The landscape surrounding the Haunted Mansion is shifting at Magic Kingdom Park as Walt Disney World Resort tears down another nearby structure and pushes forward with its Cars (2006)-themed Piston Peak National Park project.
The Bigger Picture Behind the Change
Plans for Piston Peak National Park first surfaced at D23 Expo 2024, when Walt Disney Imagineering announced a Cars-themed mini-land coming to Frontierland. The new area is set to feature two attractions surrounded by scenery inspired by national parks across the country.
To make room for it, Walt Disney World Resort permanently closed the Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island, and the Liberty Square Riverboat in 2025. Crews drained the former waterway behind construction walls and cleared the land in preparation for what was to come.
At D23 Expo 2026, just weeks ago, Imagineers officially named the land’s two upcoming attractions: Cars Ridge Run Rally and Miss Fritter’s Daredevil Spin-Along.
A New Look Takes Shape Near the Haunted Mansion
WDWNT reported on September 3 that the former Ichabod’s Landing gift shop, once positioned right beside the Haunted Mansion’s entrance, has now been demolished. That follows the earlier removal of the nearby Mike Fink Keel Boats landing, a structure once tied to the discontinued Liberty Square Riverboat attraction.
One building in the area has been spared, standing just to the right of where the two demolished structures once stood. In fact, Walt Disney World Resort has recently added a new framework to extend that building, hinting that it may stick around once Piston Peak National Park officially opens.
Ichabod’s Landing previously operated as the Keelboat Shop before closing, a change driven largely by the Haunted Mansion’s growing queue length, which made the merchandise space too cramped to remain functional. The still-standing building nearby had often been repurposed as overflow queue space for the attraction.
This latest change follows shortly after Disney closed off the entire Frontierland boardwalk, another step clearing additional space for Piston Peak National Park’s ongoing construction.
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