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Rare Mineral King Demo (Country Bear Jamboree)

At the same time in the 1960s that Walt secretly was buying land for a new theme park resort in Florida, his associates were scouting locations for an ambitious new Disney ski resort in California.

The WED plans for the site envisioned six ski areas, with a combined daily capacity of 20,000 skiers, set around a Swiss-style base village. Disney had a deal with California Governor Pat Brown for $35 million in road improvements leading to the site.

After Walt's death in 1966, Disney management decided that it couldn't handle two major projects in Walt's absence. So instead of building Mineral King, it chose to develop the other grand project Walt had been working on... Walt Disney World.

The Country Bears were originally designed for this resort. When this project fell through (due to public environmental concerns), the bears were moved to Florida, and the Country Bear Jamboree opened in 1971. Some of the music for the bear show at Mineral King was actually recorded.