Walt Disney first leased The Golden Oak Ranch in the late 1950s for the Spin and Marty segments of The Mickey Mouse Club. Because of the variety of natural settings available there, the Studio purchased the property in 1959 and, over the years, acquired additional land which has brought the total to just under 900 acres. Disney productions that have shot at the Ranch include: Old Yeller, Toby Tyler, The Parent Trap, The Shaggy Dog, Follow Me Boys and more recently, The Santa Clause, Pearl Harbor, Princess Diaries II and Pirates of the Caribbean II & III.

Over the years, other motion picture and television production groups began filming at the Ranch and added to the variety of sets already there. A western street was created for the 1978 renowned television miniseries Roots II and remained active until its removal in 2008. Other sets and locations include a rural covered bridge on a lake, wood bridges, the Golden Oak Hall from the movie The Country Bears, farm houses, barns, fields, country roads, tree groves, a forest area, a creek bed, and our newest addition, Pine Lake, which includes a waterfall and was designed to give the feeling of a High Sierra setting.