People swimming/water skiing in the lagoon in 1972

Walt Disney1955

Walt Disney1955

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I watched a video of a sort of documentary on WDW from 1972. I liked it, it would have been fun to be there right at the beginning with everything being new. Basically at this time WDW consisted of Magic Kingdom, Polynesian, Contemporary and Fort Wilderness. Also the golf courses. Still a worthwhile resort to visit no doubt. But what I noticed that was highlighted was the swimming on the beaches of the resorts. Or the water skiing. Just casual videos of guests doing both on the resort.

It just got me thinking, this is 1972 and I am going to guess that there are likely more gators in the lagoon during this time than today because there probably was less resources to relocate them and no doubt after the park opened they wouldn't have gotten all of them out by any means. So basically this is probably a more gator-infested lagoon but with what seems like more people enjoying the waters than anything we'd see today.

Any reason for this?
 
kong1802

kong1802

Well-Known Member
I don't have the stats, but I have to believe there were less gators in that lagoon at that time.

Most of Central FL was still pretty rural in 1972. Building over the swamps I would have to believe led to them being more nomadic and roaming around to all the man made lakes.

I could be wrong.
 
Walt Disney1955

Walt Disney1955

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I remember Bob Hope in the opening day video of WDW making a joke that they had to relocate "5,000 angry alligators" or some number to that extent. Don't quote me on the amount, but it was definitely in the thousands. Granted, Hope was just making a joke and he didn't know the numbers I am sure, but it just goes to show you that it was well known there were tons of gators in that area before they built it. I would think that in just a year it would be harder to spot them instead of the time we've had to do it since.
 
Disstevefan1

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
Ah, 1972 the good old days. There was also a wave machine in the Seven Seas Lagoon that was in operation for a little while after WDW opened. Fast forword to 2016 and the tragic death of 2 year old Lane Thomas Graves, taken by an alligator while wading in ankle deep water at the beachfront of the Grand Floridian.

As we know, today, all the beaches in WDW are fenced off now.
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
kong1802 said:
I don't have the stats, but I have to believe there were less gators in that lagoon at that time.

Most of Central FL was still pretty rural in 1972. Building over the swamps I would have to believe led to them being more nomadic and roaming around to all the man made lakes.

I could be wrong.
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Back then the only thing that really existed on the entire property was what was shown in that film. MK, Wilderness and a couple of Golf courses and what is now Disney Springs. However, most of it was confined to a very limited area of all that property. There were plenty of wetlands available for the Florida wildlife. Then WDW went crazy, they built Epcot, DHS and DAK added countless resort hotels and areas. A lot of it was in those wetlands. (StarWars Hotel is being built in what was once an untouchable wetland.) Since you can't really move a wetland into a wetland Disney started to buy other properties that they could make into wetlands so they could use the areas closer to the money for resorts.

That all put a bit of a squeeze on the places that the Gators and other critters could go, coupled with the brilliant tourist feeding them drew them to the area that once was a good place for water fun. Normally, gators would stay away from people but, the friendly gestures of the guest feeding them was a call to duty for them. Then along came that fungus/brain eating bacteria or whatever it was that was considered a major threat to people in the water and that is what drove most of the tourist out of the lagoon and the gators felt free to wander around again.

Spoiler Alert: The preceding is mostly theory, not official nor from any source. It was more then one thing that stopped people from using it safely. Lawyers probably had a lot to do with it as well.
 
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Victor Kelly

Victor Kelly

Well-Known Member
Goofyernmost said:
Back then the only thing that really existed on the entire property was what was shown in that film. MK, Wilderness and a couple of Golf courses and what is now Disney Springs. However, most of it was confined to a very limited area of all that property. There were plenty of wetlands available for the Florida wildlife. Then WDW went crazy, they built Epcot, DHS and DAK added countless resort hotels and areas. A lot of it was in those wetlands. (StarWars Hotel is being built in what was once an untouchable wetland.) Since you can't really move a wetland into a wetland Disney started to buy other properties that they could make into wetlands so they could use the areas closer to the money for resorts.

That all put a bit of a squeeze on the places that the Gators and other critters could go, coupled with the brilliant tourist feeding them drew them to the area that once was a good place for water fun. Normally, gators would stay away from people but, the friendly gestures of the guest feeding them was a call to duty for them. Then along came that fungus or whatever it was that was considered a major threat to people in the water and that is what tool most of the tourist out of the lagoon and the gators felt free to wander around again.

Spoiler Alert: The preceding is mostly theory, not official nor from any source. It was more then one thing that stopped people from using it safely. Lawyers probably had a lot to do with it as well.
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Not only are you correct, you are very correct. Disney is experiencing Disney sprawl. They have bought land in other places so they can fill in wetlands and build. What was intended to never happen again, is actually happening.
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
Victor Kelly said:
Not only are you correct, you are very correct. Disney is experiencing Disney sprawl. They have bought land in other places so they can fill in wetlands and build. What was intended to never happen again, is actually happening.
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On the plus side for them, I would guess that Walt isn't speaking up about that.
 
Phonedave

Phonedave

Well-Known Member
Master Yoda said:
This. ^^^

The American alligator was listed as an endangered species in the late 60's. It was not removed until the late 80's
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You could ski, parasail, and wakeboard (and presumably swim a bit if you fell while doing those activities) up until Summer 2018.

I guess the chance of a gator attack is lower when you are blasting along at 30 MPH, but people were still allows to be in the lake well after the population started to rebound.
 
Heppenheimer

Heppenheimer

Well-Known Member
We discussed this exact issue in another thread. The consensus seems to be that swimming stopped in Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon because of the water quality, not necessarily the growing alligator population.

I thought I had invented childhood memories of swimming at beaches at Fort Wilderness and the Contemporary until other posters noted that these were standard resort amenities for quite awhile.
 
John park hopper

John park hopper

Well-Known Member
Have posted this before and posted pictures of the WDW newspaper they gave us in 1977 when we stayed at the Contemporary (Honeymoon). They advertised miles of beach for swimming never gave gators a thought probably were not that many back then as others have posted they were endangered. If I'm not mistaken Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay
Lake were man made and it probably took a while for the gators to move in
 
Heppenheimer

Heppenheimer

Well-Known Member
John park hopper said:
Have posted this before and posted pictures of the WDW newspaper they gave us in 1977 when we stayed at the Contemporary (Honeymoon). They advertised miles of beach for swimming never gave gators a thought probably were not that many back then as others have posted they were endangered. If I'm not mistaken Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay
Lake were man made and it probably took a while for the gators to move in
Click to expand...
Bay Lake is natural, Seven Seas Lagoon is man-made.
 

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