Discovery Island, Sacred grove in Bay Lake, Florida, US
Discovery Island is a small island in Bay Lake on the grounds of Walt Disney World in Florida. The overgrown site now shows abandoned buildings and remnants of enclosures amid dense vegetation and shoreline areas.
Several families owned the island in the early twentieth century before Disney acquired the property in the mid-sixties. Later the site was converted into a zoological park and remained open for a quarter of a century.
From 1974 to 1999, the island operated as a zoological park, housing over 400 exotic birds and maintaining one of the largest walk-through aviaries.
The site is off-limits to visitors and security patrols monitor access points around the island. The structures are decayed and entry carries legal as well as physical risks.
The former zoological project closed its doors on the same calendar date it had opened a quarter century earlier. Many bird species were later transferred to other facilities, but some individuals escaped during transport and now live wild in the surrounding area.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
