When Nature Takes Over

Regrowth in abandoned landscapes tends to follow the same pattern. Some hardy herbaceous plants (which many of us call weeds) move in first, then larger, woodier species follow. I wonder how long it will take Mother Nature to restore this park to a state that looks like it didn't exist?

Mr. Best in Show and I live on a small lake in upstate New York, on a heavily wooded hillside. Several years ago we met a woman who grew up in the neighborhood; she told us that most of the trees we have now didn't exist even 60 years ago. We've since seen pictures from the local historical society and sure enough, our back acreage was pretty bald at the turn of the 20th century. And we've got plenty of aggressive non-native species that have colonized, like Japanese barberry and (ugh) garlic mustard.

That's no surprise to me. I lived in Florida for 20 years. When I was in grad school I once had to work on a radio telescope antenna that hadn't been used in 3 years. When I went to the site I found that a 4 inch diameter tree had grown up through the mesh in the middle of the dish.

It's a jungle out there.

There was a book written about that...

http://www.worldwithoutus.com/index2.html

There was also a TV series. I watched a few episodes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_After_People

Great set for an adventure film.

"As it did every year, River Country closed at the end of the warm-weather season (the park closed on November 2, 2001), with the expectation that the water park would reopen in the spring of 2002. But after the 9/11 attacks, the decline in business for all Disney parks and hotels prompted Disney to halt the reopening of River Country. On April 11, 2002, the Orlando Sentinel reported, "Walt Disney World's first water park, River Country, has closed and may not reopen." The report concluded with this line: "Disney World spokesman Bill Warren said that River Country could be reopened if 'there's enough guest demand.'"^[7] The attraction may also have been affected by a change in Florida laws, which prohibited unchlorinated natural water bodies from being used for water park attractions.^[8] River Country never reopened and remains abandoned as a forgotten Disney relic as of today. Disney employees monitor the area for trespassers.^[9]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney%27s_River_Country

You could make a great field archery course there... moving target on the old waterwheel

Del

A possible set for a new Disney movie.....

Well this park was modeled on the descriptions of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer themed natural 'swimmin hole', and as such was in a natural setting, the overgrown appearance is intentional by design...perhaps a bit more so now....

life imitating art imitating life imitating art imitating....

Reminiscent of the Jazzland theme park in New Orleans, destroyed and abandoned after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Apparently the property was just right for the filming of Jurassic World.

I worked in quarrying for 25 years. Enough time to watch nature taking back sections we had abandoned. Slurry ponds take time to recover, there was elation when the local nature conservancy group informed us they had found a supposedly extinct orchid growing on the banks. It put paid to our ideas of recovering the slurry for cement making.

Later I worked in steel making. An abandoned canal ran about 50m from our workshop, it was a haven for herons, kingfishers, swans, etc.
I did get in trouble with the local angling club. We needed to refill a 250,000 gallon tank in a hurry and so started all the canal pumps, pity I forgot to open the reservoir sluice gates to keep the level up.

Some of that was creepy (naturally so) enough one expected that plasmodium projecting protozoan to be lurking behind every tree, only to blob out and translocate to the nearest victim at any second.

That's one heck of a beautiful, albeit deserted(or because of!!) theme park.

How about fencing in the whole area and dumping truckloads of white tail deers, coupla cattle....... and beavers ??!

Possible to buy over that place ?