Haunted Mansion Looms Over the Ghost of Tom Sawyer Island at Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom’s Haunted Mansion once sat on the banks of the Rivers of America, but as the center of Frontierland makes way for Piston Peak, the river and its island become as ghostly as the 999 happy haunts inside. Jeremiah Good got a spooky Halloween look over the construction wall today for an update on the demolition of Tom Sawyer’s Island.

Here is what the area looked like last month, when the river had been drained but major demolition work hadn’t yet begun.

Today, you can now see the mansion on a hill from a different angle, with Aunt Polly’s completely cleared from the site.

One of Tom Sawyer Island’s most iconic structures, Harper’s Mill, has also been reduced to memory. From deeper in Frontierland, you can now see straight across to the riverboat dock, currently being used as a shaded extended queue for Haunted Mansion.

Tom’s Landing, the island’s raft dock, is gone. The caves always seemed natural, but in reality, they were a ground-level building buried under dirt to create the illusion of being natural. Last week, Jeremiah took a photo of one of the cave entrances that had been stripped down to its cement foundation.

Here is that same area today, with the cave entrance appearing to have been dismantled, but the built-up earth around where it was still in place.

From Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Guests can now see straight across the site. In the distance is the queue for the Haunted Mansion, the old keel boat landing (yellow building), and the gift shop, Memento Mori (teal building). 

The attraction graveyard that was once Tom Sawyer’s Island and the Rivers of America will next materialize as an area of Frontierland themed to Pixar’s Cars called Piston Peak. Stay tuned for more updates from the most magical place on Earth.