Disney's River Country

This can be found in Walt Disney World Resort, Bay Lake, Florida, and before getting the name 'Disney's River Country' it did go by the name 'Pop's Willow Grove'. Its theme was 'an old swimming hole' and it opened June 20th 1976. This was Disney's first waterpark and it boasted of 2 pools, 5 waterslides and 2 children's areas.

  In 1977 River Country appeared in a Wonderful World of Disney episode, with a song titled 'River Country'. And the members from the 70's Mickey Mouse Club enjoyed the attractions. 

  The park had its first bad publicity in 1980 when a young boy was killed from an infection. Amoeba (naegleria fowler bacteria), this is found in warm bodies of fresh water (ponds, lakes, rivers etc), and although the pool has a filtration system, it doesn't fully clean the pool. This however didn't discourage Disney and the site carried on, and by 1989 they opened a new waterpark called Typhoon Lagoon and then going on to open a third park in 1995, Blizzard Beach. River country was the smallest out of the three parks, and as the park normally did, it closed in November 2001, with the plan to open the following year as it has done previous. But, after the terror attacks there had been a decline in visitors at Disney, so they announced they would be halting the reopening of the park, unless there was a high demand in wanting it open. This meant after 25 years the park would be closed. Many believe it wasn't just the decline in visitors, but due to the fact that the naegleria fowler bacteria had been found around the water in the park.

The park stayed unused for years and many didn't know what was happening with it, but January 20th 2005 Disney made their announcement that River Country wouldn't be reopening. This became Disney's second resort to close down permanently, and instead of demolishing everything there, it has just been abandoned and left to rot. The area is overgrown and in a bad condition.

  It is rumoured that staff monitor the park, but many YouTubers have filmed themselves walking around the abandoned park. Aside from urban explorers coming into the park, not much else has occurred there, although in July 2016 it was announced there was plans to make it a vacation resort, but nothing has materialised yet, and in August of the same year they began draining and filling the upstream plunge. The upstream plunge was a kidney shaped 330,000 gallon clean water pool, there was rumours this was filled due to standing water attracting mosquitos, which is a worry due to the Zika virus, but Disney denied this was the reason. 

  

No other plans have been announced for the park.