Abandoned Discovery Island & Other Fantastic Sites of Imagination
As part of our Abandoned Places series, we featured many old amusement parks and former playgrounds that acquired that special haunting and quaint quality of decay through years of closure or sheer neglect. We covered abandoned theme parks in China, Japan and Korea... and we also touched on some dilapidated places of former amusement in America (see here) - but today we have something special for you.
(all photos courtesy Nomeus, the founder of Flurbex "The Home Of Florida's Urban Explorers")
Our guest today is Nomeus, veteran urban explorer and expert on abandoned places in Florida, the founder of Flurbex "The Home Of Florida's Urban Explorers" site. His contribution to our popular article Abandoned Houses of Super Villains was Osama Bin Laden brother's enormous residence in Florida. This time his urban exploring took him to rather more cheerful place, namely Walt Disney World.
Abandoned Discovery Island, 1974-1999
Located in the middle of Bay Lake, this island is off-limits to park visitors today (it was closed back in 1999, with the introduction of Animal Kingdom). This place has rich and varied history (it remained open for 25 years, and before that was used mostly for farming as far back as the early 1900s), features a rich botanical environment, a huge amount of birds and many animal exhibits. One of the island owners even lived on it with his pet crane (pet crane?... I gotta get one of these!).
Before Disney purchased the island in 1965, it was originally called Raz Island, then Isles Bay Island, then Riles Island (while used as a hunting retreat) and finally renamed Blackbeard's Island by Disney. It remained undeveloped until 1974, then converted into a pirate-themed Treasure Island attraction, and then again turned into the animal exhibit and zoological park in its "Discovery Island" incarnation.
Then, in 1989 the island encountered huge problem with... vultures. "According to Disney employees, the vultures attacked animals and defecated on a boardwalk. Investigators found a small metal shed with no windows, ventilation, water or perches... it was believed that as many as 72 vultures have been kept in the shed at once." (info) The island recovered from this public relation disaster, but slowly became a low-key attraction and was finally closed in 1999.
Discovery Island beckons in the dark of night:
This is the kind of back alley where pirates certainly can have the time of their lives:
Huge freezer holds some mysterious stuff and colorful drawing supplies:
Heading into the jungle (surrounded by macaws, rheas, tortoises, flamingos, pelicans, bald eagles, alligators, rabbits, miniature deer, toucans, cavy, hornbills, scarlet ibis, cockatoos, white peacocks, golden pheasants, Guinea fowl, cranes and swans... at one time Discovery Island featured over 140 species of animals and 250 species of tropical plants):
Discovery Island is now overgrown and overrun by vultures, resembling a wild jungle more than ever before:
Watch "Discovery Island: Vanished World of Disney" here. Also see another explorer's account of visiting this island, Shane Perez's trip. Shane also mentions that, as rumor has it, one possible reason why Disney closed the island was the presence of deadly brain-eating amoeba (Naegleria Fowleri) in the lake's water - not to mention ubiquitous alligators. Nomeus adds that it's the "River Country" (see below) that was possibly closed because of amoebas, not Discovery Island, as the island does not really feature access to water.
This is ImageWorks (1982-1998): an entire upstairs playground inside the Journey Into Imagination pavilion - a closed and partially dismantled cornucopia of various attractions for kids, including huge kaleidoscopes and vibrating mirrors, bubble projectors and rainbow corridors. Most of these attractions were user-controlled, with some capable of producing custom music, light shows and even blue screen effects:
Pop Century Resort Hotel
Similar to the Ghost Hotels in Egypt (see here), this sad-looking resort sits right in the middle of Walt Disney World, close to the Epcot Sphere... The hotel's construction was suspended after 9/11 events, but is scheduled to continue again.
The overall feel of this hotel is incredibly melancholy and sad... with the added bonus of strange art deco-style numbers (these were supposed to signify the Legendary Years of Pop Century):
Is this the Yellow Submarine? Really? -
River Country Waterpark
Here is another little-known abandoned corner of Disney with plenty of character:
Seems like it was a big attraction before:
Food Rocks!
This is actually an abandoned stage from the audio-animatronics show. Nomeus says, "Not many photos of this but it's kind of neat. This show was called Food Rocks and it was in the land pavilion. It's completely walled off and on the other side of the wall is the entrance for the ride called Soarin’. This show has been hidden from view for many years."
