Disney

History

Disney was founded on November 12, 1939, by a land developer named C.D. Armstrong, who saw the area as a potential 'resort center of the Midwest.' A U.S. Post Office was established on May 21, 1938, and dedicated to the U.S. Congressman Wesley E. Disney. After Cherokee Nation member Henry Holderman led a successful campaign advocating for local hydroelectric energy, the Oklahoma legislature formed the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) in 1935. In 1938, construction began on the Pensacola Dam, which would connect the towns of Langley and Disney. A by-product of the Second New Deal, the dam was a project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal agency focused on work relief during the Great Depression. In the October 1938 issue of Scribner's magazine, famed artist Thomas Hart Benton wrote and illustrated an article about Disney, titled "Thirty-Six Hours in a Boom Town". A dam construction worker, William J. Morrow, built the first church in Disney. The town was incorporated on March 19, 1959. In 1960, the population was 224. In 1980, the population peaked at 464.

Geography

Disney is in the northeastern corner of Mayes County, on the south shore of the Grand Lake o' the Cherokees, a reservoir on the Neosho River. The town is sometimes referred to as "Disney Island" due to its situation between the east end of the Pensacola Dam, the main dam which forms the lake, and two smaller spillways on the lake to the east. The northern part of Disney is lake-front, while the southern part is roughly bounded by Summerfield Creek, fed by the spillways from the two eastern dams. Oklahoma State Highway 28 passes through the town, leading west across the Pensacola Dam to Langley. The town of Jay is to the east via highways 28 and 20. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town of Disney has a total area of , of which are land and , or 12.62%, are water.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  431
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  360
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  337
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  328
• Great Blue/Cocoi Heron

  Ardea herodias Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  322
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  316
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  303
• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  271

Most recent

• M 2.82 — 2024-03-23
  9 km SE of Foyil, Oklahoma
• M 2.7 — 2018-12-10
  1 km ENE of Zeb, Oklahoma
• M 2.7 — 2016-04-03
  Arkansas-Oklahoma border region
• M 2.7 — 2016-01-14
  7 km W of Talala, Oklahoma
• M 2.6 — 2015-09-03
  6 km WSW of Vera, Oklahoma
• M 2.6 — 2010-05-21
  2 km SW of Centerton, Arkansas