Abandoned

Disney’s River Country Water Park
On the shore of Bay Lake, Walt Disney World Florida

River Country, Disney World’s first water park, was opened on June 20, 1976. On Thursday, August 28, 1980 a sad story of a young boy’s death was reported in newspapers. A rare but deadly disease caused by an amoeba found in Florida’s fresh-water lakes took an 11 year old boy’s life after he spent his vacation at River Country. At this time, this boy was the fourth victim of this disease in Florida, but the only one linked to River Country. The disease attacks the nervous system and the brain. Officials reported in the article that Disney World was not to blame due to the fact that the amoeba can bread in any freshwater lake during hot weather. Photos and maps of River Country showed that the park had two bodies of water. The smaller one was chlorinated swimming pool water, and the larger half seemed to be a natural cove, connected to Bay Lake, Disney’s largest natural lake on property. There was never another disease related death in River Country due to Disney doing everything they possibly could to not have a repeat of the tragedy.

In the 1990’s, Disney banned all swimming in its lakes. The park closed at the end of the season, as it usually did, in 2001. When the time came in 2002 to reopen, it didn’t. It is said that the reasoning behind Disney’s decision to not reopen was due to a new Florida law prohibiting the use of natural water bodies and requiring chlorination in all water parks. River Country never reopened. 

Danvers State Hospital 
Danvers, Massachusetts 

Danvers State Hospital has been abandoned since 1992. During the 1920’s-30’s the hospital used controversial treatments such as shock therapy, various drugs, and frontal lobotomies. It may have even been the birthplace of the frontal lobotomy. 

In 2006, some structures were demolished and apartment buildings were built in its place; in April 2007, the buildings and several construction trailers went up in flames. Any efforts at renovation since then have been avoided.

Holy Land USA
Waterbury, Connecticut 

Holy Land USA was once an 18 acre Bible-themed park located in Waterbury, Connecticut. The park had about 40,000 visitors a year until it closed in 1984 for renovations. Holy Land USA never opened back up again due to the death of owner John Greco in 1986. It has been abandoned ever since. The abandoned acres of the theme park have been watched over by groups of nuns for decades, but the place keeps getting more and more creepy as the park continues to deteriorate. 

On top of the vandalism and eeriness the park gives off, a teenager was murdered on these abandoned grounds in 2010. Since then police records have shown that the amount of trespassers have been decreasing which just means abandoned Holy Land USA is as creepy and deserted as ever.

Old Los Angeles Zoo, Griffith Park LA, CA

The Old Los Angeles Zoo was opened in 1913. It was doomed from the start. There was simply not enough money to build cages, so most animals were kept in stockades. In 1916 the lions had to be put down because they all had a contagious disease (this was diagnosed by the Health department because the zoo didn’t have a vet of it’s own). Then the Health Department tried to shut it down because it’s sewage was draining into the LA River. WWI called for rations so the zoo was no longer allowed to feed its carnivores meat. The zoo officials tried to substitute horse meat instead of beef, but most of the animals grew sick and died. The zoo was eventually shut down. (Another zoo was opened nearby some time later). 

The zoo has been a scene of several movies including Anchorman. 

sources:

http://laist.com/2012/06/19/photos_exploring_the_eerie_old_la_z.php#photo-1

http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/zoo.html

North Brother Island, East River NY

North Brother Island wasn’t discovered until the 1850s when a smallpox hospital was opened there to isolate those with the disease. The hospital eventually expanded to housing other victims of contagious diseases and eventually housed the notorious Typhoid Mary. The hospital closed around 1938ish. 

In the 1950s the island was reopened to be a drug rehabilitation center. The treatment was to lock addicts in a room until they were clean. This closed down in the 1960s. 

There was also a shipwreck of General Slocum, a steamship that caught on fire. 1,000 people either died from the fire or drown. A picture above shows dead bodies washing ashore.

The island is now a bird sanctuary and is off limits to the public. 

sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Brother_Island,_East_River

http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blogland/2011/nov/15/how-get-north-brother-island/

Gary City Methodist Church

Six Flags in New Orleans post Hurricane Katrina 

Nara Dreamland
Nara, Japan 

Disneyland opened in 1955 and was talked about all around the world. Some people visited Disneyland, and other people built their own. Nara Dreamland was built in 1961 and was, in a lot of ways, a straight up copy of Disneyland. The maps of both parks were pretty much identical with the entrance, monorail, jungle cruise, and main street. In 1982, Disneyland finally opened in Tokyo and caused a slow and long decline for Nara Dreamland. What really killed Dreamland was when Universal Studios opened up in Osaka in 2001. Nara Dreamland permanently closed in 2006.

Plymouth, Montserrat 

On July 18, 1995, Soufriere Hills Volcano erupted and destroyed the town of Plymouth in Montserrat. Plymouth, once the capital of Montserrat, was covered in about 40 feet (12 meters) of mud which deemed the southern half of the island unlivable. in 1997, another eruption took place and killed 19 people. It has been an exclusion zone ever since and no residents have ever returned.

Alquife Mines, Spain

Abandoned houses in Detroit, Michigan 

(Source: google.com)

Traverse City State Hospital
Traverse City, Michigan

 Transverse City State Hospital for the insane opened in 1885 and closed in 1989.

Tugboat Graveyard
Staten Island, New York

Tugboats have long been referred to as tough, powerful vessels of nautical hope. Not the ones in this abandoned, neglected port known as Tugboat Graveyard. It is located in New York City’s Staten Island and is filled with rusting hulks, rescue vessels, tugboats, old ferries, and more each sinking since the 20th century. 

(Source: creepyabandonedplaces)

Marlboro Hospital in New Jersey

Opened in 1931, many patients were abused and mistreated:

• At least four patients died of food poisoning
• A woman disappeared (48 hours before the hospital noticed) and was found outside- she froze to death
• A woman with an eating disorder was denied liquid food and forced to eat a sandwich upon which she choked and died
• A woman had a sodium deficiency (which was noted by the nurses) but nothing was done and 6 weeks later she died of brain swelling
• A man was strapped to a bed for 80 hours (which is about 5 days) and he died from the blood clots caused by the restraints

The hospital was closed in 1998 and in 2011 the hospital was supposedly supposed to be used for recreational use- but it still lays abandoned!

(Source: creepyabandonedplaces)