Showing posts with label theme park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theme park. Show all posts

Monday, November 20, 2017

The abandoned 'Western Village' theme park in Japan



Western Village or Western Mura (ウェスタン村) was an American west themed amusement park which opened in the early 1970's at Nikko, in Japan's Tochigi prefecture, a couple of hours away from Tokyo. 

Its first name was Kinugawa Family Ranch and it was run as a family business. At first it was basically an American west style ranch with a few horses and a fishing pond. Over the years though, it kept expanding to include more buildings such as a sheriffs office, a barber shop, a bank, a hotel and many other buildings. 

In the late 1970's it was named 'Western Village' and it kept expanding. It now had ghost houses, amusement arcades, a restaurant and even a replica of Rushmore mountain was added during the 1990's. Staff would dress up as cowboys and put on shows for visitors.

Western World finally closed in 2006. For the next several years the park remained abandoned attracting mainly lovers of haikyo - the Japanese word for abandoned places.




Monday, November 13, 2017

Inside an abandoned 'Disneyland' in the Philippines


It was supposed to bring some of the 'Disneyland' magic in the Philippines but it's construction was never completed and today it sits abandoned. Fantasy World is a theme park located in Lemery, in the province of Batangas, Philippines. 

Owned by a Japanese businessman, construction started in 2001. His plans were very ambitious. A large theme park, the largest in the Philippines, modeled after Disneyland with a medieval castle and a large central fountain. 

Construction was never finished due to financial reasons and the park never officially opened. However, the homeowners association maintains and cleans the abandoned park and visitors can enter inside and look around for a fee. 





Monday, October 30, 2017

A forgotten Flintstones theme park in Arizona


Back in the 1970's and 1980's there are many Flintstones-inspired theme parks around the US. The last one remaining is a forgotten and derelict theme park in Arizona. 

Located at the corner of Arizona State Route 64 and U.S. Route 180, Bedrock City is mainly visited by tourists who are on their way to Grand Canyon, some 30 miles away. It opened in 1972 after its owner found success with a similar theme park in South Dakota, that one near Mount Rushmore

The park has licensed the likenesses of the Flintstones characters, and features statues, rides, a diner and a gift shop based on that theme. 

In 2015 it was reported that the park's owner wanted to retire and was looking to sell the park for $2 million. On the same year the South Dakota location shut down as well.




Monday, April 10, 2017

The abandoned Disney's River Country theme park in Florida


Disney's River Country opened on June 20, 1976  and it was the first water park at Walt Disney World in Florida. Positioned on the shore of Bay Lake, it featured a rustic wilderness theme, complete with rocks and man-made boulders. Using a unique water filtering system and a a half-acre (2,000 m²) sandy bottom,the park featured a natural-looking man-made lagoon. 

During the 80's, Disney's River Country was struck by 3 tragedies. In 1980, an 11-year-old boy was killed by a deadly infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba which is found in warm bodies of fresh water. Then, in 1982 and in 1989 there were two drownings. However, and despite the competition by Disney's two newer and larger parks, Disney's Typhoon Lagoon and Disney's Blizzard Beach, visitor numbers didn't suffer. 

As it did every year, the park closed at the end of the warm-weather season in November 2001, with the expectation that it would reopen in spring of 2002. However, after the September 11 attacks, there was a decline in business across Disney World, with many parks cutting back their hours and many events being cancelled. In April 2002 Walt Disney World announced that River Country might reopen if there is enough demand. Soon, the park fell into disrepair and in 2005 Disney announced that the park will never reopen. It is only the second Disney park to shut down (the other is Discovery Island, which similarly was left to deteriorate rather than be demolished.




SEE ALSO: More abandoned amusement parks and abandoned theme parks around the world // More abandoned places in California // More abandoned places in the United States // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES
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Monday, December 19, 2016

An abandoned Christmas theme park in Southern California



Santa's Village was a Christmas-themed amusement park that opened its doors in 1955, just 6 weeks before the first Disneyland. Built in the Skyforest section of Lake Arrowhead, it gave Southern California residents a chance to get a glimpse of a 'white Christmas' that would normally be very rare to experience. 

Santa's Village boasted kiddie rides, including a bobsled, monorail, and Ferris wheel; a petting zoo; live reindeer; and shops that included a bakery, candy kitchen, and toy shop. Quickly, the 220-acre (0.89 km²) theme park became one of Southern California's biggest tourist attractions and its owner, developer Glenn Holland, turned it into a franchise, building two similar parks in Scotts Valley, California and East Dundee, Illinois (the East Dundee park reopened in 2011 under new ownership as Santa's Village AZoosment Park).

As years went by, competition became tougher and the park saw reduced attendance and revenue shortfalls. In the late 1970's the park went bankrupt. The Henck Family which owned the land took it over, expanded it and run it until it closed down on March 1, 1998. Three years later the park was sold for $5.6 million, and served as a staging area for local logging operations. The rides remained abandoned forming a ghost town along the Rim of the World Highway. The property was sold again in June 2014 to an owner who plans to operate it as a year-round tourist destination called SkyPark at Santa's Village. The new park opened on December 2, 2016. 



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Thursday, November 3, 2016

The abandoned 'El Caballo Blanco' theme park of Sydney



'El Caballo Blanco' (The White Horse) was a Spanish-inspired amusement park, which opened in 1974 in the Catherine Field suburb, south-west of Sydney, Australia. The park was opened by Western Australian business entrepreneur Ray Williams who had brought the first Spanish horses in Australia a few years earlier. 

El Caballo Blanco's main attraction was its Andalusian dancing stallions, but the park also featured miniature Falabella miniature horses, and a number of non-equestrian related amusements such as waterslides, train rides, and a small wildlife zoo.

After the park shut down in 1999, the site was partly used to store items such as carpets, until a fire engulfed much of the building housing the main show arena. In 2015, demolition of the remaining buildings and attractions commenced to make way for a residential development.





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Monday, August 29, 2016

Inside Michael Jackson's abandoned Neverland Ranch



Neverland Valley Ranch in Los Olivos, California, was Michael Jackson's home for 17 years. The King of Pop fell in love with the ranch when he first visited it while Paul McCartney was staying there back in the 80's. He later purchased it in 1988 for a sum variously reported to be 16.5 to 30 million US dollars. 

Inside the 3,000 acres ranch, named by Michael Jackson after the fantasy island in the story of Peter Pan, the King of Pop built a private amusement park, two railroads, and a zoo. The amusement park featured a Ferris wheel, Carousel, Zipper, Octopus, Pirate Ship, Wave Swinger, Super Slide, roller coaster, bumper cars, and an amusement arcade. Inside his mansion, Michael Jackson displayed his extensive art collection. The master closet also contained a secret safe room for security. 

When in 2003 Michael Jackson was charged with multiple counts of molesting a minor (charges were later dropped), the Neverland Ranch was searched multiple times by police. As a result, Jackson stated he would never live at the property again as he no longer considered the ranch a home. By 2006, the facilities were closed and most of the staff were dismissed.

In 2007, foreclosure proceedings commenced against Neverland Ranch, however Michael Jackson remained the majority stake holder of the property. Until his death in 2009, the King of Pop came close to losing ownership of the ranch multiple times due to debt. 

After Michael Jackson's death, the Neverland ranch has remained closed and has fallen into disrepair. The state of California was interested at some point to buy the ranch but those plans fell through. Today, the ranch is being sold for an asking price of 100 million dollars.





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