The abandoned Disney's River Country theme park in Florida

View on Google Maps

Disney's River Country opened on June 20, 1976  and it was the first water park at Walt Disney World in Florida. Positioned on the shore of Bay Lake, it featured a rustic wilderness theme, complete with rocks and man-made boulders. Using a unique water filtering system and a a half-acre (2,000 m²) sandy bottom,the park featured a natural-looking man-made lagoon. 

During the 80's, Disney's River Country was struck by 3 tragedies. In 1980, an 11-year-old boy was killed by a deadly infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba which is found in warm bodies of fresh water. Then, in 1982 and in 1989 there were two drownings. However, and despite the competition by Disney's two newer and larger parks, Disney's Typhoon Lagoon and Disney's Blizzard Beach, visitor numbers didn't suffer. 

As it did every year, the park closed at the end of the warm-weather season in November 2001, with the expectation that it would reopen in spring of 2002. However, after the September 11 attacks, there was a decline in business across Disney World, with many parks cutting back their hours and many events being cancelled. In April 2002 Walt Disney World announced that River Country might reopen if there is enough demand. Soon, the park fell into disrepair and in 2005 Disney announced that the park will never reopen. It is only the second Disney park to shut down (the other is Discovery Island, which similarly was left to deteriorate rather than be demolished.

Source

SEE ALSO: More abandoned amusement parks and abandoned theme parks around the world // More abandoned places in California // More abandoned places in the United States // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES
For more deserted places, LIKE US on Facebook and FOLLOW US on twitter



(Click here for the full post)

Seph Lawless/weather.com

Seph Lawless/weather.com

Seph Lawless/weather.com

Seph Lawless/weather.com

Seph Lawless/weather.com

The ghost town of Ellaville in Florida

View on Google Maps

The town of Ellaville was founded in 1861 by businessman and future governor of Florida George Franklin Drew. Drew built a mansion on the western banks of the Suwannee River in Suwannee County. He named the town 'Ellaville' to honor Ella, his long-time African American servant. 

After the Civil War, Drew and his partner Louis Bucki opened a steam-operated sawmill. The mill soon became the largest in Florida, employing more than 500 people. Florida Railroad built a line to the town that had direct access to the mill and soon after, Ellaville was blooming. In the early 1870s the town had a train station, two schools, two churches, a steamboat dock, a masonic lodge, a commissary and a sawmill.

By then, George Drew had become one of the richest men in Florida, being elected governor in 1876. After his term, he sold his company share to the Bucki and he moved to Jacksonville. The mill was burned down in 1898 and although it was soon rebuilt, there was no longer a significant number of pine still left to harvest. Extensive floods during the 1900's and later the onset of the Great Depression attributed to the decline of Ellaville. The post office finally closed in 1942 and soon the town vanished. 

Little remains of Ellaville exist today. The Drew mansion, which had been vandalized over the years finally burned down during the 1970's. In 1986, the Hillman Bridge built in 1925 by the Federal Aid Project was abandoned and replaced by a new bridge across the river.

Source

SEE ALSO: More ghost towns around the world // More abandoned places in Florida // More abandoned places in the United States // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
For more deserted places, LIKE US on Facebook and FOLLOW US on twitter



(Click here for the full post)

Faye/flickr.com

JANET Marie PN/flickr.com

Rachel Mathis/atlasobscura.com

Rachel Mathis/atlasobscura.com

Jim/flickr.com

Fort Jefferson: An abandoned island fortress off Florida

View on Google Maps

In the lower Florida Keys, within the Dry Tortugas National Park there's an unfinished and abandoned island fortress, which is the largest masonry structure in the Americas. Fort Jefferson was built by the U.S. Army in 1846 to assist in the fight against piracy in the Caribbean Sea. 

The design called for a four-tiered six-sided 1000 heavy-gun fort, with two sides measuring 415 feet (126 meters), and four sides measuring 564 feet (172 meters). On the parade ground inside the fort's massive brick walls there were living quarters for soldiers and officers, gunpowder magazines, storehouses, and other buildings required to maintain the fort. An important part of the construction was carried out by slaves. 

Fort Jefferson's peak military population was 1,729. To support such a large population in an area lacking fresh water (hence the name 'Dry Tortugas'), an innovative system of cisterns was built into the walls of the fort. However, the system was never used in practice, cracks were created in the cisterns due to the enormous weight of the outer walls, allowing seawater to contaminate the fresh water supply. 

During the Civil War, with construction still under way, Fort Jefferson was used as a prison for deserters. In 1867, a Yellow Fever epidemic killed many prisoners. By 1888 the Army turned the fort over to the Marine Hospital Service to be operated as a quarantine station as the cost of maintaining it due to the effects of frequent hurricanes and tropical climate could no longer be justified. 

On January 4, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who visited the area by ship, designated the area as a National Monument, while in 1992 the Dry Tortugas, including Fort Jefferson, was established as a National Park. Today, tourists can reach the island by ferry or by chartered seaplanes and private yachts and tour the abandoned Fort Jefferson. 

SEE ALSO: More abandoned castles around the world // More abandoned islands // More abandoned prisons // More abandoned places in Florida // More abandoned places in the United States // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
For more deserted places, LIKE US on Facebook and FOLLOW US on twitter



(Click here for the full post)

Ron Yeany/flickr.com

Ron Yeany/flickr.com

John Park/flickr.com

Florida Memory/flickr.com

Alan Cressler/flickr.com

The mysterious dome houses in southwest Florida

View on Google Maps

Built in 1980 at Cape Romano, these dome constructions was a DIY project of retired oil producer Bob Lee. His family spent much of the 80's nside the self-sustaining and solar-powered homes but started visiting less after 1992 when hurricane Andrew caused damage in the area but not the dome houses themselves.

In 2005 the abandoned houses were purchased by John Tosto just before hurricane Wilma caused serious damage to the domes and washed away some of the coastline. Two years later the local authorities asked Tosto to remove the houses but his inaction resulted in hefty fines. 

Today the dome houses remain abandoned and completely reclaimed by the sea and only accessible by boat for locals and tourists to explore.

SEE ALSO: More abandoned houses around the world // More abandoned places in Florida // More abandoned places in the United States // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 
For more deserted places, LIKE US on Facebook and FOLLOW US on twitter



(Click here for the full post)

thestupidstation.com

Mila Bridger/messynessychic.com

messynessychic.com

Kristen Mancuso/facebook.com

Mila Bridger/facebook.com

An abandoned rocket manufacturing plant in Florida

Aerojet, a rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer, opened its Florida facility in 1963 anticipating that solid-fuel rockets would need to be constructed for NASA's upcoming Apollo moon missions. 

Inside the facility, a 150-feet (about 46 meters) deep silo was created to build and test the rockets, the deepest hole ever dug in Florida. Also, 'Aerojet canal', the largest and longest canal in Florida was built to connect the plant with the Atlantic Ocean and enable the transfer of the incredibly heavy rockets by barge.

In the end, NASA decided to use the liquid-fueled Saturn rockets for the Apollo missions, Aerojet never signed a contract and the facility had to be abandoned in 1969, only 6 years after its creation. The factory remains a destination for urban explorers until today. 

Source

SEE ALSO: More abandoned industrial sites around the world // More abandoned space exploration facilities // More abandoned places in Florida // More abandoned places in the United States // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES 

For more deserted places, LIKE US on Facebook and FOLLOW US on twitter

(Click here for the full post)

Naaman Fletcher/flickr.com

Naaman Fletcher/flickr.com

Naaman Fletcher/flickr.com

Naaman Fletcher/flickr.com

Naaman Fletcher/flickr.com