![]() The park always closed in autumn for US winter and reopened the following April, but in 2002 the company announced the park would not reopen. River Country's closure, and future.ĭespite these deaths, the park stayed open for more than a decade, opening for the final time in 2001. The claim could not be confirmed by Disney. Image: State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.Ī local newspaper, the Orlando Sentinel, reported at the time that the boy had been there with classmates and had somehow gone under in a large pool without any of the nearby lifeguards noticing.Ī witness also told the newspaper that the lifeguards incorrectly performed CPR, not allowing air to escape from his nostrils as they pushed it into his lungs through his mouth. Visitors at the River Country water park at Walt Disney World in 1977. ![]() The microscopic organism had somehow passed the park’s filtration system and swam up the boy’s nose as he was swimming, attacking his brain and nervous system.Īccording to a newspaper report at the time, three other children had already died of amoebic meningoencephalitis after swimming outside of the park in the area that month.Īnd that’s largely how Disney avoided blame for the death. However, in August 1980 the first of three tragedies struck.Īn 11-year-old boy died after contracting a rare infection caused by amoeba found in Florida freshwater. A theme that proved popular, bringing in crowds of thousands daily. It was the company’s first water park and themed as an old-fashioned swimming hole. The park opened in Bay Lake, Florida in the summer of 1976. ![]() Three deaths in the space of a decade at River Country And while 9/11 and declining numbers have been blamed for the park’s closure, three separate, tragic incidents in the 80s are believed to have played a role. Its flagship park, Disneyland, in Anaheim, California is affectionately referred to as “the happiest place on earth”.īut there’s one Disney theme park that – along with its shady past – has been completely forgotten.ĭisney’s ‘River Country’ water park closed its doors for good in 2001. The Walt Disney Company’s theme parks have the reputation for being some of the most detailed, popular and meticulously run in the world.
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