River Country
| River Country | |
|---|---|
| Park | Walt Disney World |
| Land / area | Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground |
| Type | Water park |
| Opened | June 20, 1976 |
| Closed | November 2, 2001 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering
|
| Status | Closed |
River Country was a water park at Walt Disney World in Florida, built on the shore of Bay Lake beside Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. It was the resort's first water park and is widely credited as the first themed water park, styled throughout as a rustic, old-fashioned swimming hole. River Country opened on June 20, 1976, closed at the end of its 2001 season and never reopened. Along with nearby Discovery Island, it is one of only two Disney parks ever to close permanently.
History
River Country grew out of the early expansion of Walt Disney World, which had opened in 1971 with a single theme park. Fort Wilderness, the resort's campground, gave Disney a natural setting for a swimming attraction, and Imagineers designed the park to look like the kind of swimming hole celebrated in Mark Twain stories: sandy shores, rocks and boulders, and water drawn from Bay Lake itself.
The park opened on June 20, 1976. Susan Ford, daughter of President Gerald Ford, took the ceremonial first ride down the Whoop 'n Holler Hollow slides. The water system was the park's most distinctive feature: Bay Cove, its main swimming lagoon, was a dammed-off arm of Bay Lake, so guests swam in filtered lake water kept at a slightly higher level than the lake to stop untreated water flowing back in.
For its first decade River Country was Walt Disney World's only water park. That ended in 1989, when the much larger Disney's Typhoon Lagoon opened, and again in 1995 with Disney's Blizzard Beach. At roughly six acres, River Country was a fraction of their size, with fewer slides, and attendance gradually shifted to its bigger successors.
Experience
The park's centrepiece was Bay Cove, a half-acre, sand-bottomed lagoon fed by Bay Lake water. Around it were rope and tire swings, boom swings and T-bar drops over the water, and the two Whoop 'n Holler Hollow body slides, which plunged into the cove. A separate clean-water pool, Upstream Plunge, was served by the Slippery Slide Falls slides, while White Water Rapids offered a 330-foot inner-tube run. Younger children had Kiddie Cove, with its own smaller slides, and Indian Springs, a fountain play area. A nature trail ran along the lake, and the park kept sandy ground underfoot rather than pavement, reinforcing the swimming-hole illusion.
Closure
River Country operated seasonally and closed as normal at the end of the 2001 season, weeks after the September 11 attacks had sharply reduced tourism to Orlando. It did not reopen for 2002. In April 2002 a Walt Disney World spokesman said the park could reopen if there was enough guest demand, and for several years Disney left its future undecided. On January 20, 2005, the company announced that River Country would remain closed permanently.
The site was fenced off and left standing, slowly decaying, and became one of the best-known abandoned places at Walt Disney World. In 2016 Disney drained and filled in the Upstream Plunge pool. Most of what remained was demolished in 2019.
Legacy
In 2018 Disney announced a nature-themed resort, Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge, for the River Country site, partly overlapping the old park's footprint. Construction was halted during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Reflections project was cancelled in its original form; Disney later revived the site plan as a Disney Vacation Club resort, announced in 2024 as Disney Lakeshore Lodge. River Country itself survives mainly in photographs and the memories of the generation that swam in Bay Cove: the first water park Disney ever built, and one of only two Disney parks to close for good.
See also
- Disney's Typhoon Lagoon
- Disney's Blizzard Beach
- Discovery Island (theme park)
- Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground