Creepiest Abandoned Theme Parks Around the World

[Music] [Music] preppy at amusement park Chernobyl Ukraine destruction desolation and death was what the worst nuclear accident in the history of the world left behind in the first hours of April 26 1986 tests were being carried out on the reactor number four of the VI Lenin memorial turn Obul nuclear power station to demonstrate that the plant could continue working even if it had lost all the energy because the backup generators would be able to restore the energy but due to a bad design in the reactor and the ignorance and arrogance of the technicians the reactor overheated causing it to go off and consequently destroying the roof of the building this resulted in massive amounts of radioactive waste being scattered in the atmosphere and nearby areas the disaster was listed as a category 7 disaster to give you an idea of how terrible it was the nuclear explosion from Chernobyl was a hundred times more disastrous than the nuclear explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki it has been calculated that given plutonium's half-life of 24,000 a hundred years that it will be a very long time before the area's fit for the general population again it is also worth noting that due to wind patterns at the time of the accident and other environmental factors not all areas of the 30 kilometer zone are polluted some of these areas are considered low-risk and often visited by explorers this is the case of what is probably one of the most famous abandoned amusement parks in the world Pripyat amusement park was planned to be open on may 1st 1986 for the May Day celebrations but sadly because of this disaster its grand opening never aybe this park had four attractions bumper cars swing boat swing carousel attractions and a ferris wheel this last one became a symbol of the Chernobyl tragedy as a years past for a long time it was believed that this park was never able to be open to guests but it was discovered recently that it actually opened after the disaster as we said before the parks opening was scheduled for May 1st but when the disaster happened on April 26 the government opened the park that's right the park was operational during the first 36 hours of the accident this was because the townspeople appropiate were completely oblivious to what had just happened this was of course very wrong and irresponsible but many theories say that this was because a government wanted to distract residents so they wouldn't know how tragic this accident really had been when information about the seriousness of the accident came to life a sudden evacuation of the town was ordered in the town and of course the amusement park were abandoned initially it was decided that the evacuation would last for three days but it was then made permanent later radiation levels around the park vary greatly for the most part liquid airs did an effective job of washing most of the radiation into the soil so the concreted areas are relatively safe this park is considered to be somewhat risk-free but one of the most polluted areas around this parks and town is a moss patch near the bumper cars the atmosphere around the park is terrifying the place is utterly desolate and except for the wind and occasionally some birds here and there there is almost no sound at all the rusty abandoned structures in the simple fact of knowing the large number of people affected by this tragedy makes this park one of the most tragic and sad places in the world Western village [Music] ken'ichi Oh Minami is a clear example that the most important thing in life is not to make money but to make your dreams come true and that is why Oh Minami created Western village in 1970 as a family ranch where guests could go horse riding lasso practice go fishing in a fish pond and many more activities all in the style of the Old West over time the park started to grow they acquired more horses built more attractions and hired more staff including performers for live shows the park was an instant success bringing 1 million guests per year but omean Ami's ambition was immense and he wanted more so he decided to expand the park so in 1995 he wanted to bring the beautiful landscapes of South Dakota into the park after watching the film dancing with Wolves to do this he decided to create a 1/3 scale replica of Mount Rushmore that costs 27 million dollars he also added animatronics to the attractions there was a John Wayne animatronic a canteen full of robotic cowboys and a haunted house that included a grim reaper dressed as a dentist a train system and a Mexico themed land were also added in 2007 the park grew but so did its debts and with the opening of Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea fewer and fewer people were visiting the parks so Western Village declared bankruptcy and had to close now the park is completely abandoned inside the cantina the robots remain rotting away with the pass of time John Wayne's animatronic is still at the park but it is practically destroyed now the thought of entering a haunted house attraction is scary itself now imagine entering an abandoned one inside you can find many creepy mannequins and props and even a creepy lady half buried in stone the interior of the Mount Rushmore replica is also completely abandoned dark and terrifying on the first floor of the room there are several teddy bears in various poses and disguises interacting with props some of them are in good condition others not so lucky then on the next floor is what used to be called the people's Game Center but sadly there were no games left just a lot of dark empty spaces and then on the top floor we can find a diorama of sad-looking Indians and the best part in the dark an Abraham Lincoln animatronic statue of course it's now powered and probably it was switched off the last time mid speech because as JA seems to be forever half-open there is also a small-sized model of Mount Rushmore several flags maps in the history of many states the Mexico area was also left to rot the train system is completely covered in grass and the two locomotives are rusted the part that was supposed to be a cowboy town became a ghost town and there are no plans to restore it Disney's River Country Bay Lake Florida Disney's River Country was the first water park at Walt Disney World it opened on June 20th 1976 positioned on the shore of a lake near Discovery Island the park featured a rustic wilderness themed complete with rocks and human-made boulders it was described as an old-fashioned swimming hole with a twist of Huckleberry Finn and just as Disneyland had