River Country

[hobie16]

Photos of the long closed park.

[felinefan]

Yeah, I was looking through that slide show earlier today--what's really creepy are the Jazzland and Gulliver's heads lying around. I'm surprised Japan didn't bulldoze Gulliver's after it closed--land is at such a premium there. Then there's that one in the Ukraine that was closed by the Chernobyl accident....

[Shorty82]

Yeah, I was looking through that slide show earlier today--what's really creepy are the Jazzland and Gulliver's heads lying around. I'm surprised Japan didn't bulldoze Gulliver's after it closed--land is at such a premium there. Then there's that one in the Ukraine that was closed by the Chernobyl accident....

There's abandoned amusement parks and the like all over this country and the world. I've seen some fascinating slideshows and videos from a number of them. It's amazing what we humans just leave to rot. Whole cities have been abandoned, sometimes due to economic reasons (such as mining towns when the mine gets tapped out), sometimes due to natural or manmade disasters (such as Pripyat after Chernobyl). It's interesting to see these places years after they've shut down. Pripyat is just freaky, I guess because of the way it was abandoned.

[Darksin]

I'll umm.. just leave these links here.
We won't talk about how I got them.


Splendid China- Abandoned 2005
Carolina Splash- Abandoned 2004
Boardwalk and Baseball- Abandoned/Demolished 2004
Haunted Mansion- Abandoned/Converted 2005

[Zazu]

It's interesting to see these places years after they've shut down. Pripyat is just freaky, I guess because of the way it was abandoned.

I once visited the abandoned logging town of Tennant, California. (Drive northeast from Weed, turn right at Bray, and ten miles of gravel road later, you're there.)

The day the mill closed, all of the residents were officially evicted from the Company housing, but the management left right after the announcement ... leaving the stock in the Company Store, supplies in the roundhouse, and the last lessons on the school chalkboards. Everyone just packed up and left.

Forty years later, the cabins were mostly ready to move into after a cleaning; it was too far back in the woods for vandals. A few cabins had been broken into by bears who hibernated there ... after a rowdy party, from the looks of it.

At the time, three families had moved in. There were no locks on the doors, no owner to care, they just walked in. One family moved into the store and was trying to stock it. The place had potential, if not employment.

I've since wondered how they're getting on and what the town's like today. I know, let's ask Wikipedia!

Hmm, population peaked at 63 in 2000, was down to 41 in 2010. Still no paved roads, still no sessions in the schoolhouse, still no employment other than the Store. At least it hasn't (yet) been bulldozed for more logging.

[Darksin]

You should check out the tale of Centralia, PA.

[Buggy]

I poked around on the internet but couldn't find any answers. Why did River Country close, anyway? What was the reasoning or the explanation?

[Darksin]

I've heard a ton of reasons through the years, the most plausible one is that bacteria in the lake was causing people to get sick because they where swallowing it while swimming. The other is that regulations in FL forbid folks from making a waterpark out of natural bodies of water.. but wouldn't that cause places like Tarpon Springs to close too?
Although I've heard everything from "They didn't want to modernize it", "It's not safe" to "dying attendance" all of which do fall into the typical "close it and forget it" Disney mentality of the last 15 years. I don't think anyone's really ever gotten a solid answer as to why it happened but I can say it was always my personal favorite waterpark to go to.

[WEDFan]

I poked around on the internet but couldn't find any answers. Why did River Country close, anyway? What was the reasoning or the explanation?

I heard the bit about bacteria that Darksin mentioned, and also issues with declining attendance. Since it was unheated lake water, there were chunks of the year when it wasn't as comfortable as the pools. Also, with the addition of two water parks, I think a lot of people started comparing the value for the admission price and were choosing the water parks. River Country was also harder to get to for a lot of guests (regular bus followed by internal bus). As memory serves, they started trying to promote it more for a while (am I correctly remembering something about a 4th of July theme?) Then 9/11 came along and business was down across the board. One last thing I heard was that the cost to refurbish was too high for the expected return, and it needed the refurbishment.

[felinefan]

Check out the story behind Hell, California on Wikipedia or a similar site. Darn I hate it when I don't have a link ready.