Visiting Walt Disney's hometown museum.

We were so close to Marceline, Missouri that we had to visit.  Marceline is what Walt Disney thought of as his home town.  He grew up there and loved the family farm over anywhere else he had ever lived.

The old Autopia cars and track from Disneyland were given to the town of Marceline. For  a while it was actually used.  Eventually it became difficult to maintain the system. This is the best car from the set that remains.  I wonder how many children and parents rode in this car.

One item in the museum is Walt's school desk. Walt confirmed that this was the desk he used and did carve his initials into the top.

The "Dreaming Tree" as Walt called it died and fell in a storm in 2015.  A branch is here it the museum.

There are a lot of displays in the museum.

Walt's mother was not comfortable in large crowds and did not want to attend the Grand Opening of Disneyland.  So to make sure she could at least watch the event he sent money so a TV would be available for her to watch.  That TV was donated to the museum and it play's the opening over and over.

One of the things they have from Walt's early career as an artist was the light table that Walt worked on to draw when before starting Disney.

There is a whole set of scale models of the main street buildings and a few rides from Disneyland.  They were amazingly detailed.

After the museum, we decided to go downtown for dinner. Disney had said that Main Street was based on downtown Marceline.

Our last stop was the former Disney farm.  The owners have changes a few times but access to the area of the Dreaming Tree and Barn are maintained for the public.  Disney said that this was the place where he got exposed to nature and memories that would later become many of his characters and basis for many of the movies.

The original Dreaming Tree is gone. Walt had commented many times that the tree was a focus of play many days during his childhood and a source of ideas. The tree fell in a storm and was already far older than normal for a Cottonwood tree.  Before this a Brother of Dreaming Tree was planted from the original and is growing very quickly.

Finally, we got a short view of the former Disney home.