It may be known as the happiest place on Earth, but when Mickey and Minnie permanently retire to their mouse house, and all the turkey leg-wielding tots leave for good, Disney World can cast a different type of spell.
Renegade photographer Seph Lawless has given us a rare glimpse at what happens when a Disney property goes untouched for 15 years. His eerie pictures of River Country, Disney's first water park, that's been left to deteriorate since it shuttered in 2001, are as chilling as they are fascinating.
Florida's River County, which opened in 1976 at Bay Lake, is only one of two Disney parks to ever close (the other being Discovery Island, a zoological park that shuttered in 1999). Though it's not clear exactly why River Country's happy reign ended, rumors have swirled that it was tied to a young boy's death, who was reportedly killed by a parasitic infection he contracted there. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the official reason isn't as dramatic: It closed after Disney's two other water parks in the area — Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon — eclipsed it in popularity.
The fine folks at Disney aren't exactly thrilled with Lawless rooting around, warning him to stay away, but he says he entered the property legally by a Disney boat and captured other images by drone.
In June 2016, after Lawless's photos went viral, Disney announced plans to drain and fill the 330,000-gallon Upstream Plunge, a giant pool within the park. The company told the Sentinel it had planned this update for a while; the pool is close to Mickey's Backyard BBQ at Disney's Fort Wildnerness, a resort nearby.
According to Lawless, who spoke to the operators of Bay Lake, the water is now too polluted to swim in, thanks to years of nightly firework displays. The workers reportedly added that the fish in the lake are also too toxic to eat.
June will mark the 41st anniversary of River Country's grand opening.
Though toppled and warped with time, even the picnic tables remain.
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