Mike Fink Keel Boats was an opening-day Magic Kingdom attraction that once carried guests around the Rivers of America aboard a pair of rustic, two-level vessels. Smaller and more intimate than the stately Liberty Square Riverboat, the keel boats offered a leisurely frontier cruise with unusually close views of Tom Sawyer Island, Frontierland, Liberty Square, and the Haunted Mansion. Passengers could sit inside the enclosed lower cabin or climb to the open upper deck, where the elevated seating provided a particularly memorable perspective on the surrounding waterfront.
The attraction was inspired by the 1955 television episode “Davy Crockett’s Keel Boat Race,” which aired during the height of Disney’s Davy Crockett phenomenon. The two boats were named Gullywhumper, after the vessel captained by the boastful riverboatman Mike Fink, and Bertha Mae, after Davy Crockett’s boat. Fink was presented as the legendary “King of the River,” a fitting counterpart to Crockett’s popular image as the “King of the Wild Frontier.”
Magic Kingdom’s version opened with the park on October 1, 1971. The boats circled the Rivers of America from a dock in Liberty Square and later operated from a Frontierland landing. Unlike many Disney boat rides, the keel boats were free-floating vessels rather than vehicles guided along a fixed underwater track. Their relatively small size, limited capacity, and seasonal operating schedule made them feel more like a quiet discovery than a major attraction.
Mike Fink Keel Boats closed permanently at Walt Disney World on April 29, 2001. For many years, remnants of the attraction remained visible near the Haunted Mansion, where portions of the former landing area were repurposed for uses including overflow queue space. That surviving structure became an increasingly rare physical reminder of Magic Kingdom’s original waterfront attractions.
The site entered its final chapter during the redevelopment of the Rivers of America area. As construction progressed on Piston Peak National Park, Disney’s Cars-inspired addition to Frontierland, demolition of the former keel boat landing began in 2026.
Today, Mike Fink Keel Boats is remembered as a charming relic of early Walt Disney World: an attraction rooted in frontier folklore, Disney television history, and an era when Magic Kingdom’s waterways were filled with a much wider variety of boats and experiences.
