I was there in 77 and it was a great place for a 10-year-old kid to crawl around.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/m...wless-423858964.html

Kinda sad to see its condition now.

I imagine being there a year after opening, it probably was really nice. 25 years of coastal type conditions plus it appears to be in or at least very near the Everglades, probably left many parts of the park in poor shape. I'll have to read up on if it was maintenance conditions or park profit, possibly both, that led to it's closing, but looking at what has happened in 15 years of non-use and no real maintenance I can imagine the amount of work it took to maintain that park. Still, I'm sure it would have been neat to see when young.

In 1989, Disney opened a second water park, Typhoon Lagoon. It had much more parking, many more slides, newer amenities, and was much larger. In 1995, Disney opened a third water park, Blizzard Beach, which was also much bigger than River Country.

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. On April 11, 2002, the Orlando Sentinel reported that “Walt Disney World’s first water park, River Country, has closed and may not reopen." Disney World spokesman Bill Warren stated that River Country could be reopened if ‘there’s enough guest demand.’”[5]


The abandoned Slippery Slide Falls attraction in 2013.
In 2005, the Walt Disney Company officially announced that River Country would never reopen. River Country has been left abandoned to rot instead of being demolished. Disney employees monitor the park for trespassers, who risk up to lifetime bans if caught. Many YouTubers have been caught taping videos of themselves trespassing in River Country for entertainment purposes.[6] In the meantime, River Country is fenced off from the nearby Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground, and is no longer in operable condition.

On August 25, 2016, Disney announced that they would drain and fill in Upstream Plunge, the 330,000 gallon pool. There are no immediate plans to tear down any other part of the park.[7] Along with Discovery Island, it was left to deteriorate rather than be demolished.[8][9]

At least it is still there. In '05-'06, some developer bought Astroworld, had it torn down with plans to sell the vacant land to some other developer and now, the now empty grassland (known as Swamplot) is only occasionally used as overflow parking for Reliant Stadium, which was built right next to a now equally empty Astrodome..
I got about 100 cross ties from one of the demolition companies that demolished the place. They came off the train track that carried the 610 Limited train around the outside of the park and are now implanted as corner posts around 124 acres here at my place.
Astroworld was a nice park as long as it was in local ownership. Once it was sold to Six Flags, it was only a matter of time until it's demise, as Six Flags was already in financial trouble and deemed Astroworld's 140 acre site more valuable as bare commercial property than as a theme park.. 4th largest city in the US has been without a theme park now for 11 years.
An early picture postcard of Astroworld before the steel rollercoaster Viper and the wooden Texas Cyclone were added. The Cyclone, was a wooden replica of the famed Coney Island Cyclone, but designed in mirror image. It's cars, are now at La Ronde amusement park in Montreal. Ednör – L'Attaque a suspended looping coaster, is another ride that was originally at Houston's Astroworld.



"Astroworld" today with Astrodome/Reliant Stadium in background.
Not much of a tradeoff IMO.:

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 05-25-2017).]

Astroworld was the first amusement park that I had ever been to. I was 12, and at the invitation of some family friends who had moved to Ft. Worth, I went down to help watch their kids on a family vacation. We went to a game at the Astrodome, and then the next couple of days were spent at Astroworld. Sad to think that it's all gone now.

Legend City operated for only 20 years in Phoenix (63-83) and still has a web site for nostalgia buffs.