Abandoned Amusement Parks Discussion Thread

[gisco]

I missed going to River Country by a year. It was one of the things we planned on doing but it closed for good the year before our trip. The park looks like it would have had a few fun things like the drop off into deep water. Probably the size and lack of things to do compared to the two other water parks on property lead to its demise.

[SharkTums]

Very interesting stuff, a few things...

 

Nara:

- Doesn't look that much different from our visit! Seriously.

- I can only imagine that if that was in any other country it would be littered, graffiti everywhere, and all of those games and stuff stolen. Kudos to the Japanese yet again!

 

Water Country:

- This has got to be a giant hazard and I hope Disney plans to do something. Those pools look like giant mosquito breeding areas, and it can't be safe to have giant 10ft pools with murky water accessable!

- I do also feel that there are several reasons this park just wouldn't survive today. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe a goodly portion of the park was 'river or lake' water. There are several times each year that Wet n Wild has to close it's one lake attraction because in Florida when it gets too hot deadly bacteria and parasites swarm lake and river water and can get you very sick. People complain and sue over getting sick at waterparks with treated and chlorinated water, I can only imagine the problems with untreated water.

[BeemerBoy]

Wow, thanks for those River Country pics!

 

^ Elissa, you're correct. Most of the park utilized the lake water. I can't remember what the old operating schedule was like, but like you, I'm not so sure this place could survive today. I loved it back in the day, and it was certainly unique. However, even as a kid, something in the back of my mind made me leary of that lake water.

 

The back portion of the park had one big typical chlorinated pool that I spent a lot of time in. That pic of the two slides that dropped off into the big pool brought back good memories, and chills at the same time. A current mosquito breeding pool is right!

 

Here's a good link.

[Capitalize]

Remember the old Disney animal park? It was on a small island on the lake and was essentially a small zoo from what I can remember. My first and only visit was back in 95 I believe... Anyone know what has come of that? Has it been properly taken down or is it slowly falling apart?

[phantomfan93]

At Kennywood, on the Phantom's Revenge, you can see a lot of the footers for the old steel phantom.

[Skycoastin Steve]

So is Aska going to be moved anywhere? Because it's pretty obvious it's not going to operate in its current location anymore, so I don't see how it could still be in the rankings. Just my opinion.

[jedimaster1227]

^^^I believe you are referring to Discovery Island, the nature preserve in the center of Bay Lake. As of current, the island is off limits to regular guests and has been seemingly allowed to sit unused much like River Country. Though from what I hear, Discovery Island may be a little better maintained as of current.

[Capitalize]

^

Yeah, that was the place I was thinking of.

[timfreeman]

If you take the boat from the campgrounds to WDW, you pass right by Discovery Island. Can't see much of anything there. The remains of the original wave machine also exist outside the Grand Floridean beach. It was shut down due it working too well. The waves caused erosion of the sand and beach and was shut down.

[John Peck]

I went to River Country in 1985. It was in fact mostly Lake water and the water used in the slides were used from that as well. One of the large inner tube rides always flipped over once it hit the lake. I only rode it once, since at age 11, I hated involuntarily going under water... still do! (the tubes were big and black and round and had no grab-handles)

 

River Country also had a white sandy beach and a lot of gadgets to play with. It was still a very nice park and would still most likely be open if it weren't for the natural lake water.

 

The park also featured a somewhat large pool and a hot tub or two. They were very strict about guests getting sand in the pool as you can imagine.

 

We only went one day there, and it was only for a few hours, so the memory is a little fuzzy. There was also a petting zoo nearby. I hope something comes from the area, fort wilderness was a very nice area.

 

A trip to Discovery Island cost extra, and we didn't do it.

[larrygator]

I never really thought about the fate of River Country. I just assumed it had been rethemed into the current water park. I had no idea it was abandoned.

 

That is the first major water park I ever visited.

 

I'm pretty sure those pesky lake parasites did claim a couple of lives at River Country. Or is this just an urban myth.

