Interesting Facts about Boulder Ridge

The history of The Walt Disney Company features some fascinating tidbits about projects that almost happened. Two of them occurred long before Disney’s Wilderness Lodge officially opened to the public. In a way, this resort was prophesied long before it debuted. 

Since then, this hotel campus has become the basis for two different DVC resorts. So, let’s combine their history to discuss some interesting facts about Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge.  

This Resort Was Planned for Decades 

Okay, I’m going to be a bit looser on the facts here than I usually am, as some of this story is up for debate. What we know is that during the late 1960s, Disney planned for five hotels to open at Walt Disney World in 1971. Since we only got two of them, you can tell that most of those plans fell by the wayside. 

While Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort and Disney’s Contemporary Resort opened as planned in 1971, Disney abandoned plans for the Asian Resort, the Persian Resort, and the Venetian Resort. We can tell by the location of Wilderness Lodge that it had been intended as one of these resorts. 

As often happens during theme park construction, Disney ran over budget, and then the 1973 Oil Crisis impacted the company’s finances. So, Disney moved away from this idea until 1982. At that point, everyone realized that the Disney World campus needed more hotel inventory. 

Park strategists planned a new resort, Cypress Point Lodge. It would have joined another property from this project, Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. You’ve only heard of one of these because Disney again abandoned some plans. Cypress Point Lodge again fell victim to a budget shortfall, as EPCOT cost substantially more than expected. 

For these reasons, longtime Disney executives experienced more than a small sense of relief when Wilderness Lodge finally opened in 1994. By this point, they had been trying to build a resort there for roughly 25 years! 

This Hotel is DVC’s Old Faithful 

Have you visited the Club Level at Wilderness Lodge? Disney named the concierge floor Old Faithful Club, which isn’t a coincidence. It’s a themed reference to the hotel’s overall design.

You may not know this, but Disney modeled Wilderness Lodge after a famous hotel. It’s this one. The Old Faithful Inn is arguably the most iconic of all national park lodges. As the name implies, this is the hotel closest to Old Faithful, which enhances its significance. 

Disney paid homage to Old Faithful Inn by designing this resort with the same general aesthetics. When you look at pictures of Old Faithful Inn, you’ll quickly notice the similarities.

In fact, Disney went so far as to create a geyser at Wilderness Lodge. You can watch the water jet into the sky throughout the day. That feature isn’t random; it’s this hotel’s version of Old Faithful. 

Disney Built a Wooden Resort  

Anyone who has ever spent any time at Wilderness Lodge thinks of it as the wooden resort. That’s because everything in sight at the hotel lobby consists of wood, save for the floor-to-ceiling fireplace. Disney even built the bridges with wood rather than concrete.

This sort of structure is incredibly challenging to construct. Disney carefully planned the process straight down to the logistics. The company imported 85 full trucks of wooden logs for the project. 

Disney sent crews to dead forests in Oregon and Montana to ensure that authentic pine wood was used during the creation of Wilderness Lodge. People involved with the project have indicated that if the logs were lined up end-to-end, they would stretch for nearly 40 miles! That’s how much wood you’re seeing when you walk through Wilderness Lodge.

The Fireplace Is a Canyon 

I just mentioned the epic fireplace on display in the hotel lobby. Well, this structure has a story of its own. Disney constructed this 82-foot-tall architectural triumph for a purpose. 

Each color on the fireplace tells a small part of a story, and the entire construct represents something even bigger. The colors reflect more than a billion years of strata from the even bigger thing…which is the Grand Canyon!

Yes, this fireplace celebrates one of America’s most memorable landmarks. Disney designed the fireplace with color gradients to demonstrate the age and majesty of the Grand Canyon. The colors you see are from different eras of the applicable strata. Meanwhile, the entire piece encapsulates and memorializes the prehistoric plant and animal fossils embedded in the canyon. 

You may have gazed at this fireplace hundreds of times without appreciating its significance. The geniuses at Disney embedded so much of the Grand Canyon’s rich history in this beautiful hotel lobby centerpiece.

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