When Walt Disney began plans for Walt Disney World, he decided to keep it as much of a secret as he could. Before deciding on a location, he and his team searched for years for a site. They considered opening a theme park in New Jersey, but passed due to the seasonality they would have due to weather. They looked at areas all over the world, almost deciding on St. Louis, until they finally decided on Florida. As the project began taking formation, it was given the title of “Project X”.
Everyone hired on the project needed to remain top-secret, and Disney used fake company names when making land purchases so that no one would figure out what he was doing. Some of the dummy companies he created? Retlaw (“Walter” written backwards), Bay Lake Properties, and M.T. Lott Real Estate. Even the Florida government was kept out of the loop. Locals began to speculate as to who was purchasing these large plots of land. By the time a reporter caught on to Walt Disney, he had already purchased 27,000 acres of land in swampy areas across two Florida counties. On November 15, 1965, the official announcement was made about the building of the new Disney park.