Neither Disney World nor Fort Wilderness sprang up overnight, but rather took nearly 20 years to come to fruition. Following the success of Disneyland in California, Walt Disney and his brother scouted locations in Florida for his “Disneyland East.” Allegedly, he selected Florida due to its warm climate after first considering New York. After viewing sites near Tampa, West Palm Beach, and Ocala, Walt made one more trip by plane to areas near Orlando. This was on November 21, 1963, the day that John F. Kennedy died. 

Disney flew over a certain plot of land near Orlando that consisted primarily of a hunting camp and swampland. The hunting cabin was at what is now Fort Wilderness (though some say it was at Discovery Island).  The ancient Bay Lake was part of the property, but Seven Seas Lagoon was later man-made by The Disney Company. The entire piece of land purchased was situated near the the intersection of the Florida turnpike and I-4, but was not attractive to many. The owners were Jack and Bill Demetree, cousin developers who had purchased the land a few years back. The cousins were unable to build on it because the mineral rights belonged to Tufts University, and they were losing more money than they were making on it. In a storybook ending, Walt Disney purchased the 12,400 acres from them, which included the Magic Kingdom area, Fort Wilderness, and a part of Epcot. (Orlando Sentinel, 2013)

Disney set up several companies so that he could continue to purchase other surrounding acres anonymously. One of these was called Reedy Creek, which is a very awesome name, in my opinion.