“An exciting new country now awaits you inside Walt Disney World’s Fort Wilderness.”
“River Country is the kersplashingest, kid laughingest, slippery slidingest, raft ridingest, rope swingingest, swan divingest, summer swimmingest, sun snoozingest, picnickingest, old-fashioned, good, clean wet American fun you’ve ever had!”
“Bring a swimsuit and a smile. You’re likely to wear both out, at River Country.”
These were some of the words that Disney used to entice guests to visit its first ever water park, River Country, which debuted at Walt Disney World in Florida in 1976.
Sounds fun, doesn’t it?
Fast forward to today, and River Country still stands next to Bay Lake, not far from the Magic Kingdom. The slides are still in place. The pools are full of water. Safety signs advise guests of what they should and shouldn’t do.
There’s just one problem: the park is completely abandoned, and has been for more than 13 years.
The slides are gradually disappearing underneath dense plant life, and swimming in the dank pools is not advisable. In short, Disney’s River Country is decaying and dissolving, the millions of visitors that passed through its gates now a thing of the past. And it’s all happening right in front of our very eyes – parts of the park are still clearly visible from boats passing by on Bay Lake, while the entire area stands just meters away from the Fort Wilderness Resort.
How did it come to this? And why?
If you’re a Disney fan, you’ve probably heard of River Country. Striking images of its abandoned state have spread like wildfire across the web and social media in recent years, and you may even have visited the park during its 25 years in operations.
However, while photographs of the crumbling River Country are easy to come by, piecing together the full story behind it is more difficult. Why – and how – did Disney build a water park in the first place? What was it like to visit? Why did it shut down? Why didn’t Disney demolish it? And could it ever open again in the future?
The answers to these questions are out there, spread across hundreds of articles on dozens of websites. Yet, to our knowledge, no-one has pulled them together before into a single, coherent account of the rise, fall and decay of a park that many hold dear to their hearts.
Bring a swimsuit and a smile. THIS is the story of Disney’s River Country.
The beginning
These days, Walt Disney World is a vast, sprawling resort that is firmly established as one of the world’s leading tourist destinations. It boasts no fewer than four full-sized theme parks, two water parks (not counting the deserted River Country), a huge shopping and entertainment district and dozens of resort hotels.
Back in the early seventies, things were very different. Just take a look at the 1971 guide map below to get an idea of just how sparse the resort was in comparison to today:
The Magic Kingdom was there, of course. It was largely a clone of the original Disneyland, and featured many attractions that are still favorites today, such as the Haunted Mansion. There were a handful of resort hotels, including the iconic Contemporary Resort and the exotic Polynesian Village Resort – both of which were connected to the theme park by a monorail system (note that the Venetian and Asian Resorts shown on this map never actually materialized). For those on lower budgets, camping was available at Fort Wilderness.
Despite concerns that an East Coast audience wouldn’t warm to Disney’s brand of tourism, the Magic Kingdom quickly became very popular following its 1971 debut. Look beyond the theme park, though, and there was precious little to do. Guests could swim, fish or sail on Bay Lake. They could play a round of golf. They might ride a horse around Fort Wilderness. At a push, they could simply glide along on the monorail. But none of those things were likely to draw them in for the long, multi-day stays that would boost Disney’s bottom line.
Of course, Disney had to start somewhere, and the plan was always to expand Walt Disney World with more attractions and more hotels. Those plans, though, were jeopardized in 1973 when war broke out in the Middle East. An oil embargo was placed on Western nations, and President Nixon scrambled to introduce gasoline rationing. For a resort that received the majority of its guests via car, this was nothing short of a disaster. Attendance at the Magic Kingdom crashed, and Disney’s share price fell by more than half.
It wasn’t just Disney that was suffering. The newly-growing Central Florida tourism market that it had largely created was crashing around it, with existing hotels shutting their doors and construction work on new ones grinding to a halt.
Slowly, painstakingly, Disney turned the situation around. It adjusted its marketing to attract more locals, and put in place measures to ensure that guests coming from farther afield would be guaranteed enough gas to complete their journeys to and from the resort. It cut costs and laid off staff. And, eventually, the crowds returned. So, too, did the oil when the embargo was lifted in March 1974.
The plans for expansion, however, were permanently changed. In those days, Disney was determined to be a “good neighbor” to other businesses in the area. It considered its competitors in the tourism industry to be “supporting” rather than “competing” amusements, and had even invited Dick Pope, the owner of nearby Cypress Gardens, to the opening day of the Magic Kingdom. Similarly, it wanted to maintain good relations with the owners of the hotels and motels that had sprung up on the fringes of Walt Disney World.
The Golf Hotel opened as planned in December 1973. However, plans for additional on-site accommodation in the form of the Asian Resort, the Persian Resort and the Venetian Resort were scrapped, partly to avoid antagonizing struggling local competitors. Instead, development would be focused on Fort Wilderness, which as a campground was not viewed as truly “competitive” with hotels and motels.
Any additions to Fort Wilderness could double as incentives for guests at the other hotels to stay at Walt Disney World for an extra day or two. According to David Koenig’s excellent Realityland, Disney initially considered the creation of an enormous “Wild West” village, complete with restaurants, retail outlets and other amusements. It even went as far as building the town’s Pioneer Hall, which hosted a buffet and also became home to the long-running Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue show.