Disney EPCOT Tunnel
"Not many people know that EPCOT has a tunnel system. It's not as long as the one in the Magic Kingdom (see Magic Kingdom Tunnel images here)... but here it is. It runs under the park."
Abandoned Disney EPCOT Exhibit
"This used to be an AT&T exhibit that you would see as soon as you exited the Spaceship Earth ride. It was walled off out of the public view for quite some time."
A bizarre hand holding a "compass"... and a weird-looking hole in the cable tree, home to a good population of mice perhaps? -
(all photos courtesy Nomeus, the founder of Flurbex "The Home Of Florida's Urban Explorers", exclusively for Dark Roasted Blend)
As you can see, there are plenty of interesting sites inside Walt Disney World which are either waiting further development, or seemingly completely abandoned (enough material for Part 2? We'll see...). However, as with any urban exploration, we have to urge for caution when gaining access to closed-off areas: it could be a contentious issue.
One more thing: there's been some frustration with how Disney Company has handled its own legacy and older movies in recent years. Some well-known movies are given new life in re-issues and on Blu-Ray, but other vintage masterpieces are allowed to sink to obscurity. In particular, child movie stars of the 1950s and 1960s are not given the recognition they certainly still deserve (such as Hayley Mills, for example). We would like to see better exposure for retro Disney concept art, older parks and movies... and will keep featuring this treasure trove of material in the days to come here at DRB.
That hotel is actually currently under construction and its supposed to open next year as Disney's Art of Animation Resort. The ATT exit to Spaceship Earth was completely rebuilt and is now open, except it's now sponsored by Seimens.
I remember River Country. It was pretty cool. You could reach it by steam train from Fort Wilderness campground or by boat from the Contemporary and Polynesian Resort Hotels.
The mysterious metal racks in the freezers look a lot like the ones we use in the liquid nitrogen storage of our cell biology lab. And in the front you even see an open box with plastic 2 ml tubes for cell culture samples -yikes-
Makes me feel old when I can remember all those attractions when they were still open. Many fond memories of them. I was a resident of Florida some 20 years ago and I would often go to the park as a day trip.
That "yellow submarine" reminds me of the 20,000 leagues under the sea attraction. However, I am not sure if it is the same one.
I've definitely been/ experienced most of those attractions and I'm only in my mid-20's. Shame to see them closed. I understand the walking/ exploration sections, which never got much traction, but the Epcot exhibits were interesting and taught kids about physics and health.
Fascinating pictures. A few notes (and some have been mentioned):
Pop Century - The views of the Pop Century Resort are from what was to be the Legendary Years (1910s-1940s) part of the resort (on the west side of the lake). Construction was abandoned on the west side after the decline in tourism post 9/11. (The Classic Years [1950s-1990s on the east side] has been open since late 2003.) And as Chris & Andrew pointed out they are now completing the Art Of Animation Resort on the west side.
River Country - This was the original waterpark for the Disney resorts, well before Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon. It also closed in 2001.
AT&T Spaceship Earth Post Show - These pics were probably taken during the refurb in late 2004/early 2005 when sponsorship switched from AT&T to Seimens (again, as Chris & Andrew pointed out).
The big metal tree with the hole in it is from the old "new" (it wasn't the original) AT&T post-show of Spaceship Earth. The holes in tree were places you'd put your face into and it'd take your picture. You then backed up to view the shot on a screen above.
I wonder if some of these are formed when vugs fill with secondary minerals then get weathered out of volcanic deposits. The fact that some have the same general structure as geodes would indicate this.
For other formations - the Plan of Jars is interesting. And, of course the Race Track in Death Valley.
This is a fun post. I read about concretions when I was writing about the Red Rock Coulee boulders in Alberta and later the Moeraki concretions featured here. There were many reports of concretions found around the world and a humorous cartoon of a geologist with a concretion formed around his foot because he had been studying rocks in a river for too long. Thanks for asking me about my photo and I will be checking out more posts later.
