Oh, and here's a link to an awesome page with the background and story of it all.
http://tinyurl.com/4y65bl6 - shadowgamer
1954.3 #37 4:35PM
Disney originally intended for it to be a tunnel to Tom Sawyer Island from NOS. Lafitte was supposedly the owner of Haunted Mansion who was a pirate (hence the ship for a weather vane, and the ghost ship painting) that used the tunnel to go back and forth from the house to the island. This also would have tied Mansion to Pirates of the Carribean. - shadowgamer
1954.3 #37 4:26PM