[KDcoasterMAN]

Kings Dominion has alot of those "defunct" quirks. Like stated before, the station for Haunted River remains, and much of the original trough after the drop. I few Things I have noticed over the years was that the old concrete pad that had Scrambler on it is still there On International Street. I've heard a good portion of the rails for the Old Dominion Rail is still at KD. The Old Skyride station (Kidzville side) is used for the Kidz Construction Company now. Some of the original footers for King Kobra Still sit under Anaconda. When walking to Grizzly, you can see where the old ODL track was, It's now a strip of Asphault. And then there's Hypersonic... The station and the track still remain at the park...

[pianojohn]

When I attempted to go to page 5 of this tread, the following warning popped up:

[testtrack321]

Remember the old Disney animal park? It was on a small island on the lake and was essentially a small zoo from what I can remember. My first and only visit was back in 95 I believe... Anyone know what has come of that? Has it been properly taken down or is it slowly falling apart?

 

I agree with jedimaster, it was abandoned shortly after Animal Kingdom opened. The animals and exhibits moved over to Conservation Station or the animals land of origin. The name Discovery Island was also transfered over as a memorial (and as a way to stop confused guests from asking why the safari doesn't depart from Safari Village, the old name of the central hub "island".)

[testtrack321]

When I attempted to go to page 5 of this tread, the following warning popped up:

 

Probably a certificate error in one of the linked images on that page.

[jazzimm]

I'm a big on photography, and I love abandoned places (especially amusement parks!), so I did my final project in high school photography on this photographer.

His name is Jonathan Haeber, and you can find his flickr page with his photographs of the abandoned Neverland Ranch here:

or his website (with the same photos) here:

http://www.terrastories.com/bearings/inside-neverland-ranch

[AJClarke0912]

Those people just WALKED into the empty Nara Dreamland?! That's plain creepy. I think I'd be getting major spooks walking through that place lol...

 

...then I'd give the dead Aska a hug and cry...

[PriestofSyrinx]

http://illicitohio.com/SBNO/heritage/heritage01.html

 

Found this site about the old PTL Heritage USA park that Tammy and Jim Bakker, until the IRS cracked down on their tax exemption.

 

Their wiki page also has a history of the park.

 

Pretty creepy

[mightypotato]

Seeing the pictures of River Country made me both nostalgic and sad at the same time. My family used to go there all the time when we would stay at the Camp Wilderness Campground. The water park was great as it was easily within walking distance from our campsites. I would spend all day just messing around in the lake and on the slides. A lot of good memories there.

 

And Discovery Island I remember being pretty cool. I remember there being a lot of birds and whatnot.

[BrownStreak]

When I attempted to go to page 5 of this tread, the following warning popped up:

 

I got that too- I reported it to Robb who said he performed a whole scan and check and found nothing.

 

The way River Country was laid out, I wonder why they couldn't just dam off the section containing the park and then use filtered water. Even after Typhoon Lagoon opened I still preferred River Country. I loved that raft ride where you'd constantly end up in jams on the way down to where it was almost a lazy river with drops.

 

As to Discovery Island- I miss that too. It was nice to still be "at Disney" but have a small, intimate experience in a relaxed setting. I used to pilot the boats that served the island. In fact my last day working at Disney I was "yelling" at my co-worker because she was doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing which was going to make the passengers aboard late for the "last entry of the day" cutoff time...on accident, I let a "bad word" come out of my mouth- which is why it ended up being my last day I was only 20...

[Coaster Dooey]

I'm a big on photography, and I love abandoned places (especially amusement parks!), so I did my final project in high school photography on this photographer.

His name is Jonathan Haeber, and you can find his flickr page with his photographs of the abandoned Neverland Ranch here:

or his website (with the same photos) here:

http://www.terrastories.com/bearings/inside-neverland-ranch

 

Thanks for sharing that

[jazzimm]

^ No problem!

For those (like me) who often skip over links and stuff, here are a few of my favourite shots.

[squirrelnut1416]

theres always this giant disney blunder

http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/disney-blunder/

[BeemerBoy]

^

But being the brilliant masterminds that they are, Disney failed to do their research about the area before they invested over 30 million dollars in the place.

 

30 million doubloons down the crapper. Disney... we salute you.

 

I wonder how they'll ever recover?

[DenDen]

To quote a line from R&E's trip to Nara...

 

Hopefully this park will close and Aska will get moved to a much better home!

 

Well, we're getting there.