River Country Exploration

[Robo]

Some pics from our family vacations in 1978 and 1981:

Also 1978, me (in fashionable bathing cap), Dad & Brian (shivering) in the shallow section (I loved that slide built into the rocks on the left).
(I have no idea who the little boy grabbing my arm is. He followed me around all day. Must have been the bathing cap. )

I color-corrected this photo for age and type of film used.

As was pointed out, there is a Hidden Mickey (of sorts) in the clouds.

 

[TiggerandBelleFanMom]

Sometimes in my most pessimistic decline-of-the-dollar, decline-of-the-American-Empire moments, I worry that someday all of WDW will be like that. But hopefully nothing like that will happen in our lifetimes.


I do wonder what future civilizations thousands of years from now will think when they come across the artifacts of our culture. Will they wonder whether Mickey was a god? Will our documents survive and be decipherable to them?

 

[Missus Toad]

It does make my heart hurt a little to see River Country in this state. It was my favorite place in the world when I was a kid. Someone mentioned how happy everyone seemed in the vid, and yes, that place brought out so much joy and relaxation. I always felt that everyone there was at a big family picnic at a lake somewhere. Maybe because of the community spirit and low tech, DIY aspect of so many of the "attractions". There were always random moms and dads helping out kids that weren't their own on the zip lines or the boom swing, or grabbing rafts for them or looking out for them on Slippery Slide Falls. People were there to have fun and it felt like we were all in it together.

In 2003 or so, I went to have a look at the place and I was able to because they didn't have the huge fences up that they do today. It was already in disrepair, but the creepier thing was that there was a huge flock of buzzards that had descended on the place. I'm not talking a few here and there, but seriously, they were everywhere. It looked like something out of the Hitchcock movie The Birds. Chilling.

I went back last year to try and check it out again-- my husband was interested in what became of it, and I was wondering if the buzzards would be there again-- but no dice. That fence really blocks out the view. You can move around in the entrance of the park and go through the turnstile area but you can't see the park anymore from land. I'd look into a boat if you're really interested.

I don't know if I'll try again, it bums me out too much.

 

[Rinderoo]

Did anyone notice there are no chubby people in any of the old videos of River Country?

 

[Erin1700]

What will they do with that area now?

 

[saquin]

I color-corrected this photo for age and type of film used.

Hey, thanks for doing that, Robo! It looks awesome! (My fashionable bathing cap is even more vivid!)
Can I send you all my old photo albums to correct?

Seriously, how do you do that? Photoshop? Is it complicated? Maybe I'll try to give it a shot on some of my old photos.