Plans were made to rename a small island close to Fort Wilderness in the heart of Bay Lake as Treasure Island (later changed to Discovery Island). Animal exhibits were installed and it was marketed as a nature preserve. However, the Western Village plans were dropped after management decided that it would be more lucrative to create a high impact, separately-ticketed attraction that could be pitched as an essential destination for all resort guests.
Disney was going to build a water park.
The Ol’ Swimmin’ Hole
Just as there were amusement parks before Disneyland, there were water parks (or, at least, pools with slides) before River Country.
With Disneyland, however, Walt Disney had completely revolutionized the whole concept of the amusement park. Rather than simply assembling a collection of rides, Disney created an entire fantasy world (and sub-lands within it) that transported guests to other times and places. In short, Disneyland was the first true theme park.
In a similar vein, the company’s first water park wouldn’t simply host slides and swimming pools. Instead, it would feature a single, cohesive theme, and each of the attractions would be carefully designed to fit within it. In essence, it would do for water parks what Disneyland had done for theme parks. The fingerprints of River Country’s Imagineers can still be seen today at dozens of other water parks, most noticeably the ones created by Disney itself.
Naturally, as the water park was due to be placed within Fort Wilderness, it would have to match the resort’s rustic wilderness theme. As it had in the past, Disney would draw inspiration from the works of Mark Twain. Working under the title “Pop’s Willow Grove”, Imagineers settled on the concept of an “old-fashioned swimming hole” – a place where Huckleberry Finn himself might have gone for a dip.
Supporting this theme would be the park’s physical location, on a six-acre plot on the south shore of Bay Lake. Indeed, to the untrained eye it would appear as if there was really no separation at all between the natural lake and the natural-looking swimming hole next to it. In typical fashion, Disney devised a way to make sure that guests at its water park would be able to swim in the actual lake water, in a way that was as clean and safe as possible.
Water would be drawn from Bay Lake via an intake/filter pipe, being sent along the lake bottom into a pump system inside an enormous artificial mountain. From there, it would be forced down the park’s flume troughs at 8,500 gallons per minute – serving both to sweep guests down the flumes, and to continually top up the water supply in River Country.
Separating the water park’s Bay Cove from Bay Lake would be a large rubber “bladder”. This would remain inflated six inches above the surface of Bay Lake with the help of a special sensor system, ensuring that filtered water could leave the park and spill over into Bay Lake, but that unfiltered water could not pollute River Country’s swimming pools.
Pat Burke, who joined Disney in 1972, was one of the Imagineers who worked on the River Country project. In a fascinating interview with Disney and More back in 2011, he revealed some of the processes behind the creation of the park.
“I worked with [architect] Dick Kline on River Country, which I believe was the first themed water park with trestle-supported slides that I know of. I remember the problem with trying to figure out the slide and its supporting trestles.”
Whereas today’s major theme park and water park attractions are modelled extensively using computer software, things were different during River Country’s development. “We had no computers yet and I was given a flat drawing of the proposed slides,” says Burke. “Having had photography in college under Chouinard’s Jerry McMillan, I cut out the suggested elevations on the model pictured [above]. I then rolled on film emulsion under a red light, and flashed a film of the flat two-dimensional plan on it with an overhead projector.”
“We quickly developed and fixed the film, yielding a three-dimensional model to work with. I built the slides out of fiberglass, just as the real ones would be, and figured out the themed wood tower heights needed for a marble to roll down them.”
The park’s main attractions would be centered around its faux mountain (the same one that hosted the intake pipe from Bay Lake). “The mountain was terraced,” explains Burke, “so I built the model slides from a flat plain above out of fiberglass sections I moulded and modelled off rubber hose laid in the position of the plan. They were a lot like snake skins.”
It may have been a relatively low-tech approach, but it worked. “That was a great experiment and made it very easy to lay out the course of the slide and for rockwork legend Fred Joerger to do his River Country rockwork.”
Joerger had been lured away from Warner Bros. by Walt Disney in 1953 to become one of the very first Imagineers. One of his earliest projects had been to create several models of Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle, helping Walt to settle on a final design. Over the years since those initial Disneyland projects, he had become a master of sculpting convincing fake rocks, and was responsible for almost all of the rockwork at Walt Disney World when it opened (including the iconic fountains in the Polynesian Village Resort’s lobby, which were recently removed despite protests from fans).
“Clay was rarely used at WED [Disney’s Imagineering arm] back then,” explains Burke. However, Tony Baxter had used it on his model for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Joerger also employed it to sculpt the rockwork around the model slides that Burke had created. He also oversaw the creation of the full-sized rocks during the park’s construction, with former colleague Harriet Burns recalling: “He just had the aesthetic ability to do it himself. What would take a whole team before, he would do overnight.” Asked himself how he produced such impressive rockwork, Joerger quipped, “You just have to learn to think like a rock.”
The mock rocks were scattered with real pebbles from streambeds in Georgia and the Carolinas. Guests would also be greeted by real, sandy beaches, helping to create the overall impression that this was a natural swimming hole, and not something that had been carefully hand-sculpted.
As construction work on the park proceeded, some very senior figures at Walt Disney World became intimately involved. Vice President Dick Nunis even volunteered as a “slide tester”, with Burke recalling that he “let us know which corners needed to be higher so you didn’t fly over the edge like I heard he did.”
By the end of May 1976, River Country was ready to welcome its first guests. Walt Disney World Cast Members were invited to a special “splash party” preview that ran over a six-day period, allowing the attractions to be thoroughly tested on large number of visitors, and helping to ensure that the park’s staff knew how to handle the crowds. The Cast Members and their families could also hop on a boat to visit Treasure Island, which had opened in April 1974.
