The Strange Case of Dr. von Braun and Mr. Disney: Frontierland, Tomorrowland, and America’s Final Frontier

When Disneyland opened in 1955, it featured America’ s past in Frontierland and looked at America’s future in Tomorrowland. Together they represent what scholar of religion Mircea Eliade called a “religious nostalgia” for a mythic past; in this case, a nostalgia for the western frontier. The conjoining of space exploration with the historical frontier solidified space as America’ s new frontier in the popular imagination and a sense of being called by God to explore the new frontier of outer space. Disney’ s Tomorrowland, in tension with Frontierland, paralleled how nostalgia for the western frontier was revived as faith in the future.