Discovery Island/River Country article

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Another article on Discovery Island & River Country from The Main Street Mouse...

 

http://www.themainstreetmouse.com/2014/02/05/discovery-island-and-river-country/

[DaveInTN 3,247]

I'm sure glad she didn't give the exact location of River Country.  Some people might be tempted to trespass. 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Wow, there is a lot of incorrect information in that article.

 

Where was the "normal hotel pool?"  And if they closed off swimming in the natural pool in the early '90's someone forgot to alert the staff.  The TCD gang swam in the natural lake water at River Country well into the late '90's.  In fact, right up to when River Country closed.

 

And the kid who died from an amoeba?  That never happened from a swim at River Country. Urban myth.

 

TCD

[djsamuel 322]

As of now, (2:41PM) I'm not getting anything from that web site except their header and related links.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I just pulled it up at 2:56 pm.

 

Here's the text of the article:

 

Discovery Island and River Country ~ By Dianna Standen

You know that creepy old abandoned house at the top of the hill that no one will go to?……  Well at Walt Disney World there is a whole island *dramatic pause* and a water park, Discovery Island and River Country, which have that same effect. These are the only two parks Disney opened that closed and never reopened. I will not give the exact location because recently people have been trying to trespass to these two closed locations. I trust that no one here will do anything illegal but I don’t want to contribute to anything that could be done.

Discovery Island should sound familiar but lets start with a little history lesson. The island’s earliest history goes back to the early 1900s when it was called Raz Island; in the late 1930s Delmar Nicholson renamed it Idle Bay Isle, in 1965 Walt Disney purchased it as part of the Florida Project and called it Treasure Island. The island opened April 8, 1974, closed exactly 25 years later on April 8, 1999, and was abandoned as of July 9, 1999.

Remember I said the name should sound familiar; the island was the predecessor to the Discovery Island part of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The population included 140 species of fauna and 250 species of flora. Most of the animals were transported to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. After Discovery Island closed Disney wanted to reopen it as Mystic Island, an interactive experience but the concept was never developed. From the guest areas all you can see is a shed, a boat dock and if you look close you can see foliage covered poles and structure support lines.

Now on to the creepier park, the creepy part is my opinion. River Country was Walt Disney World’s first water park and that can be applied to all of Orlando. The Wet N Wild opened a year after River Country. The ‘Ole’ Fashion Swimming Hole’ opened June 20, 1976, closed November 2, 2001, and officially closed permanently on January 20, 2005. This older brother of Blizzard Beach was only 6 acres; Blizzard Beach is 4 times larger. The water park was officially open after Susan Ford, Gerald Ford’s daughter, took the first ride down the Whoop n’ Holler.

Now what would an article about Disney be without a little controversy. This time it is about why River County closed. The most common is that a young boy died after swimming in the water when an amoeba attacked his brain in 1980, this was never Disney’s fault. The same amoeba has taken several lives all across Florida, the most recent was earlier this year. Two children also drowned, one in 1982 and one in 1989. Disney also officially ended swimming in the natural pool in the early 1990s.

Another rumor was a new Florida law that required all public swimming location has to have a certain process for filtering water, more about that in a little bit. The real, official, reason was River Country was another victim of the attacks on September 11^th 2001. The park closed for the season in November 2001 and was never reopened as part of the cut backs to cover the slump of tourism. The park was prepped for open in 2002 and 2003 but after that it was left dormant and in 2005 a Disney press statement officially closed the park.

There were two pools; one was your normal 160 ft hotel pool that was heated during the winter. The other was an inlet off Bay Lake. The pool was kept 6 in taller than Bay Lake with the help of a flexible bladder created by Imagineers that pumped the water through a filtration system and was sent to the top of the the 16 ft water slides to and then joined the 330,000 gallon Bay Cove pool. There was also the classic tire swing, walking trails and kids play space. The sand was all natural along with most of the rocks, they were local or from Georgia, North or South Carolina. The rock guy, Fred Joerger, sculpted the rest, including the water falls; his other masterpieces include Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Tom Sawyer Island.

The creepy part is how it was just left. Since they closed in 2001 with the intention of opening in 2002, everything was left. When 2005 rolled around and the park of officially closed everything was just left. Signs, papers, furniture, dishes, and so much more. I wanted to show pictures that people have taken, but those people were trespassing so don’t want to share their work. I can not stress enough that it is not safe to trespass in these or any restricted area.

 

 

TCD

[djsamuel 322]

Interesting.  Their URL must have expired with Centurylink (my Internet provider).  I tried using Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer, and all I get is a listing of suggested links.

 

Thanks for posting the article.  

[Seals 111]

"The most common is that a young boy died after swimming in the water when an amoeba attacked his brain in 1980, this was never Disney’s fault. The same amoeba has taken several lives all across Florida, the most recent was earlier this year."

Someone really needs to catch that amoeba.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

I never had the pleasure of visiting either place. Is there a good place to look at some pix of the old creepy places?

[lklasing 16]

I love reading about both Discovery Island and River Country (and especially seeing pictures, both old and current), but that's just an odd, poorly written article.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I never had the pleasure of visiting either place. Is there a good place to look at some pix of the old creepy places?

 

Ray, check here:  http://www.retrodisneyworld.com