The grand opening of River Country followed in June 1976, with more than 700 reporters and their families in attendance. They were all equipped with admittance bracelets with specially-designed celebratory coins like the one pictured above.
President Ford’s 18-year-old daughter Susan helped officiate, and marked the park’s debut by plummeting down the 260-foot Whoop ‘n Holler Hollow slide into Bay Cove. River Country was open for business.
Six acres of aquatic fun
The experiment with a themed water park proved to be an immediate success. In its 1976 Annual Report to shareholders, Walt Disney Productions boasted: “Six acres of aquatic fun await visitors to River Country, which opened at Walt Disney World’s Fort Wilderness Campgrounds last June. As many as 4,700 guests per day have already enjoyed its Ol’ Swimmin’ Hole, white water rapids, raft rides, rope swings, beaches or a plunge down a 260-foot, 2,000 gallon a minute water slide called Whoop ‘n Holler Hollow.”
Indeed, the park’s limited capacity meant that it was often forced to shut its gates. Disney began to ponder further expansion projects for Fort Wilderness, such as creating a rustic “fun house” or growing the resort beyond the water park.
So what exactly could guests expect when they visited River Country? Step back in time and join us for a quick tour of the original Disney water park…
First, you’ll need to get there from your hotel. There’s very little parking available at River Country itself, so once you’ve arrived at Fort Wilderness by bus or car you’ll have to hop on to a bus, a tram or – in the park’s first couple of years – the Fort Wilderness Railroad, a steam-powered railway that stopped operating altogether in the early 1980s.
Arriving at the park’s suitably rustic-looking entrance, you’ll need your admission ticket (or you can grab one from the Ticket Hut).
In 1977, as a member of the general public you’d have paid $4 for an adult, or $3 for a child. This works out as about $15.50 for an adult, or $11.50 for a child in today’s money when adjusted for inflation – significantly less than the $61.77 / $53.25 gate prices you might pay at Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon. Even in 2001, a day ticket for River Country cost $16.91, the equivalent of around $23 today.
Combination tickets, such as the one shown above, were also available that covered admission to Treasure Island (later renamed as Discovery Island).
When you pick up your park map, you may understand why a visit to River Country is so cheap. Here’s a nicely-designed map from 1993:
And here’s one from the park’s final years:
As you can see, River Country is a much smaller and more intimate park than Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach, with fewer blockbuster attractions. Most sources peg the size of Typhoon Lagoon as 56 acres, making it around 9-10 times larger than River Country.
If you’re not already changed, head to the Main Service Building, where the changing rooms, restrooms and showers are located. You’ll need a locker and a towel, available from the building’s Towel Window. The excellent Walt Dated World tells us that towel rentals cost 50 cents back in 1991, rising to $1 by 2001. In the latter year, locker rentals cost $4 to $6, plus a $2 deposit.
Once inside, you’ll notice that this isn’t a regular water park. In the words of Disney’s Jeff Kurtti in Since the World Began, “The grounds are grassy and inviting, a boardwalk creates a nature trail through a cypress swamp, a wide beach invites sunbathers, and the swimming areas feature flume and raft rides.” Instead of concrete, you’ll find sand and rocks underfoot.
First, let’s head to Bay Cove (pictured above), the main swimmin’ hole that is connected directly to Bay Lake (with the “bladder” in place to keep unfiltered water out). It’s surrounded on one side by a huge, sandy beach covered in sun loungers – perfect for parents to rest while their kids frolic in the water, and often populated by birds such as ibises and cranes. The pool itself also has a sandy bottom.
On the opposite side of the pool is a large mountain (the same one we saw modelled earlier). A series of slides wind their way down this, spilling out into the lagoon and acting as its water source. Riders plunge into the lagoon in an area that is some six feet deep – they need to be competent swimmers, as they’ll have to swim a little distance before their feet can touch ground.
There are two ways to reach the water slides by foot – the Barrel Bridge (a walkway floating on a series of barrels, similar to the one found on the Magic Kingdom’s Tom Sawyer Island and seen at the top of the image above) and the Bay Bridge, which sits on stilts and runs right alongside Bay Lake (seen at the bottom of the image).
First up is Whoop ‘n Holler Hollow, the park’s headline attraction. It actually consists of two slides – one 260 feet long, and another 160 feet long.
Both are fiberglass body slides featuring very sharp turns that are navigated at high speed, making this a pretty rough experience when compared to the slides at Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach.
In places, the slides are surrounded by very convincing-looking fake rocks, Big Thunder Mountain-style. The “wooden” trestles look more rustic than those typically used to support water slides.
Next let’s head to White Water Rapids. We’ll join the queue in the water itself, picking up an inner tube (black during the park’s early years, and yellow later on). We’ll then glide through an area known as Raft Rider Ridge, lazy river-style, before plunging into a high-speed section and crashing down into the pool below.
Again, this is a pretty wild experience, made all the more so by the fact that multiple guests are allowed to ride the rapids simultaneously – so there are a whole bunch of people riding along in close proximity.
At the bottom, we’ll be dumped into Bay Cove’s lagoon once again.
There are several small attractions located within the lagoon itself.
The Boom Swing sits on a tiny island, and allows us to grab onto a wooden ship’s boom before swinging out and splashing down into the water. The Cable Ride sees us grabbing a handle and sliding down a cable, zip line-style, before letting go and plunging into the pool. And the Tire Swing lets us swing out on a tire before attempting a graceful dive into the water below.
