Officially it is set in Missouri but there is contradicting information regarding this.
• One proposed but ultimately unused feature of the island would have been the serving of a fictitious pirate beverage known as, "Pop-Grog". This would have been described as being a drink used by Chinese pirates by blending grog (a concoction of lime-juice, sugar and alcohol made to save on provisions while fighting bacteria and scurvy) with gunpowder. In-reality, this would have been soda mixed with pop-rocks candy.
  • Historically, Chinese piracy would have been at its peak during the early 19th century with the likes of pirates such as Madame Ching who was the most successful pirate in human history.