Disney says: Yes, Virginia

By VARIETY STAFF

It probably won't include Mickey Mouse battling British Red Coats, Goofy and Donald Duck pitted on opposite sides of the Civil War or Minnie Mouse fighting for suffrage rights, but Walt Disney Co. did make official Thursday plans to develop a history-based theme park called Disney's America.

Confirming speculation, Disney Design and Development Co. president Peter Rummell said his company has either purchased or has options on 3,000 acres of land for the proposed theme park in Prince William County, Va.

Rummell acknowledged a host of zoning, environmental and transportation hurdles, but he told a packed news conference "we don't plan on failing. We're here because we think we can succeed."

He declined repeatedly to estimate the size of the project, but said he expected the park, which would open in 1998, to generate $ 1.5 billion in tax revenues for the state and Prince William County over the next 30 years.

Disney chairman and chief executive Michael D. Eisner said the park would celebrate those "unique American qualities that have been our country's strengths and that have made this nation the beacon of hope to people everywhere."

Disney had looked at up to 15 sites before settling on Haymarket, Va., two miles from the site of the Battle at Manassas during the Civil War, Rummell said. The location is about 40 miles west of Washington, D.C.