On the other side of the Barrel Bridge lies Kiddie Cove, which – as its name suggests – is aimed at younger guests.
There are four small slides built into the rocks here, offering a much tamer experience than the big slides in the neighboring cove.
Kids can play with floating mock alligators in the water, and a sandy beach and a playground are also on offer.
Most of the pools at River County are not heated (this is, after all, a “natural” swimming hole). The exception is the kidney-shaped, 330,000-gallon Upstream Plunge, which is split into two halves by a cordon of buoys.
One half is dedicated to swimmers and divers, while the other half acts as the plunge pool for Slippery Slide Falls.
This features side-by-side 16-foot long chutes, the signature feature of which is a seven feet drop into the water below.
Seven feet! No other Disney water park boasts a similar drop-off slide.
There are things to do at River Country that don’t involve swimming. Indian Springs is a small wading pool, equipped with water squirters. Nearby, the Cypress Point Nature Trail is an elevated boardwalk across a cypress swamp, surrounded by sunken trees and plentiful wildlife.
You’re free to bring your own food with you to River Country, and to eat it in the Pop’s Willows picnic area, surrounded by cypress trees (you may recall from earlier that “Pop’s Willow Grove” was the working title for the entire park during its development). If you’d prefer to buy something to eat, Pop’s Place serves fried chicken, hot dogs, sandwiches, french fries, cookies and ice cream. The smaller Waterin’ Hole stand also serves snacks and hot and cold drinks. The Cookout Pavilion – not actually part of River Country – doubles as the park’s hurricane shelter.
Souvenirs are available from River Relics, along with essential supplies. In the late ‘90s, we can also head to Hair Wraps, where we can have some color added to our hair-do (or, more likely, our little girl’s hair-do).
The Goof
“Who’s that waving encouragement as you flume down a rustic mountain at Whoop ‘n Holler Hollow? Is it? It is! I can’t believe my eyes! It’s Goofy in swimming trunks!”
“And over there – wading into Bay Cove watching kids swing on a rope and splash into the water. It can’t be! But you bet it is! Seems that a few Disney characters have invaded River Country on summer afternoons. Guess they figure it’s the best way in the world to cool off and have some rib ticklin’ fun at the same time. Why not join them? You’ll find them basking in the sun and havin’ a great time every day between 1 and 5pm.” – River Country brochure, 1989
Goofy was the main mascot at River Country – and yes, he really would don his swimsuit and fly down the park’s slides. Chip and Dale would often tag along, and trio would make grand entrances by boat or on horseback.
The Goof and his friends took on a bigger role in 1998, when Disney introduced the All-American Water Party in an attempt to prop up flagging attendance at River Country. During this seasonal event, every single day was the Fourth of July (you could, of course, head down to Pleasure Island in the evening and celebrate New Year’s Eve on the very same day).
Pluto and Minnie would join Goofy, Chip and Dale, all dressed in All-American garb. A banjo band would play while guests stuffed down barbecue food, and games such as a tug-o-war, a water balloon toss and sack races would round out the fun.
Happy memories
By and large, most guests seem to have happy memories of River Country – at least judging by the comments received on previous articles we’ve published about the park.
“Oh my gosh – this place was fabulous,” recalls one commenter. “We used to camp at Fort Wilderness every summer and would spend a couple days at River Country. I can remember going home after the first visit – having never been to a water park (there weren’t any back around 1976) and struggling to explain to my friends exactly WHAT it was…So much fun. It felt big, and there was a lot of ground to cover.”
“My favorite was the inner tube ride [White Water Rapids], which started and ended with small waterfalls you would go over. There would be a zillion tubes all tangled together and over you’d go…so much fun. The grounds were gorgeous, built around that lake, and the water even then was very murky, so it had a very ‘real’ feel to it. The slide into the pool [Slippery Slide Falls] terrified me, as it ended about eight feet above the water and you would just DROP. We would stay till they closed at 10pm and you would just be exhausted. It made Fort Wilderness seem like a destination.”
Jennifer also has fond memories of White Water Rapids. “Sometimes you’d get knocked out of your inner tube and have to try and grab on to another one to finish going down. The first time I went to River Country I was five and too little to ride it, but eventually it was my favorite ride in the park.”
The uniqueness of the park during its early days was one reason for its popularity. “I was there with my boys in the 70s,” recalls Diane Caccioppo. “[It was] the only water park, and awesome for its time.”
Even after the much larger and more elaborate Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach opened, many guests retained their affection for River Country. “I remember going there when I was about 13 (I’m 32 now),” says Jenn. “Even though River Country was a bit ‘old’ and worn, we still enjoyed it.”
“We made it there twice before it shut down in 1995 and 1996,” adds Jim. “It’s too bad since this park had some unique rides not found elsewhere.”
“I loved visiting River Country (and Discovery Island) with my children when they were small,” recalls Sherry Lowe. “I have very fond memories of visits to both parks with them. River Country was a great option for a water park if your children were small – much more laid back, a great place to unwind.”
Despite its appeal to many, River Country was not universally loved. In particular, the rough nature of its slides and the big drops (and deep pools) at the end of them made it a more challenging affair for weak swimmers than many modern water parks. “I was an adult the one and only time I went there with my family,” recalls Barb. “I felt you had to be a pretty strong swimmer to really take advantages of the amenities. Not much to do if you weren’t.”
