Long before there was an Animal Kingdom, there was Discovery Island.
It opened to Disney guests as Treasure Island on April 8, 1974, just two and a half years after the first park at Walt Disney World, the Magic Kingdom, made its debut in 1971. Despite that, it’s largely forgotten by a huge subset of Disney theme park fans.
That’s a little bit of a travesty. Even though Discovery Island isn’t what you’d expect from a Disney theme park, it is a relatively big part of Walt Disney World’s legacy. Let’s take a look at the history of the long left behind Discover Island.
1. Early history
The island was first known as Raz Island in the early 1900s, named after the prominent Raz family that lived there at the time. In the late 1930s, a man named Delmar “Radio Nick” Nicholson bought the island for a measly $800. He decided to rename it Idle Bay Isle and lived there for 20 years with his wife and pet crane. It was sold again soon after that and became a hunting retreat named Riles Island.
In 1965, as a part of its secret amassing of property in the Orlando, Florida area in preparation for building the Walt Disney World Resort, Disney bought the island. Nine years later, it would join Disney’s then-small family of theme parks.
2. Treasure Island
In April of 1974 the island debuted under the name Treasure Island. The name came from the 1950 adventure film produced by Disney. That film itself was adapted from the 1883 Treasure Island novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, a “coming-of-age story about buccaneers and buried gold.”
The Treasure Island in Florida was deigned as a location in which to observe wildlife. Later, when it was officially recognized as a zoological park, the island changed its name for a final time and became known as Discovery Island.
3. Discovery Island attractions
These aren’t theme park attractions as we’ve been groomed to think of them, but the chances to observe wildlife and certain kinds of interactive elements were certainly forms of entertainment for a lot of guests. Here are the “attractions” at Discovery Island.
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Trumpeter Springs: A chance to observe Trumpeter Swans, a beautiful species of Swan that is also the heaviest living bird in North America
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Parrots Perch: Parrots Perch held The Discovery Island Bird Show, which featuring trained birds like macaws and cockatoos
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Bamboo Hollow: A place to observe lemurs from Madagascar
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Cranes’s Roost: A place to see the wildly beautiful migratory birds the demoiselle cranes
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Avian Way: The United States’ largest breeding colony of scarlet Ibis
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Pelican Bay: A home to brown pelicans
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Flamingo Lagoon: The attraction here is pretty self-explanatory.
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Tortoise Beach: Home to five Galapagos giant tortoises.
4. Some Interesting Facts About Discovery Island
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In 1995 admission was $10.07 for adults and $5.57 for children three through nine.
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Discovery Island had a beach where swimming wasn’t allowed, but you could play and walk on the sand.
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The island’s facilities housed the last known dusky seaside sparrow. It died in 1987.
5. The closure of Discovery Island
Once Disney’s Animal Kingdom debuted in April of 1988, Discovery Island was starting to look a little redundant. Its last day in which it was open to the public was on April 8, 1999. It continued operating until July 9. By then, all the animals had been relocated either to the Animal Kingdom or other zoos. Specifically, the animals were moved to the Safari Village hub area. It was renamed Discovery Island in the honor of the previous home to Disney-owned wildlife.
6. Discovery Island –> Myst Island?
For a while, Disney is rumored to have considered working with the makers of the graphic adventure puzzle video game Myst in order to create a modern, interactive experience that would have been called Myst Island. Guests would go to Discovery Island and explore weird locations to uncover a mystery about the previous inhabitants of the island. Sadly (?), the project never really got off the ground.
7. Completely, Eerily Abandoned
Photographer Shane Perez reported that he travelled to Discovery Island sometime after it closed in 1999, and had a pretty wild adventure. He’d heard about the island from Orlando locals, who told him that rumor had it that there were a bunch of wild animals still roaming the island.
Perez concocted an elaborate plan to make it to the island. The first time he failed, but, undeterred, he came back a year later and made it to Discovery Island. He documented things such as how Disney eerily had kept the lights on in the abandoned park on some paths and on others it was totally dark. He describes what must have been a very unnerving experience when he was surrounded by thousands of cooing and cawing birds.
A little more investigation confirmed that the island had not been kept up in any way. He found a storage building full of leftover paperwork, photos and even some snakes stored in containers like a bottle of Coke. He had only explored half the island before he had to head back, lest people on the ferries or in nearby park grounds see him and he get in trouble for vandalism. It’s a fascinating story, and he took some great photos. I encourage you to check them out and read his adventure in full on his blog.
Discovery Island is still somewhat of a presence at Disney, at least visually. It’s easily seen from both Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground as well as Disney’s Contemporary Resort. While it’s not necessarily a vital part of Disney’s theme park history, I hope this profile of Discovery Island gives you some insight into one of Disney’s least-known parks.
