A Nod to “The Old Mill”

As you enter Harper’s Mill at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, you’ll pass a sign posted by Tom Sawyer that reads…

"This here deserted grist mill was named after my frien Joe Harpers old man Ifn you chooze to go inside please don’t scare the birds what will you find there unless some no good done scared em before you did."

What Tom is referring to are a couple of birds that represent a nod to Walt Disney’s 1937 academy award-winning animated short film The Old Mill. In this film, an old windmill is home to an assortment of small animals, including some bats, mice, a couple of doves, a wise owl in the rafters above, and a pair of blue birds tending their nest of eggs, which they have built in the gap of an old cog wheel. Step inside Harper’s Mill and look carefully at the large spinning gears to find a small bluebird going around and around as she sits atop a straw nest she’s built between two large gear teeth. Now look up and you’ll find, perched in the rafters, an owl looking down at you with the same level of disdain as the owl in The Old Mill.