Disney's first water park has been decaying for 15 years
When Disney River Country opened in 1976, visitors flocked to Orange County, Florida to ride the winding slides and traverse the wooden bridges.
The park closed down 25 years later. After leaving the park empty and abandoned for 15 years, Disney finally drained and filled River Country's 330,000-gallon pool in 2016.
As the Orlando Sentinel reported, the Upstream Plunge pool filled it with cement, since standing water can attract mosquitoes — a growing concern due to the Zika virus. Disney said the work was not related to Zika, and doesn't have any plans to re-open the long-closed park, the rest of which is still decaying.
A Cleveland-based photographer who works under the pseudonym Seph Lawless documented the abandoned park in his photo series "Dismaland." (This is also the name of Banksy's 2015 art exhibition, a fake apocalyptic theme park near Bristol, England.)
Lawless captured ghostly portraits of the once-busy attraction.
Take a look:
