Walt Disney World almost never happened due to a high-stakes, secret land acquisition process that was nearly derailed by public speculation and local resistance. In the early 1960s, Walt Disney wanted to avoid the "tacky" commercial sprawl that had surrounded Disneyland in California, so he sought a massive, isolated site in Florida. To keep land prices low, he used "dummy corporations" with names like "Reedy Creek Ranch" to buy over 27,000 acres of swampy Central Florida land for as little as $100 an acre. The project was nearly exposed when a local reporter, Emily Bavar, noticed Walt’s "bucket of water to the face" reaction when asked about the land purchases. Furthermore, the project faced a major legal hurdle regarding mineral rights; Tufts University owned the rights to much of the land and could have technically dug for minerals under the park at any time. Disney’s team had to secretly negotiate a buyout of these rights before the identity of the buyer was revealed. Had the "mystery investor" been exposed too early, land prices would have skyrocketed beyond Disney's budget, and the "Florida Project" would likely have been abandoned in favor of a smaller, less ambitious site.