Wild frontier fantasylands: Disney’s recreations of Davy Crockett, Buffalo Bill and American expansionism

In almost every Disney theme park worldwide, visitors can immerse themselves in the American western frontier. The nostalgic and vague concept of ‘the West’ is a recognizable essence woven into Disney theme parks. Before the parks existed, Disney’s Davy Crockett epitomized ideals of nineteenth-century Americanism, codified around concepts like the Turner Thesis – a colonializing history that portrays the West through the lens of rugged masculinity, American supremacy and Indigenous misrepresentation and/or erasure. Disney’s Crockett developed from the stage frontiersman Buffalo Bill Cody and his wildly popular Wild West stage shows at the end of the nineteenth century. This article traces frontierism in the Disney theme parks (e.g. Davy Crockett as a fictionalized character presence; Disneyland Paris’s recreation of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows; immersive historical framing of western vistas) and posits that mythologizing the West through media and experiences maintains the nostalgic perception of an American West as an open, claimable space for heroes while minimizing Indigenous people.