This abandoned Disney water park has been rotting for over 15 years

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This abandoned Disney water park has been rotting for over 15 years

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Seph Lawless

When Disney River Country opened in 1976, visitors flocked to Orange County, Florida to ride the winding slides and traverse the wooden bridges.

The park closed down 25 years later. After leaving the park empty and abandoned for 15 years, Disney finally drained and filled River Country's 330,000-gallon pool in 2016.

As the Orlando Sentinel reported, the Upstream Plunge pool filled it with cement, since standing water can attract mosquitoes — a growing concern due to the Zika virus. Disney said the work was not related to Zika, and doesn't have any plans to re-open the long-closed park, the rest of which is still decaying.

A Cleveland-based photographer who works under the pseudonym Seph Lawless documented the abandoned park in his photo series "Dismaland." (This is also the name of Banksy's 2015 art exhibition, a fake apocalyptic theme park near Bristol, England.)

Lawless captured ghostly portraits of the once-busy attraction. Take a look.

River Country in Orange County, Florida was Walt Disney World's first water park.

Seph Lawless

It is only one of two Disney parks, along with Discovery Island in Orange County, to close permanently. Both parks were left to deteriorate.

Seph Lawless

Lawless took about 150 photos of the decaying park, he tells Business Insider.

Seph Lawless

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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May 15, 2017 at 03:27AM