In the documentary "Forbidden Archeology" you can see some mysterious stones found in African mines. They appear to be man-made, extremely hard to process/manipulate and last but not least: Carbon dated to 2 Billion years of age! http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_s-ghg93DCrQ/TVBhEvHL5HI/AAAAAAAACpc/3u5zsBI2AeM/s1600/sphere.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_s-ghg93DCrQ/TVBhEvHL5HI/AAAAAAAACpc/3u5zsBI2AeM/s1600/sphere.jpg
My links didn't come through, http://miscellaneous-pics.blogspot.com/2009/05/metal-spheres-found-in-2-million-year.html appearantly they are METAL, sorry about my previous post :-)
The second and fourth images after the olmec reference are concretions found in rock city park near minneapolis kansas. they seem to be geologically related to the so-called mushroom rocks a few miles southwest of these.
There is a tea house/restaurant on the bluff above the Moeraki boulders. Once when I was there they had a cutout from a newspaper article about the rocks with the headline 'The world has lost its marbles, and we know where they are'.
In July 2010, I was at a 3D photography convention in Huron Ohio. There were spherical stones used as landscaping around the resort. On doing some research, I think they are from the Huron Shale formation.
Nice post! Especially about the Mouraki boulders and the moqui balls. I think 'The devils marbles' in Australia are a nice addition to this list of phenomena:
Carbon dating is generally used for the range 200 to 40,000 years Before Present. Beyond that, there's not usually enough C-14 left for a reliable date.
Rocks on erosion pillars are an interesting phenomenon. Compressed rock generally is tougher and weathers more slowly. If a hard boulder is left on softer rock by erosion, the wind will wear away the softer - less compressed - rock faster, until only that directly under the boulder is left. Eventually, even that wears away, but in the meantime you have these sometimes quite large rocks on tall, spindly spires.
The "syphon" attributed to Robert Boyle couldn't be a syphon. Syphons work because the output is lower than the input, allowing the conversion of potential energy to kinetic.
I believe it was an attempt to use the fact that the weight of fluid in the wide part of the funnel is larger than in the thinner part, so (as the theory went) the fluid would be pushed round the loop.
Of course, this is nonsense, since the height of the fluid will equalise between the two arms.
A few years back, reading a 'Wired' mag in the bookstore, there was an article about some older guy who said he could make such a machine, and was experimenting on something that looked like a big ferris wheel, anyone know about that or what happened to it? Guessing it failed or he died since it has not become news, cheers
I'm the first to applaud a non-conformist building design, but lots of concepts these days seem to be all about being outlandish with zero regard to practical usability; much of the organic craze looks suspiciously like "just because we finally can build like that (and want to be as different as possible for the sake of being as different as possible)".
Anyway, my grand prize always goes to those "we'll need to build it using adamantium, but we'll surely have it by then" loonies. If it really works like that, I can has my teleport gates and warp drive now please (oh, and don't forget my flying car and robot servant)...?
Also, on a related note, it might not be quite such a good idea to quote Tesla in this day and age when he kinda seems to be remembered more for the lunacy of some of his ideas than the genius of those that he actually got right, especially those concerning "wireless power"...
Thank you Max, good comment; I want my teleport gates now too. But I am really excited by the idea of combining the skyscraper and the airship. Not practical? Maybe. But this was the dream of SF writers since the 1920s.
Goodness...all the naysayers need to relax and learn how to DREAM! Who knows...maybe we're heading into an age that will allow such marvelous things to actually happen!
While these are all great feats of engineering, personally I prefer architecture that is softer on the eye. Traveling to places that have old-world architecture is more my scene.
Nikola Tesla, much like Albert Eisntein, gave up when he realised that the world [or close associates] did with his ideas. We have no way of knowing whether his 'crazier' concepts would actually work - bearing in mind that no-one else managing to make them work is *not* evidence that they wouldn't.
As for the advanced materials required, there's this lovely stuff called graphine that could be ideal, if ways can be found to produce it cost effectively.
I admire creativity but in design terms prefer simple classical architecture, up to five floors, just nice and roomy with some quality local artisanship, accordant to the environment
I'd think the Floating structures would be possible if you could build them large enough (volume increases faster than surface area as you scale up, so you can use more of the surface areas of big baloons than small ones), I guess the difficulty with them is preventing a catastrophic failure.
The rest look more reasonable, although there might not be a lot of usable space in the lower levels.
And yeah, it's the inside of the building that really matters. A pretty outside is nice but there's not much point in building these if nobody's going to enjoy being inside them.