The “natural” stylings of River Country are often cited as a major reason why guests enjoyed visiting the park – but they did have their downsides. “I hated it,” says Dennis O’Toole. “The ground was too rocky and not protected from the heat.”
Perhaps the most famous visitors to the park were the Mouseketeers, who filmed a musical number for a 1977 edition of The Wonderful World of Disney. Altogether now:
River Country. Big River Country.
It’s a hoot. It’s a holler! It’s a water jamboree!
River Country. Big River Country.
If you’re hot around the collar it’s the cool place to be.
The end
River Country closed, as usual, towards the end of the warm weather season in 2001. Wikipedia pegs its final day of operations that year as November 2, but Disney’s own D23 website states that the park shut its gates on September 1. Fans expected it to open as normal the following spring.
However, on April 11, 2002, the Orlando Sentinel reported that “Walt Disney World’s first water park, River Country, has closed and may not reopen.” Bill Warren, a spokesperson for the resort, claimed that the park could reopen if “there’s enough guest demand.” Just two months later, however, another spokesperson, Rena Callahan, told the newspaper that “River Country will remain closed at least through 2002.”
The final confirmation of River Country’s permanent demise didn’t come until more than three years after its closure. On January 20, 2005, Disney finally announced that its first water park would never again reopen.
Since then, debate has raged among fans about the reasons behind the decision to shutter River Country. Rumors and misinformation abound, and Disney has never formally explained its reasoning. So let’s take a look at the potential causes for the loss of the world’s first themed water park.
1. Safety
As at most water parks, there were safety guidelines posted all over the place at River Country. The back of the 1993 park map offered this advice (along with many other rules):
Read over our safety rules on the back, then last one in is a…
- Swim attire with rivets, buckles, or exposed metal are not permitted on the water attractions.
- No running or diving, please!
- Our lifeguards are highly trained and qualified. Please adhere to their instructions at all times.
- Please observe that each attraction has its own unique guidelines. Some require that you be in good health and of a certain height to participate.
But, sadly, Disney’s precautions were not enough to prevent some very serious incidents.
In 1982, 14-year-old Howard Pueppke drowned after getting into difficulties following the drop into Bay Cove’s lagoon at the end of Whoop ‘n Holler Hollow. Although a sign had warned “Rapid Water – Strong Swimmers Only”, Pueppke’s attorney argued that there was no indication of how deep the water was at the end. According to Koenig’s Realityland, a Disney lifeguard also testified that on some days up to 75 people would need assistance after plunging into the lagoon. Pueppke’s parents were eventually awarded $375,000. It wasn’t the last drowning at River Country – 13-year-old Christopher Staff died at the park seven years later.
However, given that the park continued to operate for more than decade after the second incident, concerns about the safety of the park’s attractions seem unlikely to have played a part in Disney’s decision to close it.
2. A rare, deadly amoeba and new state rules
“You are missing part of the story,” claims one commenter on a previous article about River Country. “The legislature in Florida passed a law that paid swimming areas could not use freshwater or lake areas because of the amoeba that is well known to grow in these waters in Florida. This amoeba can be deadly. This is the main reason that River Country was closed so quickly after this law was passed.”
Indeed, the disease referred to – amoebic meningoencephalitis – was the cause of a well-publicised death at River Country, and state laws relating to the cleanliness of natural water bodies are often cited as the main cause for the park’s closure.
On August 28, 1980, a wire story from the Associated Press was widely published in American newspapers:
A rare but deadly disease caused by amoeba found in Florida fresh-water lakes has claimed its fourth victim – a New York youngster who spent his vacation swimming at Walt Disney World’s River Country.
The disease, amoebic meningoencephalitis, attacks the nervous system and brain, doctors say. It killed two Florida children earlier this month and appears to have been the cause of death of another youngster, a state health official said.
The latest death was that of an 11-year-old boy who visited the Orlando area during the first week of August and swam at the water attraction at Disney World, said Dr. John McGarry, director of the Orange County Health Department.
The child died after the amoeba entered his nose, went through the nasal passage and attacked the nervous system, including the brain, according to Dr Robert Gunn, state epidemiologist.
The boy, who was not identified by New York or Florida health authorities, died last Friday, McGarry said.
David Voss, spokesman for the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, said the deaths were similar in the three other cases.
Voss and McGarry said investigators from the US Center for Disease Control in Atlanta and the New York Health Department pinpointed River Country as the source of the amoeba after the New York child’s parents reported that the amusement park was the only place where he went swimming recently.
Despite the tragedy having occurred at River Country, Walt Disney World was absolved of blame in the article:
The two officials said there was no reason to blame Disney World for the tragedy because the amoeba can breed in almost any freshwater lake during hot weather. Officials have said there is no epidemic of the disease in central Florida, where all four cases were detected.
Disney officials said there wasn’t much they could do.
“We are of course concerned and sensitive to any potential safety hazard to our guests,” said Disney spokesman Charles Ridgway. “I don’t know of any action that could be taken as a result of this.”
Ridgway emphasized that Disney World conducts a thorough program of water-quality control in cooperation with health officials.
There were no further cases of amoebic meningoencephalitis at River Country – if there had been, they would almost certainly have resulted in deaths as the disease has a fatality rate of greater than 95%. Disney did ban swimming its lakes in the mid-1990s. But, given that 21 years passed between the tragedy and the closure of River Country, it seems reasonable to assume that it played no direct role in Disney’s decision-making.
