Around 1887 when the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad was starting to build from Kansas City to Chicago; it chose a terminal or division point between these two cities. About one year later the land at this site was laid out and the first town lot was sold in what was to become Marceline. Soon the city population grew to over 2500 and in the 1930’s coal mining became a factor in the economy. Marceline was the boyhood home of Walt Disney and around 1946 he came back to the town to take movies of his old school and main street as a model for his new venture, Disneyland. Ten years later Disney premiered the movie “The Great Locomotive Chase” here at the Uptown theater. Again in the late 1990’s he held the premiere of the movie The Spirit of Mickey” at this theater. In the Spring of 2002, the Walt Disney Hometown museum opened in Marceline displaying over 300 artifacts given to the Main Street Charitable foundation by the Disney family.

Judges

Hon. James Williams