Most of Disney was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1971. Below: maps from 1954 on and the census since 1960.
Disney was founded on November 12, 1939, by a land developer named C.D. Armstrong, who saw the area as a potential 'resort center of the Midwest.' A U.S. Post Office was established on May 21, 1938, and dedicated to the U.S. Congressman Wesley E. Disney.
After Cherokee Nation member Henry Holderman led a successful campaign advocating for local hydroelectric energy, the Oklahoma legislature formed the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) in 1935. In 1938, construction began on the Pensacola Dam, which would connect the towns of Langley and Disney. A by-product of the Second New Deal, the dam was a project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal agency focused on work relief during the Great Depression.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
