Just three hours west of St Louis, the quaint, friendly Missouri town of Marceline is where Walt Disney spent many of his boyhood years. This small railroad town inspired a lifelong fascination for him and by the time Walt had his own family, it fuelled his vision of Disneyland as a place to spend quality time with his daughters.
Born in 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, Elias Disney moved his family to a farm in Marceline in 1905. It was in Marceline that Walt's wild imagination was first ignited when he attended a performance of Peter Pan at the local elementary school..
During the 1920s, in Los Angeles, Walt made his first animated film featuring the barnyard animals from his beloved hometown. At the time, he wrote to the Marceline News declaring “To tell the truth, more things of importance happened to me in Marceline than have happened since – or are likely to in the future.”
In 1948 he released one of his favourite films 'So Dear to My Heart' and noted "Why, that’s the life my brother and I grew up with as kids in Missouri.”