Paving Paradise: Disney’s Rivers of America and Liberty Belle—What We Lost When Magic Kingdom Changed

“They’re not building castles anymore.” — Walt Disney Imagineering veteran

And now, they’re not keeping rivers, either.

The Rivers Run Dry

For decades, the Rivers of America served as the beating heart of Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland and Liberty Square. Its gentle loop tied the land together with water, motion, and history. The Liberty Belle Riverboat plied the waters, her paddlewheel churning with kinetic grace. Guests drifted to Tom Sawyer Island, a rare place in the park designed not for queues and lightning lanes, but for wandering.

Today, all of that is gone. The rivers drained. The Liberty Belle removed. Tom Sawyer Island bulldozed, its themed Coke machine — itself an oddly perfect piece of Americana — a casualty of “progress.”

The loss is not just of attractions, but of atmosphere. The water reflected light, softened noise, created breezes. The boat’s whistle punctuated the background like a heartbeat. The island added texture: an unreachable “there” across the water that made the park feel larger, more real. Without them, Liberty Square and Frontierland feel suddenly flatter, quieter, and less alive.

In Their Place: Cars Land

And what replaces this carefully wrought sense of place? Reports confirm Disney is bringing Cars Land to Magic Kingdom, planted directly on the dried riverbed.

Cars Land in California Adventure is a marvel — an immersive slice of Route 66 with one of the best Disney rides ever built (Radiator Springs Racers). But here, the decision feels wrongheaded.

Tomorrowland Speedway already exists next door. A low-capacity, gas-belching embarrassment that begs for a Cars retheme. Instead of fixing the speedway, Disney is paving over the very heart of Liberty Square and Frontierland.

Thematic dissonance. Cars Land belongs to the American Southwest, to Route 66, to nostalgia for mid-century road trips. Dropping it beside Liberty Square and Big Thunder Mountain is tone-deaf. The rivers were a unifying element. Cars Land will be a thematic speed bump.

Loss of kinetics. The Rivers of America brought life and motion. Cars Land offers concrete, queues, and show buildings.

This is not synergy. It’s sprawl.

What We’ve Lost

Theme parks are not just ride collections; they are places. The Rivers of America proved that. You didn’t have to board the Liberty Belle or cross to Tom Sawyer Island to feel their presence. They were the land. The water shimmered through sightlines. The boat’s calliope filled the air. The island’s forts and caves gave the park scale.

Sense of place. The rivers stitched Liberty Square and Frontierland into a continuous landscape. Now the seam is obvious.

Kinetics. Boats moving, rafts ferrying, kids running across suspension bridges — these layers of motion are what made the land feel alive. A Cars ride offers thrills, but it can’t replicate the texture of real, free-form activity.

History. Tom Sawyer Island was one of Walt Disney’s pet projects, designed to give children a place to explore without rails. In removing it, Disney erases a rare piece of living Walt heritage.

Paving Paradise

The phrase “paving paradise and putting up a parking lot” has been used to describe many bad planning decisions. Here, it’s literal. Disney drained a river — a thing of beauty, of history, of storytelling value — and poured asphalt over it to make room for IP they already had a natural home for next door.

Yes, Cars Land will sell merchandise. Yes, Radiator Springs Racers is a people-pleaser. But at what cost? The loss is not just of rides, but of soul. A river is timeless. A franchise is temporary.

The draining of the Rivers of America and the erasure of Liberty Belle and Tom Sawyer Island marks a turning point. Magic Kingdom, once defined by layered environments and kinetic storytelling, now risks becoming a patchwork of disconnected IP zones, a more expensive Six Flags park.

Disney fans didn’t just lose a boat ride. They lost the gentle motion of the river, the hidden corners of the island, the sound of the paddlewheel, the feeling that there was always more to discover around the bend.

Cars Land may deliver thrills. But the rivers delivered magic.

And no amount of Radiator Springs neon can bring that river back.