Walt Disney spent several of his early years in Marceline, Missouri. The tiny Midwestern town also could have been home to another Disney park.
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Disney lived in Marceline beginning in 1905 when his father, Elias Disney, moved the family from Chicago to a small Missouri farm.
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Guided by Walt Disney, Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, in California. It's the only theme park designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. He found inspiration in his boyhood town of Marceline.
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The entrance to many Walt Disney theme parks is "Main Street USA"-- the cartoonist's tribute to early 1900s America, with nods to Marceline.
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Disney, left, was heavily involved in the construction of Main Street USA. He wanted to pay homage to the town he left as a youth.
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It's said that Disney used downtown Marceline as the model for Disneyland's Main Street.
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A number of references to Marceline are worked into this part of Disneyland; note the name on the hotel facade.
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Walt, center, and Roy Disney, right, returned to Marceline in 1956 to dedicate the town's swimming pool with Marceline's mayor, left. They also stopped by their childhood home and school.
Courtesy Walt Disney Hometown Museum
In addition to a Disney museum, there's a Disney farm in Marceline. It features a reproduction of the barn Walt and Roy Disney's father, Elias, owned in the early 1900s.
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The Disney family has donated many artifacts to the Disney Hometown Museum to help tell the story of their life in the early 1900s.
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In 1912, the original Main Street USA in Marceline, also known as Kansas Avenue, was converted from dirt to brick.