However, there are numerous reports online that make similar claims to this Martin County Times article, which states: “Disney’s River Country closed in September 2001, due in part to new Florida Laws prohibiting the use of natural water bodies, requiring chlorination and only municipal water supplies, for water park use. According to Ruin-Nation, a blog of abandoned places in the United States and beyond, ‘The deadly Naegleria Fowleri bacteria is said to be alive in the (River Country) park’s water during the hot summer months. This could also have added to the reasoning of the park’s final season.’”
The best analysis of these claims comes from Werner Weiss of Yesterland, who takes the time to analyse the current regulations governing water parks in Florida. The most pertinent one comes from the Department of Health’s Division of Environmental Health, and covers “public swimming pools and bathing places”. Its rules on water quality are thus:
The water supply for all pools shall be an approved potable water system or shall meet the requirements for potable water systems by the submission from the operator of bacteriological and chemical laboratory reports to the county health department.
As Weiss points out, this means that the water that guests actually swim in must qualify as potable (i.e. drinkable) water. It does not, as the report above suggests, require that it come from a municipal water source, nor does it outlaw natural water supplies. If the filtered water from Bay Lake was potable, then it would be deemed suitable.
In summary, the water regulations did not make it impossible for Disney to keep operating River Country. It’s possible, though, that the company may have been required (or wished) to improve the filtration systems used – and this would have cost money. By 2001, a number of other factors may have led to the company concluding that such an investment simply wouldn’t be worth it.
3. Competition
It wasn’t long before competition arrived for River Country in Orlando. Wet ‘n Wild opened in 1977, having been conceived by SeaWorld founder George Millay (probably to Disney’s frustration, it is often referred to as “America’s first water park”). In fact, in the company’s own history of Walt Disney World, Since the World Began, Jeff Kurtti notes (in a thinly-disguised dig at Wet ‘n Wild) that “Long before the proliferation of freeway-adjacent water parks, with their exposed structural supports, impersonal scale and cold aquamarine fiberglass structures, Disney designers created River Country.”
As noted earlier in this article, Walt Disney World took an aloof view of its competitors in the tourism industry during its early years. Management believed that since Disney could not possibility build everything, such supporting amusements would help to pull in more visitors to the areas where it built its own attractions, and – more importantly – to demonstrate the superiority of Disney’s offerings.
By 1984, though, things had changed. That year saw Michael Eisner (formerly CEO of Paramount’s movie studio) and Frank Wells (formerly head of Warner Bros.) brought in as Disney’s CEO and President respectively, in an ultimately successful attempt to strengthen the company and ward off hostile takeover attempts.
Eisner and Wells immediately saw the potential to exploit Disney’s theme park business for increased profits, and prices began to rise. The company’s attitude to its neighbors also began to change. Hotels and other attractions surrounding Walt Disney World were no longer “supporters”, but “competitors”. The resort’s previous approach of limiting hotel development, and leaving the lower end of the market to other operators, was dropped. Disney’s goal was now to draw as many people as possible to its property, and keep them there for the duration of their vacation.
SeaWorld Orlando had initially been welcomed to the area with open arms by Disney when it opened in 1973. Eisner, though, was happy to clone others’ ideas if it could lead to increased profit. A half-hearted attempt was made to compete directly with SeaWorld in 1986, when the Living Seas Pavilion was opened at Walt Disney World’s second theme park, EPCOT Center. The ploy failed (SeaWorld Orlando enjoyed record attendance that year), but the pattern was set.
When Universal announced plans to build a version of its popular Studio Tour in Florida, Eisner was quick to counter with plans for Disney-MGM Studios. And he was no longer willing to watch guests leave the resort to visit Wet ‘n Wild, which was larger than River Country and offered a wide variety of more thrilling attractions.
In 1989, Walt Disney World opened its second water park. Typhoon Lagoon was much larger than River Country, boasted many more attractions, was more conveniently located and offered extensive parking facilities. It did, though, share a sense of coherent theming with its predecessor. Essentially, it combined the best elements of Wet ‘n Wild with Disney’s own philosophy, and quickly established itself as an essential destination for guests at the resort.
Six years later, a second large water park, Blizzard Beach, followed. Again, it was on a similar scale to Typhoon Lagoon – and dwarfed River Country. It had room for more guests, and could command a higher entrance fee.
Inevitably, the presence of two popular, more profitable other water parks must have contributed to Disney’s decision to close River Country.
4. Location
In 1976, River Country’s location close to Fort Wilderness made sense. Not only did it share a theme with the resort, but Disney was looking to invest in its campground, rather than further hotels. The resort’s other hotels were not too far away and reaching the park would not be a hassle.
By 2001, the situation had changed. River Country was still in a great location for those who were staying at Fort Wilderness, but there were now hotels spread far and wide across Walt Disney World. With its lack of parking, reaching the park – even using Disney transport – became something of a pain.
In addition, following the opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Disney had made the decision to close Discovery Island and move many of its animal inhabitants to the new zoo-cum-theme park. River Country was therefore no longer part of a hub of attractions on Bay Lake, but was instead something of an outlier.
5. Capacity (or lack of it)
River Country could handle less than 5,000 guests a day. Although initially intended to operate year-round, it soon moved a seasonal schedule, largely because most of its pools were unheated (even the heated Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach have lengthy winter refurbishment periods every year).
The park initially proved to be very popular, and was often full to capacity. Although this was a good sign, it also limited its potential for profit. Whereas Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach regularly ranked in the top few water parks in the world as measured by attendance, River Country was nowhere to be seen in the top 15.
