Disney's River Country was by and large one of the first true "water parks" to have opened to the masses. Sure, there had been public pool sites that offered small attractions, slides, and the works; but River Country truly helped to revolutionize the "water park" concept. It also proceeded Disney's bigger and arguably more popular water parks Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. However, it's fair to say that River Country's roughly 25 year tenure wasn't necessarily the smoothest. Historically speaking, it's one of just two Disney theme parks to have ever been permanently closed to guests (The other being the ill-fated Discovery Island, also at Walt Disney World).
Before we get to the controversy that would surround River Country only several years after its 1976 grand opening, let's discuss what the park was exactly. River Country was an outdoorsy, wilderness themed water park located close to where the old Discovery Island initially was. Attraction highlights included the large lake, which was sand-bottomed, named "Bay Cove", and "White River Rapids", a water slide that measured 330 feet in length. The park utilized a unique water filtering system that would filter water in from Bay Lake, which River Country rested right off the shore of. This system helped Disney utilize Bay Lake to its advantage to keep water flowing through it's water park.
This system, however, would be the cause for River Country's earliest and, possibly most controversial, incident. Despite the filter existing to keep the water clean and healthy for swimming guests, this would not prove to be the case for the accident occurring to a small 11-year old boy only 4 years after the opening of the park in 1980. As the story goes, a rare yet deadly amoeba invaded the small child while he was swimming in the River Country water on vacation. The child died after the amoeba entered from the water through his nose, and subsequently made it's way to his brain. Fortunately for Disney and for River Country, it was proved not to be the fault of the Walt Disney Company as this had been the fourth random occurrence of the same type of amoeba taking someones life in the state of Florida. Not only that, but the filtering system proved that Disney was always attempting to control what entered its water system.
Even still, this was the first and earliest strikes for Disney's first water park. Some argue this as being factual. That this incident had nothing to do with River Country's closure over 20 years later. This is entirely possible, but by the 1990's, Disney had banned anyone from swimming in Bay Lake outside of River Country. The amoeba accident was probably in the back of Disney's minds, but most would argue that River Country was simply doomed by it's competition. Typhoon Lagoon would open in 1989, and Blizzard Beach in 1995. Both of these would be massive improvements on not only River Country, but the water park concept in general. Not only that but they're both signifcantly larger than the "ole' swimming hole".
Naturally, one could suspect that the theme park attendance drops caused as a result of the events of 9/11 negatively impacted River Country as well. River Country would close several months after September 11th due, presumably, to a lack in attendance. The Disney theme parks suffered greatly after the incident. In fact, income dropped so much for the parks that Disney was unable to fund the finishing of the Pop Century Resort that year as well. The other half of the Pop Century Resort, in fact, would lie dormant for years before becoming The Art of Animation Resort years later (More on that in a later installment, though). River Country would close its doors on November 2nd, 2001, and Disney would officially announce it's permanent closure in January of 2005.
Written by Kyle Thibodeau
Before we get to the controversy that would surround River Country only several years after its 1976 grand opening, let's discuss what the park was exactly. River Country was an outdoorsy, wilderness themed water park located close to where the old Discovery Island initially was. Attraction highlights included the large lake, which was sand-bottomed, named "Bay Cove", and "White River Rapids", a water slide that measured 330 feet in length. The park utilized a unique water filtering system that would filter water in from Bay Lake, which River Country rested right off the shore of. This system helped Disney utilize Bay Lake to its advantage to keep water flowing through it's water park.
This system, however, would be the cause for River Country's earliest and, possibly most controversial, incident. Despite the filter existing to keep the water clean and healthy for swimming guests, this would not prove to be the case for the accident occurring to a small 11-year old boy only 4 years after the opening of the park in 1980. As the story goes, a rare yet deadly amoeba invaded the small child while he was swimming in the River Country water on vacation. The child died after the amoeba entered from the water through his nose, and subsequently made it's way to his brain. Fortunately for Disney and for River Country, it was proved not to be the fault of the Walt Disney Company as this had been the fourth random occurrence of the same type of amoeba taking someones life in the state of Florida. Not only that, but the filtering system proved that Disney was always attempting to control what entered its water system.
Even still, this was the first and earliest strikes for Disney's first water park. Some argue this as being factual. That this incident had nothing to do with River Country's closure over 20 years later. This is entirely possible, but by the 1990's, Disney had banned anyone from swimming in Bay Lake outside of River Country. The amoeba accident was probably in the back of Disney's minds, but most would argue that River Country was simply doomed by it's competition. Typhoon Lagoon would open in 1989, and Blizzard Beach in 1995. Both of these would be massive improvements on not only River Country, but the water park concept in general. Not only that but they're both signifcantly larger than the "ole' swimming hole".
Naturally, one could suspect that the theme park attendance drops caused as a result of the events of 9/11 negatively impacted River Country as well. River Country would close several months after September 11th due, presumably, to a lack in attendance. The Disney theme parks suffered greatly after the incident. In fact, income dropped so much for the parks that Disney was unable to fund the finishing of the Pop Century Resort that year as well. The other half of the Pop Century Resort, in fact, would lie dormant for years before becoming The Art of Animation Resort years later (More on that in a later installment, though). River Country would close its doors on November 2nd, 2001, and Disney would officially announce it's permanent closure in January of 2005.
Written by Kyle Thibodeau