Photos from a Post-Apocalyptic Disney World

It was a common thing to see in the countryside of Niagara, Ontario, where I grew up. A barn that used to house cattle would stop housing cattle, and would quickly begin to fall apart.

“An unused barn never holds together,” my dad used to tell me. I took these words as being completely true, because my dad said it.

There’s nothing too magical at work here, however; an unused barn is unlikely to be maintained and as such likely to fall apart. It’s true of most things humanity builds only to later neglect.

In Alan Weisman’s book A World Without Us (Barnes and Noble, Borders, BooksAMillion) he speculates what would happen to our modern structures without humans to maintain them. Bridges collapse quickly, weeds and creatures overtake houses in the suburbs and New York City is gone much quicker than you can imagine.

I’ve always wonder, however, what would happen to the most elaborately maintained place on earth, Walt Disney World, under such circumstances.

Thanks to how awesome the Internet is, we such an opportunity.

Someone leaked a series of photos onto a forum in late 2009, which document how now-closed Disney waterpark River Country looks after a decade of neglect. Pools are overtaken with green water, fake rocks are covered with real mold and an “Employee of the Month” plaque lies in a pile of trash. You should check them out.