Expanding the park would have been hugely expensive, and the chronic lack of capacity (particularly when compared to Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon) is likely to have contributed to River Country’s downfall.
6. The impact of September 11
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 had a huge impact on tourism in the USA, and Walt Disney World was badly affected. Attendance, and revenue, plummeted – and management were forced into drastic action.
Opening hours were cut at all of the resort’s theme parks. Entertainment schedules were culled. Staff were asked to work fewer hours, and contractors were laid off. The construction of Disney’s Pop Century Resort was stopped mid-build, and the second half was abandoned for years before eventually opening as Disney’s Art of Animation Resort in 2012. Many, many other money-saving moves were made resort-wide. It’s reasonable to assume that the failure of River Country to reopen in 2002 was one of them.
Although many of the cutbacks were reversed, not all of them were – and River Country’s temporary closure became permanent.
So why did River Country close?
We don’t have a window into the minds of Walt Disney World’s management team at the time River County was closed. Given all of the above, though, it seems likely that River Country’s closure had little to do with health and safety concerns. Instead, what had been a significant new attraction in 1976 had become too small and not profitable enough by 2002, particularly in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Without the attacks, it may have continued to operate for a few more years, but it was always a tempting target for cost savings.
With four theme parks and two sprawling water parks on offer to guests, Walt Disney World had simply outgrown River Country.
But the story of River Country doesn’t end with its closure…
Abandoned
Throughout its temporary closure between 2001 and 2005, River Country stood devoid of guests, awaiting seasonal maintenance before it could reopen. Of course, that seasonal maintenance never came – and the park simply remained in place. Disney never bothered to demolish it – it simply fenced off the areas that were no longer needed and stopped upkeep on them. The result is a fascinating study in how quickly nature can reclaim a Disney-built attraction.
Walt Disney always intended for his theme parks and resorts to be places that could be altered and improved by tearing out old attractions and installing new ones. But Disney actually has a long history of leaving attractions in place longer after they have closed. There are numerous examples from the past – the Submarine Voyage attractions at Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom both stood idle for years before their eventual replacement (in Disneyland’s case, the ride was finally overhauled to become the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage). Some of the towers of the Skyway cable car systems were removed long after the rest of the ride closed. Even today, if you take a close look as you wander around Disney’s parks, you’ll often find evidence of abandoned attractions.
It’s not really that surprising, then, that Disney simply left River Country to rot, given that it already had ready-made replacements in Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.
And rot it has. The walkways are treacherous and overgrown. The beaches are similarly unusable, while the pools themselves are now considerably more “natural” that they were intended to be, and certainly not inviting to swimmers. The artificial rocks that were so carefully created by Fred Joerger are cracked and damaged.
You can get an impression of how the passage of time has affected River Country by looking at aerial images of the park from the period since it closed:
The most striking images, though, are the ones taken from close-up. At this point, let us be clear: we do not recommend exploring the abandoned River Country. Not only is it trespassing, but it’s also increasingly dangerous as plant life and wildlife have reclaimed the area. Disney itself has this to say: “While we appreciate the enthusiasm of our fans, undeveloped areas of Walt Disney World are off limits to guests. As a private property owner, we have the right to trespass guests who deliberately enter unauthorized areas.”
However, there are ways to investigate River Country’s current state without climbing fences – and they are surprisingly unchallenging. If you ride the boat from Fort Wilderness to the Magic Kingdom, you’ll spot the Cypress Point Nature Trail’s boardwalk – which, sadly, is gradually crumbling away and falling into Bay Lake. And if you visit the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue, it’s pretty easy to peek through the cracks in the ugly green fence that separates the rest of Fort Wilderness from River Country. You can reach the fence by turning left out of Crockett’s Tavern and walking up the street running next to Bay Lake.
Inevitably, some adventurous (many would argue foolhardy) souls have crept into River Country since it closed its gates. Rollins College professor Dr Rick Foglesong, who has studied Disney for many years, explains: “This one was teeming with Disney nostalgia…What fun for a kid to have a Huckleberry Finn experience and sneak into River Country.”
One account from 2012 of such an experience explains: “The gate was chained, but not locked. This was that moment where I look around and think ‘this is way too easy’. The chains and locks were just hanging there and not doing anything at all. In all honesty, I just walked right into River Country, easier than you could have when it was open for business. As I walked in, I started walking quickly thinking I would be thrown out in no time. Without really paying attention, I ended up back at the pool that I could see looking over the fence. The thing that I noticed was how gross it was, and how seriously dangerous it was…I know a random child isn’t going to stumble back there, but still, for Disney it surprised me how they just left it.”
The author, “Mr. Oswald”, continues: “A few more minutes wouldn’t hurt, I decided. I looked farther into the park, and noticed something that looked like signs of life. When I say signs of life, I mean retro items that were in my memory from years long ago. Ropes, bridges, and of course that dark water that was the main swimming area. It was still there! It hadn’t been filled in or thrown in the trash, the entire park was basically frozen in time right before my eyes.”
For those of you who are unable to take a look for yourselves, there are some striking “then and now” images below (you can see many more images of the abandoned River Country over at DISboards and Retro Disney World). Where possible, we offer a comparison to the park’s operational state – and the level of decay is pretty clear.
We’ll start our tour at Bay Cove. As per the account above, the lagoon remains in place, with many of the in-water attractions such as the tire swing still clearly visible.
