Walt Disney was a consummate storyteller. He loved taking
good tales and embellishing them until they were epic and sometimes even unrecognizable.
It’s important to remember he also did this with stories about his own life. If
you’ve ever strolled by The Rivers of America in Disneyland, you may have
noticed a ten-foot-tall petrified tree stump. Walt said he and his wife Lillian
were on a road trip in July 1956, when they happened upon Pike’s Petrified
Forest in Colorado, two days before their anniversary. Walt left Lilly in the
car while he explored the “forest,” and he was gone a long time. When he returned,
he said, “Honey, I bought you an anniversary present.” It was a $1,650 5-ton piece
of rock that had once been a tree. It sat in their garden until Lilly tired of
it and donated it to Disneyland. At least, that’s the story Walt loved to tell.
The truth is anyone’s guess.
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