reinvented the amusement park 21 years earlier River Country we invented aquatic recreation the park featured a sandy bottom an unique water filtering system using confluent water from the Jason Bay Lake which was dammed off creating a natural looking artificial Lagoon the park's water was at a higher level than the lakes which was an effort to prevent lake water from going into the park the Disney designers created miniature mountains for the waterslide since Florida has no mountains to offer Bay Cove the swimming hole was actually part of Bay Lake and helped 330 thousand gallons of water the popularity of River Country convinced Disney executives to build Typhoon Lagoon some years later to be followed by Blizzard Beach River Country used to close down seasonally and at the end of its 2001 season it closed just as it always did but when it was time for it to reopen for the 2002 season the parks didn't there are many rumors and half-truths about why the park closed down some people say that it was because of the death of an 11-year old boy that contracted a brain-eating ameba inside the park but is this true yes and no did a boy died from a brain eating amoeba that he caught sadly yes but that was back in 1980 and not only to the park not close but it also stayed open for another 21 years why didn't the park closed well the amoeba can breed in almost any freshwater lake during hot weather so the park was not technically to blame and Disney officials said there wasn't much they could do some said that River Country had to close when Florida law changed to require water parks to use water from municipal water systems not from natural bodies of water but this claim is also false there were also two drownings in the park but the park didn't close because of these accidents either the real reason why the park closed down is that attendance levels were too low although River Country was the first water park at Walt Disney World it had been joined by two newer larger ones Disney's Typhoon Lagoon which opened in 1989 and Disney's Blizzard Beach in 1995 the new parks offered far more slides relaxing lazy rivers with clever things to see along the way fully developed themes and much greater capacity on top of that they offer convenient parking and bus transportation unlike the awkwardly located River Country instead of being demolished River Country was allowed to deteriorate for many years the result is a fascinating study of how quickly nature can reclaim the Disney built attraction sections of River Country were visible from boats traveling along Bay Lake aerial photos offer an overall view and some people even snuck into the park the park was abandoned since 2001 but on March 5th 2018 Disney fouled permits for a new mystery development labeled project 89 to be built along Bay Lake and over the former River Country site and on May 31st 2018 it was confirmed that a new Resort Hotel is going to be built where River Country used to be most of the remaining structures at the park including the remnants of the upstream plunge pool were demolished on April 20th 2019 to make way for the development of the new hotel Nora dreamland nor Japan judging Nara dreamland as a cheap knockoff or ripoff of Disneyland is not only incorrect but very unfair and cruel since that stains a vision and dreams of creator Quincy omatsu the story of Nara dreamland is much more complicated than it seems thanks for the fact that there are several versions that try to explain happened one version says that Kunti omatsu creator of Nara dreamland cynically copied Disneyland after visiting the park and decided to take it to Japan this version is a hundred percent false there are other versions that say that Koon CEO Matt Sewell presented the project to Disney and Disney was on board supposedly the two plane to bring Disneyland to Nara and worked hard to build the park but in the end the deal fell apart after Disney changed some things they had agreed on about the licensing of the characters this is also not exactly true the story is a lot more complicated in the late 1950s khun zo Matsuo owner and president of the Mosuo entertainment company visited Disneyland on one of his business trips as soon as he entered Disneyland he fell in love with the place and felt inspired to bring a Disneyland to Japan's former capital Nara he met with Walt to discuss the idea of bringing Disneyland to Japan Walt was not interested at first with the idea of opening a Disney park in Japan so he just told Matsuo that when the time came to do it the company would help him out but what was really left struck by mitsuo's enthusiasm when he visited again and brought along engineers to tell him about the project so he agreed to give masuo his know-how associated with managing an amusement park for free and even sent some of his engineers to the construction site his intention was never to create a Disneyland in Japan but helped the Japanese themselves build an amusement park that was unique to Japan using these resources the company explicitly designed this theme park and modeled it after Disneyland under the hopes that Disney would eventually license naming and character rights to them but that day never came apparently when the park was finished Matua asked for the licensing thinking that because the park was done Disney would give it to them but Disney refused because it was never there planned to give the rice to masuo so matul entertainment rebranded its park to Nara dreamland and proceeded with plans to open its doors they released a statement that said that licensing fees were the reason the Disneyland deal was scrapped while dizzy refused to make any official comment some people say that masuo decided to then pay for Disney's previous help and advice but no one knows for sure on July 1st 1961 Nara dreamland was open to the public because Metro entertainment marveled the park after Disneyland the two parks had many similarities like a type of Main Street and the familiar Sleeping Beauty Castle it also had a Matterhorn type mountain with a Skyway running through it as well as an Autopia type ride Anna monorail de park also had its own mascots Ron Chan and dirty Chan two children dressed his bare skin guards it was divided into five areas Linda the future land of illusion land of adventure land of the pass and Main Street Nara dreamland was really popular when it opened because it was the closest thing to Disneyland in Japan at its peak the park had 1.6 million visitors a year and everything was going great until in 1979 when the oriental land company started talking with the Walt Disney Company to