ABANDONED DISNEY: River Country [Part 3]
Fritz 
This excellent map is from 1993. I love the woodcut style. I always love designs with choice, limited color palettes. Even the Goofy artwork matches the rest of the design. Thank you, Mr. Gibson for the scans!
I suppose the canoes are from Fort Wilderness recreation. The basketball hoop, for cast members. Reminds me a little of the run-down basketball rim bolted to a wooden staircase in top portion of the Matterhorn. That too has been quite abandoned. The cage-like wooden boxes (seen in the last two photos) made me wonder if they came from Discovery Island. Who knows.
Also enjoy [Part 1], [Part 2], and [Part 4].
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ABANDONED DISNEY Series
ABANDONED DISNEY: MK Fantasyland Skyway Tower
ABANDONED DISNEY: Haunted Mansion Hitchhiking Ghosts
ABANDONED DISNEY: Country Bear- Max
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Reader Comments (7)
This is rather sad, not to mention kind of spooky. This was definitely my favorite waterpark when I was little. I don't remember much, but I do remember being very sad when my dad told me that they had closed it all down. Well, long live the memory of good ol' River Country.
In the lower left, is that the old water tower sign in the bushes?
I don't know. Hmmm. I'll have to look at the larger photo. That would be cool if it is. For some reason these are not clickable. I'll fix that asap.
We only enjoyed RC once as part of the package of staying at Fort Wilderness. It was great fun with an old fashioned feel to it, I think because it wasn't all chlorinated tap water. Unfortunately that is probably a big part of the reason it closed. New laws regarding water in pools & such made it difficult to maintain "River" Country. Plus, as WDW expanded and more & more on site resorts were built, the cost of maintaining and cleaning RC became prohibitive, we saw careless & thoughtless people tossing trash in the water at RC. That trash found its way to the line of sight of guests in the boats and other resorts on the lake. SO, new regs, cost and trashy people caused the loss of something that was marvelous. I still believe 20,000 Leagues was closed, at least in part, because the ever widening waistlines of guests made it unsafe to operate. Those old attractions simply were not made to accommodate such heavy people in large numbers. It's a shame it couldn't have been updated & made a bit faster & able to accommodate more at one time but I'm sure that might have been as expensive as a whole new attraction. It isn't lost on me that new attractions have, in general, much wider queu areas & walkways. Wonder how long til some behemoth of a person causes a Peter Pan ship to fall..... :D I know. I know. I'm being mean. But good grief! If you look at vintage photos versus current photos, you have to admit there is a hefty issue.
I believe that with that Disney needs to re-furbish this park....with all the increases they have done over these past years for admission to the parks its funds that could be used to fix up what was and should be still up and running, not sitting like a ghost town.
I think that the park closed due to leeches from Bay Lake entering the water park. From the old design, the water came from Bay Lake.
Thank you so much for this post and the pictures! River Country was the first water park that I ever visited anywhere. I remember how excited my dad was in particular; this park reminded him of swimming in the lake by the small town he grew up in in Wisconsin. My family and I had a wonderful time and I was always sorry that I wasn't able to go back and enjoy it again.