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After:
“The water is eerily still, nothing was really jumping out or swimming around,” explains Mr. Oswald. “The docks, ropes, wires, swings, and almost everything else were all still there. I noticed an old inner tube floating in some weeds.”
The two crossings, Bay Bridge and the Barrel Bridge, are still largely intact.
The slides on Bay Cove’s mountain are in danger of disappearing completely. Mr. Oswald continues: “The overgrowth is something that I cannot emphasize enough, in five more years this place will be totally covered up.” The Whoop ‘n Holler Hollow slides are still in place, although they are becoming increasingly derelict.
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After:
The state of White Water Rapids is even worse. As long ago as 2009, it looked like this – with the slide itself barely visible.
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After:
Adjacent to Bay Cove, Kiddie Cove is now filled in and grown over. The rockwork and slides remain, but there’s no water for little ones to splash into any more.
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After:
Upstream Plunge, River Country’s only heated pool, looks considerably less inviting than it once did.
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After:
Even now, in the park’s abandoned state, you can sense a sense of just how huge the drop was from Slippery Slide Falls down into the pool below.
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After:
There’s very little left of Indian Springs, where kids once frolicked among water sprinklers.
There’s even less left of the park’s once-sandy beaches, which are now entirely overgrown.
Despite the decay, there’s still plenty of evidence that this was once a working water park. Signage has been left in place, along with detail and theming work.
One of the clearest signs of decay is clearly visible to guests travelling by boat to the Magic Kingdom:
The Cypress Point Nature Trail is gradually collapsing into Bay Lake, providing a perfect metaphor for the park that hosted it.
The future
For the creators of River Country, witnessing the decline of the park has been a painful experience. “I’m sorry to see River Country in its present condition and hope that something good comes of it,” said Imagineer Pat Burke in his 2011 interview with Disney and More.
Following River Country’s closure, there were persistent rumors that the park would reopen at some point as an exclusive pool area for Fort Wilderness guests. However, looking at images of the abandoned park and considering that it has now been in decline for well over a decade, that seems impossible. River Country is beyond repair – it would need to be completely rebuilt. It seems more likely that Disney would build a third, larger water park if it saw enough demand for one.
In 2010, a number of reports suggested that Disney was planning to build a new Disney Vacation Club Resort on the River Country property, expanding its timeshare empire. Engineers were said to have been spotted running the rule over the site to determine what needed to be done to clear away the remnants of its attractions.
At the time, Screamscape reported that the project would be “based on the old Buffalo Junction plans from years ago.” Buffalo Junction, also known as Wilderness Junction, was set to be a 600-room resort along the southern shore of Bay Lake next to River Country. The Disney Drawing Board reports that the resort would “have been similar to Disney’s Boardwalk, but themed to the Old West, with horses on sawdust-strewn streets, and would have had a copy of the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show from Disneyland Paris.” However, the plans were shelved in 1992 when recession struck and the disastrous debut of Disneyland Paris threw a number of other projects into doubt.
In an interview with the Orlando Business Journal, Dennis Spiegel, president of consulting firm International Theme Park Services Inc., said: “We have heard rumors about this for a couple of months now. They are trying to look at it from an extended-stay viewpoint – having more for guests to do on-site in addition to the parks.” Spiegel went on to suggest that River Country could still be resurrected as an exclusive benefit for DVC guests.
Then it all went quiet. The rumors have resurfaced every now again (most recently in early 2014), but Disney is yet to confirm any future plans for the River Country site.
A walk down memory lane
Our journey through the history of Disney’s River Country ends here. But during your next trip to Walt Disney World, you can still catch glimpses of some elements of the park – ones that continue to be maintained and looked after. And you won’t have to climb any fences to do so.
There are a number of River Country “Easter Eggs” sprinkled around Walt Disney World. Firstly, if you want to imagine how early guests arrived at the park, keep your eyes peeled in the Typhoon Lagoon parking lot. One of the coaches from the Fort Wilderness Railroad is used as a prop there.
Over at Fort Wilderness, parts of the park itself are still in use. The former entrance gate now acts as the gate for the Mickey’s Backyard BBQ Dinner Show. This is held in the former Cookout Pavilion that doubled as the water park’s hurricane shelter. You can still see a two-window ticket booth on your arrival at the BBQ, advertising “Relaxing Pool & Springs”, “White Water Adventures” and “Guest Services”.
River’s Country main service building is also still in place, providing public restrooms for guests at the dinner show. You can’t take a shower (these sections have been closed off), although signage still suggests that you can. The restrooms themselves are extra large, and host unusual items like a wall-mounted hair dryer. Elsewhere, the section of the building that features a white wooden door once acted as the Towel Window and Lost & Found facility for River Country.
At the BBQ, you may also spot a tiered seating area with a pattern imprinted onto the concrete consisting of four circles and a square. This was the site of the legs of River Country’s water tower. Head for a swim in Fort Wilderness’ Meadow Pool, and you’ll notice that the water tower is now in place there. This was one of few items to be salvaged from River Country back in 2009, becoming part of a new water slide.
Scattered around the area near the main service building are some remnants of Fred Joerger’s meticulous River Country rockwork. As you take them in, think back to the glory days of this tiny, beautiful and fondly-remembered little water park, and hum along to the tune of the Mouseketeers’ “Big River Country”…
River Country. Big River Country!
There’s a lot about it, to brighten up your soul.
River Country. Big River Country!
Come and join us for a visit to the ol’ swimmin’ hole!
