Many people visit Disney parks. Meet the People Who Explore the Abandoned: NPR

There’s something romantic, a little sad, and oddly thrilling about a failed theme park.

Growing up in Houston, the memory of the AstroWorld amusement park was like a ghost. The park officially closed a day before my 10th birthday in 2005, and it was quickly torn down to make way for a parking lot.

Brigit Benestante is responsible for internal communications at NPR.

Brigit Benestante

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Brigit Benestante

Brigit Benestante is responsible for internal communications at NPR.

Brigit Benestante

Something about the sight of abandoned and dilapidated theme parks was mesmerizing – and apparently I wasn’t alone.

It turns out there’s a whole community of people enthralled with defunct, abandoned, or retired theme parks and attractions around the world. This community is inextricably linked to the abandoned community at large – enthusiasts of abandoned structures of all kinds, including shuttered malls, shuttered Blockbusters, and crumbling Golden Age theaters.

My first encounter with this community dates back to 2014 when I discovered the YouTube channel Bright Sun Films, run by Ontario documentary filmmaker Jake Williams. Much of Williams’ content focuses on discontinued or canceled businesses, concepts, and yes, theme parks. This is where I first watched a video about Disney’s infamous abandoned water park, River Country.

River Country opened at Disney World in the 1970s as the world’s first fully themed water park. After its closure in 2001, the park lay abandoned for years. Dried-up pools, slides to nowhere, and themed attractions overtaken by the elements have appealed to urban explorers.

Although Disney did its best to keep people out, explorers and photographers found creative ways to break in, sharing photos that looked post-apocalyptic.

I was hooked.

Waterslides at the abandoned River Country Water Park.

Coreyjune12 via Wikimedia Commons

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Coreyjune12 via Wikimedia Commons

Waterslides at the abandoned River Country Water Park.

Coreyjune12 via Wikimedia Commons

I started watching other YouTube channels dedicated to amusement park failures, including Defunctland. Defunctland, created and hosted by Kevin Perjurer, features videos covering all aspects of defunct entertainment: old rides, hotels, parks, concepts and ticketing systems.

One of Perjurer’s most recent videos, Disney’s FastPass: A Complicated History, is over 90 minutes long and is truthfully one of the most thorough and comprehensive investigations I’ve ever seen. In fact, I forced a friend to watch it with me a second time.

Other Defunctland favorites include Perjurer’s tale of the rise and fall of the Nickelodeon Hotel in Orlando, the story of SeaWorld’s worst ride, and the demolition of Six Flags AstroWorld.

So what makes this content about abandoned structures so fascinating to so many people?

“For some it may represent the conclusion of their childhood, but for me, I think it’s the unprecedented and truly surreal sight of seeing something that has been enjoyed by so many people come apart,” Williams said of Bright Sun Films. “People will always have fond memories of these places, and the idea that they still exist in some tangible way – well, that’s a really powerful and poignant concept that I like to explore. Nostalgia, even for something that we may not even have experienced ourselves, is one of the strongest emotions.”

These autopsies of ancient parks remind me of a version of modern archaeology. Some of these parks leave behind massive structures that we can point to as reminders of what once was. Others have practically disappeared. The pedestrian bridge that I remember crossing every time I visit AstroWorld is one of the few surviving original structures.

I have vivid memories of crossing the bridge that connected the AstroWorld parking lot on one side of Houston’s South Loop freeway to the major attractions on the other side. I remember seeing the roller coaster and the flags in the distance as my heart raced.

There’s something so fascinating about exploring the life and demise of theme parks – the familiar taste of nostalgia, the fact that everything has an end, the ruthless rolling of capitalism, and the loss of beloved structures.

I can’t say what attracts me to these videos and discussions. I suspect it’s a proper way to say goodbye to something so many people once loved, as Williams said; a way of honoring the things that once brought joy to the crowds in the form of delighted shouts and fried treats.