[Ezra]

101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland by Kevin Yee

No. 27:

A canal in New Orleans Square, labeled "1764," is all that remains of a plan to unify several themes in the land.

The plan called for a crypt next to the Mansion that led into an underground catacomb of treasure and dead pirates, culminating in a pirate-themed hideout on Tom Sawyer Island. The pirate theme would have focused on Jean Laffite, a real-life pirate from the early 1800s in New Orleans. Laffite’s name might be familiar to frequent Disneyland visitors from the Pirates of the Caribbean loading zone, where a sign reads "Laffite’s Landing." The date 1764 was derived by subtracting 200 years from the birth date of one Imagineer who worked on the project. FURTHERMORE: Before its replacement with La Petite Patisserie, there was also a Laffite’s Silver Shop in New Orleans Square. Having a Jean Laffite identified as the "owner" of the Haunted Mansion would have united Pirates of the Caribbean with the Mansion and the island into one underlying theme, an unusual feat for an entire land. Though unrealized, the plan lives on in the form of this barricaded "crypt."

I did some checking myself... and the year 1764 is significant in New Orleans history. France had already lost Canada, and was concerned about loosing their southern colony too so they ceded the Louisiana territory to Spain in 1762, in secret. When French residents of New Orleans learned about it in 1764, they rioted. Spain, who didn't really want Louisiana to begin with, turned it back over to France so they could sell it to the United States.

Also I thought this plan went all the way back to the planning stages of
New Orleans Sq., when Pirates and the Mansion were going to be walkthroughs. Someone born in 1964 would have been a toddler back then.