River Country
River Country, Big River Country,
It’s a Whoop, It’s a Holler, It’s a Water Jamboree!
River Country, Big River Country,
If You’re Hot Around The Collar, It’s A Cool Place To Be!
Walt Disney World is no stranger to abandoned property. From the attractions in the Wonders of Life pavilion to Discovery Island, Disney is all about change but sometimes its past just gets left to rot. That’s the case for this Disney Throwback — a park that’s been left abandoned for almost 17 years!
Disney guests find themselves headed to Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon to get their Disney water thrills these days, but did you know there was another Disney water park that started it all? Disney’s first water park was River Country, known as “a new fangled version of the old-fashioned swimmin’ hole.” Aside from being Disney’s first water park, River Country also boasts the title of the world’s first themed water park!
Image: Greatview.tk
Walt Disney World was a much different place in the 1970’s. With only one theme park at the time, Disney executives were looking for more activities to add around property for guests to enjoy. Their solution? A water park themed to the likes of Huckleberry Finn! Pulling inspiration from Mark Twain like they had done so many times before, the idea of River Country (originally titled Pop’s Willow Grove) was born!
Image: Disney
River Country opened on June 20, 1976, less than five years after Walt Disney World first opened its gates to the Magic Kingdom. River Country admission was only $4! Even with inflation and today’s pricing, admission to River Country would’ve only been around $17. Quite a stretch from the Disney prices that we see around the resort these days, amiright?
Image: Theme Park Tourist
An Old-Fashioned Swimmin’ Hole
The water park featured two main pools: Upstream Plunge and Bay Cove. Upstream Plunge was a chlorinated pool that featured Slippery Slide Falls (two water slides that emptied into the pool) and an additional area for swimming.
Bay Cove was the main attraction of River Country. This half-acre sandy bottom lake was home to a cable ride, tire swing, and boom swing. Guests could also plunge down Whoop ‘n’ Holler Hollow — two water slides that emptied right into Bay Cove. What set Bay Cove apart was what experience it created for guests. Being built slightly elevated from Bay Lake and using its water through a filtered water system, guests felt as if they were swimming right in the Bay Lake water! The natural swimmin’ hole feel transported guests to another time.
Slippery Slide Falls, Image: traveldestinationswithcharacter.com
In addition to these two pools, River Country also had Indian Springs and Kiddie Cove. These areas were geared towards kids and preteens, allowing fun for everyone in the family! Guests looking to dry off could also take a walk down Cypress Point Nature Trail or enjoy Pony Rides nearby.
River Country was a hit! Reaching guest capacity daily, this 6.5 acre park became a must see on a vacation to Walt Disney World. The water park was extremely small, but at the time it served its purpose of creating more activities for Disney’s guests.
Image: startourists.com
As the Walt Disney Resort continued to grow throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, so did its demand for other Disney water parks. In 1989, Typhoon Lagoon opened to the public. This water park was nearly ten times larger than River Country, allowing Disney to created many more ride offerings to help them compete with other attractions in the area. Walt Disney World welcomed one more Disney water park, Blizzard Beach, in 1995. Even with two additional waterparks on property, River Country continued to operate until it closed for the season on November 2, 2001.
Image: Disney
When spring of 2002 rolled around and River Country did not reopen, rumors began to circulate that the water park may never open again. Disney executives later reported that River Country wouldn’t open at all in the year 2002. The water park sat quietly, assumed to be receiving refurbishments before reopening.
It wasn’t until 2005 that Walt Disney World made the announcement that River Country would never reopen. Since its closure, the water park has continued to sit abandoned in plain sight for more than 15 years. Instead of demolishing the attractions, Disney decided to save their money and let nature take over the abandoned property.
Abandoned Slippery Slide Falls, Image: imgur.com
So What Happened?
By this point you’re probably wondering what happened to River Country. Why it closed and was just left abandoned for close to two decades?! There are several theories guests have come up with, though a definite answer was never announced by Disney.
The main theory you’ll hear about is a brain-eating amoeba that’s found in Florida fresh water lakes. While there was one recorded case of death from this amoeba at Disney’s River Country, it took place in 1980 — and the park remained open for another 20 years! So I’m going to go ahead and rule this theory out, y’all. If you’d like to read more on this incident, check out this article by Yesterland!
Image: yourmileagemayvary.net
Another theory is lack of popularity after the opening of Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. This theory is much more realistic because in addition to its small size, River Country was also difficult for guests to get to unless they were staying at Disney’s Fort Wilderness. Until the 1980’s guests could take the Fort Wilderness Train to get to the water park, but after the train’s demise guests outside of this resort had very few options to get over to River Country. (Fun Fact: The Fort Wilderness Train cars were later used as ticket booths for Disney’s Pleasure Island!)
Lastly, tourism all over (including Walt Disney World) was at an all time low after the September 11 attacks just two months before River Country’s season closure. With attendance already low in the water park before and executives scrambling for ways to cut costs, it’s not surprising that this park sadly didn’t make the cut.
River Country Today
Other than a few fences around the perimeter, the abandoned 6.5 acre water park is still rotting in plain sight. (If you stop by Mickey’s Backyard BBQ, the former entrance is right there!) In August 2016, (15 years after closure!!!) Disney announced that they would be draining and filling in Upstream Plunge and Bay Cove with sand. The most recent rumor to surface about future projects on this land is news of a potential Disney Vacation Club resort in the works. No news has officially been announced by Disney, but the project is set to begin in 2019 so they may have to say something soon!
Image: mealtrip.com
Disney and its many properties have seen a ton of transformation over time. Between trial and error attempts and major successes, some of these projects tend to fall by the wayside and that’s unfortunately the case for Disney’s first water park. Here’s to hoping River Country becomes something more than the top search for “abandoned disney” on Google!
