Being a Disney fan it is disappointing to write about one of Walt Disney’s popular parts, Discovery Island, which is now an abandoned place. Once a popular attraction of Walt Disney, located in the city of Bay Lake, Florida, today Discovery Island is a private Island. Earlier Disney’s Discovery Island was a famous observatory for exotic birds and animals. It was it peaks when the park was running successfully but due to some unwanted reason, that occurred the park get closed forever.

Origin of Disney’s Discovery Island

The Island was earlier known as Raz Island, it was named after the family who used to live there. Later in 1930, they sold the island for $800 to a man named Delmar ”Radio Nick” Nicholson. Succeeding Nicholson change the name of the Island to “Idle Bay Isle”. He lived there for 20 years with his family. In 1965 Disney bought this island and made it a part of the Walt Disney World Record. And in 1974 the island started as Treasure Island on April 8. The name Discovery Island was given when the island was recognized as a zoological park.

The island was the home for the last  Dusky Seaside Sparrow bird, which became extinct in July 1987. The main attractions of this park were Parrots Perch, Avian Way, Alligator Pool, Eagle’s Watch, etc. The Discovery Island was also used for filming and shooting, the most remarkable shooting of this island was the climax of Treasure of Matecumbe (1976).

Why was Discovery Island closed?

In 1989 Disney was accused of mistreating birds and after an investigation, it was proved that the accusation was true. 16 animals were died due to animal cruelty by the employees of Walt Disney. After these unfortunate incidents happened within a few years the Island was closed in 1999. The Discovery Island was closed almost after 25 years of its opening.

But Disney never confirmed the real reason for closing the park. There was another reason to close this park was its high maintenance cost and poor visitors number. The opening of Disney’s new attraction, Disney’s Animal Kingdom was also a reason to close the park.

Present Scenario of the Discovery Island

After the closing of Discovery Island, the whole place was isolated till today, there’s no sign of development. Due to no maintenance and natural disasters, all the buildings and attractions are got damaged. After seeing today’s condition of the island no one would believe that there’s a famous beautiful park in its early days. But in 2021 Disney get the initiative to turn this island into a replica of the titular island from the video game Myst. So the visitors will come and solve puzzles and also they can explore them.