Disney's River Country

History

Positioned on the shore of Bay Lake, near Discovery Island, the park featured a rustic wilderness theming, complete with rocks and man-made boulders. It was described as an "old-fashioned swimming hole" with "a twist of Huckleberry Finn". The original working title was "Pop's Willow Grove".

The park was featured in a musical number from the 1977 Wonderful World of Disney episode "The Mouseketeers at Walt Disney World", which included a song titled "River Country" and featured the then-current Mouseketeer lineup from the late 70s incarnation of The Mickey Mouse Club enjoying its attractions.

The park featured a sandy bottom and unique water filtering system using confluent water from adjacent Bay Lake, which was dammed off creating a natural-looking man-made lagoon. The park's water was at the higher level than the lake's, which was an effort to prevent lake water from going into the park. But even with the filtration system, the water was not completely purified. In 1980, an 11-year-old boy was killed by a deadly infection caused by an amoeba (Naegleria fowleri), which is found in warm bodies of fresh water, such as ponds, lakes, rivers, and hot springs.

Besides the amoeba death, there were two drownings at River Country, in 1982 and 1989.

In 1989, Disney opened a second new water park, Typhoon Lagoon. It had much more parking, many more slides, newer amenities, and was much larger. In 1995, Disney opened a third water park, Blizzard Beach. River Country was much smaller than the other two parks, yet it remained, surviving the competition.

As it did every year, the park closed at the end of the warm-weather season in November 2001, with the expectation that it would reopen in spring of 2002. But after the September 11 attacks, there was a decline in business across Disney World, with many other parks cutting back their hours, several restaurants closing down, many hotels discontinuing early-morning events, and Port Orleans – Riverside closing indefinitely. A decrease in visitors at all Disney World parks and hotels prompted them to halt the reopening. On April 11, 2002, the Orlando Sentinel reported, “Walt Disney World’s first water park, River Country, has closed and may not reopen,” concluding with this line: “Disney World spokesman Bill Warren said that River Country could be reopened if ‘there’s enough guest demand.’” The attraction may also have been affected by a change in Florida laws, which prohibited unchlorinated natural water bodies from being used for water park attractions.

Soon afterward, the park fell into disrepair, precluding any hope of reopening with the Walt Disney Company having to invest significant amounts of money into the park. It was thought more prudent to operate Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon instead. In 2005, the Walt Disney Company officially announced that River Country would never reopen. River Country has been left abandoned to rot instead of being demolished. Disney employees monitor the park for trespassers, who risk up to lifetime bans if caught. Many YouTubers have been caught taping videos of themselves trespassing in River Country for entertainment purposes. In the meantime, River Country is fenced off from the nearby Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. River Country is no longer in operable condition, and it is thought that should Disney ever need to open a third water park, it will build a new park from scratch rather than rebuilding River Country.

On August 25, 2016, it was announced that Disney would be draining and filling in Upstream Plunge, the 330,000 gallon pool, though there are no immediate plans to tear down any other part of the park. Along with Discovery Island, it was left to deteriorate rather than be demolished.

List of attractions

Attractions included: