Rivers of America Closed Off by Construction Walls at Magic Kingdom

Updated:

Frontierland is now a sea of construction walls as work is underway to demolish the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island. The walls have gone up over the past several days after the iconic waterway closed permanently on July 7.

A large set of white construction walls stretch through Liberty Square while brown construction walls wind their way through the rest of Frontierland. We have a great look at all of the walls courtesy of friend of the site DC Baker.

Photo via DC Baker.

Above we can see the construction walls that sit where Liberty Square and Frontierland meet. The door in the wall now blocks the pathway that used to take guests towards the Liberty Belle Riverboat’s dock.

Over in Frontierland, we can see walls have gone up throughout the land. It’s pretty surreal seeing all of these familiar views blocked. We’ve seen the Rivers of America drained before for maintenance, but none of those refurbishments required this.

Photo via DC Baker.

Here’s another angle of the walls up in Frontierland.

Photo via DC Baker.

Crazy, right? Guests will need to get used to these views as Disney removes the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island to build Piston Peak. Disney hasn’t said when Piston Peak will open, but we expect it’ll take at least a few years.

Disney has a lot of land to transform based on the Piston Peak concept art. Disney touts that Piston Peak and future Villains land will be the largest expansion in Magic Kingdom history.

Cartoon concept art of Piston Peak in Magic Kingdom.
Concept art from Disney.

We’ll keep checking back on the Rivers of America as Disney drains and eventually demolishes this chunk of the Magic Kingdom. Big changes are underway! How will guests respond to the final product?

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David
David
David is a Disney travel expert who created Notes from Neverland in 2018 after visiting Disney theme parks countless times. Previously, David spent way too much time writing about sports, and was featured in Sports Illustrated, MSN, Yahoo!, and in many other publications. Learn more or contact us.

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