create a Disney theme park in Tokyo Tokyo Disneyland opened in 1983 and this resulted in a massive reduction of guests for Nara dreamland since people were interested in going to an official Disney park this marked the beginning of the downfall for dreamland with attendance numbers dropping to around a million visitors a year then the Mosuo entertainment company including Nara dreamland was brought by the supermarket chain DYI in 1993 the opening of Tokyo Disneyland would not be the only blow that Nara dreamland would receive because in 2001 Tokyo DisneySea opened its doors along with Universal Studios Japan after those two parks open Dreamlands attendance numbers worsened plummeting to 400,000 visitors a year in 2004 the park began to decline in quality some stores closed down and some attractions started to rust and on August 31st 2006 the park sadly closed its doors after 45 years of operation when the park was closed the owners didn't bother to clean anything up they simply left it as it is after 8 years the abandoned Park became an attraction in its own right people began trespassing into the property in order to visit it this resulted in the park being vandalized and props getting stolen and moved around in 2013 the city auctioned off this site no applications for acquisition were received in November 2015 the city put up the property for an auction again a Japanese newspaper reported that sk housing a real estate company offered 7.3 million on october 16 2016 sk housing began the process of demolishing everything that was on the site demolition was completed on December 21st 2017 during the process 30 rides in 75 buildings including multi-story garage we're disposed of the area is now considered to be a picturesque place development of the area is regulated so only medical facilities social security institutions schools and sports grounds can be built there Nara dreamland is a literal representation of how dreams can become nightmares Land of Oz North Carolina in the silent peaceful wilderness of beech Mountain North Carolina we can find Land of Oz this park has one of the most tragic stories of abandon parks the story of this park goes back to 1965 when brothers Harry and Grover Robbins decided to turn the beach mountain ski resort into a theme park based on odds that could be visited year-round Grover Robbins hired designer Jack pentas to be able to bring to life his vision of the park Robbins had a lot of experience and had been successful in creating amusement parks and a clear example is tweetsie Railroad that is still in operation unfortunately Lena Vaz did not have the same destiny as tweetsie Railroad and ended up having a tragic history the first blow to the park was the unfortunate death of Grover Robbins this hit the creative team very hard because they were very close but still the park opened on June 15th 1972 all the expected fanfare Debbie Reynolds cut the ribbon along with her daughter Carrie Fisher and thousands of visitors made their way into the park where they could ride in a hot-air balloon go up the mountain or see a show in the Emerald City the park allowed guests to experience their own oz story they were stuck inside Dorothy's house in the tornado walked a yellow brick road made up of 44,000 glazed yellow bricks and even visited the inhabitants of the land Emerald City consisted of many shops in an amphitheater which had a show every half-hour the park also had a museum with original movie props including an original Dorothy dress worn by Judy Garland with all of this the parks opening was a success and had attracted more than 400,000 guests but then in 1975 a mysterious fire destroyed Emerald City the amphitheater and many of the shops were completely gone along with the park offices costumed sound equipment and props while the fire was going on the parks museum was sacked items were stolen and Dorothy's dress was gone people say that this was caused by disgruntled employees but no one knows for sure after this incident Lena Voss was taken over by a new administration but it's sadly never recovered and it closed in 1985 the park was abandoned vandalized sacked and left to rot for a while thankfully many parts of the park were saved like the yellow brick road many buildings and most of the costumes then in 1990 emerald mountain Realty bought the area so they could develop a condo complex on July 4th 1991 the park was reopened for the day as part of the town of beech mountains Independence Day celebration and as a kickoff for the redevelopment to the property and it didn't open again until 1994 when an event called automat us was created this event started as reunion for the original parks employees but it became so popular that it was turned into an annual public event by 2009 over 8,500 people were attending each year the event has been expanded to include all of the characters from The Wizard of Oz shows Museum Emerald City set up Omaha vendor fair petting zoo pony rides and other activities within the AA steam and the money raised during this event goes back into the renovations and upkeep for the park and of course to add new attractions every year in 2013 the park added another annual event called journey with Dorothy during this event Dorothy guides guests through the land while recreating the story of how she found the Wizard and while the park remains closed the rest of the year it is not technically abandoned the owners have had many problems with urban explorers that think it is they have reported many cases of robbery and even vandalism especially during Halloween time back in 2013 they had a hundred sixty three cases of trespassers alone they broke into the buildings they were stealing the bricks and that's what a lot of people who tell me that break-in well I thought it was abandoned and I explained if you go online and you look us up you will find our website or phone and our social media accounts to get a hold of us and visit it appropriately these annual events keep this Park alive and prove that the park found its place somewhere over the rainbow you

Channel: Fastpass Facts

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Keywords: fastpass facts, theme park, facts, secrets, tips, history, Disney, disneyland, disney world, unbuilt, rides, attractions, vintage, on ride, abandoned, abandoned theme parks, nara dreamland, western village, land of oz, Disney’s River Country, Pripyat Amusement Park, Chernobyl, abandoned by disney, Pripyat, creepy theme parks, abandoned amusement park

Id: OvvS85831sY

Length: 19min 40sec (1180 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 01 2020