No one can match Michael Crichton in the abandoned amusement parks stakes, of course. When it comes to abandoned theme parks, that fictional island off the coast of Costa Rica – the one with the pterodactyls in the skies around it – has to win hands down.
But, back in the real world, the Walt Disney Corporation has some of its own amazingly creepy abandoned sites right here in Florida.
Closing rides and opening new attractions is all part of enhancing the guest experience of course, but… did you know that there are two entire Disney parks lying vacant and (almost!) untouched in Bay Lake?
Discovery Island
It was…
Discovery Island was originally planned to be a pirate adventure experience named after the Disney 1950’s pirate adventure movie based on the novel Treasure Island. Indeed, it first opened to the public as Treasure Island on April 8, 1974. However, instead of the original pirate theme it opened as a relaxing bird sanctuary.
Just five years later, it was rebranded as Discovery Island with the focus more on the island’s imported wildlife including flamingos, pelicans, eagles, alligators, peacocks, and swans. As bird sanctuaries go, it was a mighty impressive setting, but unfortunately it wasn’t to last. The island officially closed on April 8th 1999, with its inhabitants being moved to Disney’s new Animal Kingdom Theme Park which had opened a year earlier.
You can read more about its fascinating history here.
It is now…
It seems, however, that not all its inhabitants were moved away, as urban explorer and photographer Shane Perez would discover when he visited the island in 2009. Under the cover of night, a small group of explorers swam to the island and found an eerie spectacle of abandoned cages, jars of dead animals and a nest of baby vultures. Although Disney keeps the lights on towards the edges of the island, the island’s dark hinterland was unlit and overgrown with trees full of screeching birds – and a deeply unsettling experience as he describes on his blog.
You can read more about Shane’s amazing exploration here.
And see the response here:
River Country
It was…
Just across the water from Discovery Island lies another of Disney’s abandoned parks – its first water park, River Country. River Country opened in 1976 and is considered by some as the first themed water park in the world, since it opened about a year before Orlando’s Wet ‘N Wild (current claimant of that title but itself due to close at the end of next year). The attraction stayed open until its normal seasonal closing at the end of the 2001 season. However, it never reopened.
Read more about its history here.
And more here… and possibly some clues about its future!
It is now…
Its location just north of Disney’s Fort Wilderness lodge resort has caused some speculation that River Country may be resurrected as a water park for the resort, but for now it lies abandoned in all its creepy glory. It too has played host to the occasional urban explorer and the eerie pictures of trees and lakeside vegetation reclaiming the disused water slides is something to behold!
Or view this properly eerie footage:
It seems all these parks are good for today is an atmospheric backdrop to some apocalyptic tale… or maybe a live action zombie game! What better setting for roaming zombies than Discovery Island!
But there is better news elsewhere in Florida… Across in Panama City, the 1963 Miracle Strip Amusement Park shut its gates in 2004 but has since reopened at a new location.
Perhaps there is hope for the Discovery Island and River Country sites yet…
