The A.C. Dietz Co.

If you mosey over to the General Store in the Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland, you’ll see on an exterior wall a small sign that reads, A.C. Dietz Co. – Importer of Coal Oil Lamps – Hardware – Harness – A Complete Line of Saddles.

Typically, in a manner similar to the windows on Main Street, U.S.A., a sign such as this pays homage to an individual who played an important role within The Walt Disney Company, such as a notable animator, an innovative Imagineer, or someone who helped build Walt Disney World Resort.  However, in this case, this sign recognizes someone outside the world of Disney with an obscure but definite connection to Walt Disney and the early days of Disneyland!

In 1955, when Walt was building his brand new park, Disneyland, he bought all of the lanterns used in Frontierland from the R.E. Dietz Lantern Company.  That appears to be a clear connection to this sign, but nobody named A.C. Dietz had ever worked for the company.  However, the Founder, Robert E. Dietz, did have a cousin in San Francisco who owned and ran a General Store during the 1850s much like the one upon which this sign is affixed.  Located at 224 Front Street, it provided all of the supplies the rugged forty-niners of the California Gold Rush needed to work their claims, including harnesses and saddles for their horses, bags of grain, wire, mining equipment and coal oil lanterns made by the Dietz Lantern Company.  And the name of this cousin who owned the General Store… Alfred Clinch Dietz!

Now if you were to look closely at the lantern hanging on the wall by the A.C. Dietz sign, you would assume it was made by the Dietz Lantern Company, but instead it was manufactured by W.T. Kirkman Lanterns, Inc.  Why isn’t it a Dietz Lantern?  Because the original Dietz lanterns Walt bought for Disneyland and the early days of Walt Disney World were manufactured using components made of tin.  Unfortunately, those components wore out over time and the lanterns needed replacing.  The Disney Imagineers turned to W.T. Kirkman Lanterns to provide them with new galvanized steel models that do not rust but instead stand up better in today’s weather…or that of the 1850s.  (Or in this case, 1876, which ties in with the address of the Frontierland General Store.)

My thanks to Woody Kirkman of W.T. Kirkman Lanterns, Inc. for his generous contribution to this story.