Yeah, this organic style literally makes me nauseous. It makes me think of the vital organs dripping out of some giant body in the sky. Horrid.
The straight edges and regular angles of midcentury modern designs give me a feeling of confidence and comfort, and make me think of a steady hand, working diligently with discipline to construct a rational environment.
Hi, the building in the image top right below this caption "The flowing shapes of this skyscraper remind us of the work of late Jan Kaplicky..." is actually the Selfridge's building, part of the Bullring complex in Birmingham, England. I walk past id daily! if you Google the images for Birmingham Selfridge's you'll see a few more interesting views of this modern architectural marvel.
The map projection is imposing, but distance is relative. I live in the Netherlands (on the map somewhere in Canada), which you can travel from north to south in about 3 hours. But when I travel in a plane for about 2 to 3 hours, I can be in a different country and even in another continent with a totally different culture if I want to. Holidays are real fun this way.
The part of the sculpture with the cat is from Tom Otterness "The Real World", Battery Park, New York. I don´t know it myself, but I know the "Überfrau" from him in my hometown very well and recognized the style. Three googles further and I found it on his website tomostudio.com.
Just watched on youtube american girls converted to islaam. And foto of muslim women with sewing machine on the head... Its like metaphor for me. Headless tool. So sad.
So how does it work? Does it detect the point where the line crosses over onto the clock face and sound an alarm at the appropriate time?
With such a small clock with only four numbers on it seems like it could be quite hard to get it accurate, I could easily imagine it being half an hour out.
I'm pretty sure that's Mad Professor, aka Neil Joseph Stephen Fraser, not Herbie Hancock. The album cover that is from is: http://www.ebreggae.com/Reggae/CD/563/Mad-Professor-Dub-Me-Crazy-5-Who-Knows-Secret-Of-The-Master-Tape.html
|
12 Comments:
The 'Yellow Submarine' is a replica of a toy Buck Rogers rocket. The Pop Century Resorts are full of large scale replicas of toys.
That hotel is actually currently under construction and its supposed to open next year as Disney's Art of Animation Resort. The ATT exit to Spaceship Earth was completely rebuilt and is now open, except it's now sponsored by Seimens.
I remember River Country. It was pretty cool. You could reach it by steam train from Fort Wilderness campground or by boat from the Contemporary and Polynesian Resort Hotels.
The mysterious metal racks in the freezers look a lot like the ones we use in the liquid nitrogen storage of our cell biology lab. And in the front you even see an open box with plastic 2 ml tubes for cell culture samples
-yikes-
Makes me feel old when I can remember all those attractions when they were still open. Many fond memories of them. I was a resident of Florida some 20 years ago and I would often go to the park as a day trip.
That "yellow submarine" reminds me of the 20,000 leagues under the sea attraction. However, I am not sure if it is the same one.
I guess it might be time to go back.
I've definitely been/ experienced most of those attractions and I'm only in my mid-20's. Shame to see them closed. I understand the walking/ exploration sections, which never got much traction, but the Epcot exhibits were interesting and taught kids about physics and health.
I remember many of these attractions when they were "alive". I'm sad we never actually went over to Discovery Island. Thanks for the memories!
could have swore it was a flash gordon rocket ship....
To Lenn's comment, that is a -80C freezer. Check the gaskets. Why would they have a -80?
Fascinating pictures. A few notes (and some have been mentioned):
Pop Century - The views of the Pop Century Resort are from what was to be the Legendary Years (1910s-1940s) part of the resort (on the west side of the lake). Construction was abandoned on the west side after the decline in tourism post 9/11. (The Classic Years [1950s-1990s on the east side] has been open since late 2003.) And as Chris & Andrew pointed out they are now completing the Art Of Animation Resort on the west side.
River Country - This was the original waterpark for the Disney resorts, well before Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon. It also closed in 2001.
AT&T Spaceship Earth Post Show - These pics were probably taken during the refurb in late 2004/early 2005 when sponsorship switched from AT&T to Seimens (again, as Chris & Andrew pointed out).
Thank you Nafa - great info, really appreciate
The big metal tree with the hole in it is from the old "new" (it wasn't the original) AT&T post-show of Spaceship Earth. The holes in tree were places you'd put your face into and it'd take your picture. You then backed up to view the shot on a screen above.
Post a Comment
<< Home