People swimming/water skiing in the lagoon in 1972

[DuckTalesWooHoo1987]

No idea what you are talking about.

LOL!

 

[Beaks]

I remember swimming in the lake at Fort Wilderness and River Country. We never had a thought as to gators, but we did see a large snake near our campsite! The water was never clean looking. We have a classic photo of my parents, my sister and myself on the beach of Fort Wilderness all in hot pink bathing suits! I'm smiling and my sister looks mortified. Our first trip was in March or April 1972, the first year open.

 

[Master Yoda]

I remember swimming in the lake at Fort Wilderness and River Country. We never had a thought as to gators, but we did see a large snake near our campsite! The water was never clean looking. We have a classic photo of my parents, my sister and myself on the beach of Fort Wilderness all in hot pink bathing suits! I'm smiling and my sister looks mortified. Our first trip was in March or April 1972, the first year open.

The water is actually pretty clean. The tannic acid from decaying leaves turns it that murky brown. It is sort of like swimming in unsweetened iced tea.

 

[Wendy Hopkins]

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?

I was one of those people learning to water ski in the lagoon. It was probably 1981. We also were sailing and tipped sailboat. Never saw any alligators back then. We were told there were alligators but they were more afraid of us then we are of them.

 

[Beaks]

I'm glad I was swimming in iced tea!

 

[Mindy55]

The American Alligator was seriously endangered in the 1970s and is not endangered today.

While you are absolutely correct, the American alligator was threatened, it was pertaining to the Everglades in the 70’s

 

[thomas998]

This un

The American Alligator was seriously endangered in the 1970s and is not endangered today.

this. Until they were put on the endangered species list they were expected to become extinct. Add to that the lagoon was a man made lake, and there were unlikely to have been any gator there, versus today when you could probably find more than one along the edges on any given day.

 

[KimAnnFran]

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.

THis sounds right. There would be less, the population would increase over time.

 

[N2dru]

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.

River Country's beach/pool area was a roped off section of Bay Lake

This un
this. Until they were put on the endangered species list they were expected to become extinct. Add to that the lagoon was a man made lake, and there were unlikely to have been any gator there, versus today when you could probably find more than one along the edges on any given day.

Bay Lake is a natural lake and was connected to the man made Seven Seas via the Contemporary pass...so alligators had been in Bay Lake long before WDW even existed.

 

[N2dru]

If you want even more useless trivia. The soil that they dug out to make the 7c's lagoon is what they built MK on. The utilidors area is actually at the natural ground level and they built up the soil instead of digging out. Why? Because the water table under the ground level is very close to the surface and they didn't want the CM's to have to use scuba gear to get from place to place.

Also another bit of useless trivia, the sand on the beaches are from the bottom of Bay Lake. When they dredged it during construction of the resort, the muck revealed the sand that was used to create the different beaches.

 

[thomas998]

River Country's beach/pool area was a roped off section of Bay Lake

Bay Lake is a natural lake and was connected to the man made Seven Seas via the Contemporary pass...so alligators had been in Bay Lake long before WDW even existed.

The question wasn't about Bay Lake, it was about Seven Seas Lagoon which was a man made lake. Yes it was possible that there were alligators in the area where Seven Seas was created, but then the same could be said for the MK before they covered it with asphalt and concrete. Moreover the question was whether they existed there bur rather whether they were more or less likely to be found in the Seven Seas Lagoon in 1972 or today. So your answer in part makes not sense as you are talking about Bay Lake, which although now connected to Seven Seas isn't what the OP asked about. Then of course you simply state that they existed long before WDW existed, which might still doesn't answer the OP's question. Dinosaurs existed before WDW too, so what?

I'm sure if you went back in time far enough there were probably lots more alligators in the area that became Seven Seas, but the question was specific to 1972 when alligators were still on still trying to recover their numbers from the low in the 1950's of 100,000 estimated in the whole of the US... since hunting them was only banned in the earl 1960's the reality is the number of alligators in Florida was decidedly lower in 1972 than it is today where their population has reached the point that they are no longer endangered. From that alone you would know that the number in the Seven Seas in 1972 versus today has increased.

 

[N2dru]

The question wasn't about Bay Lake, it was about Seven Seas Lagoon which was a man made lake. Yes it was possible that there were alligators in the area where Seven Seas was created, but then the same could be said for the MK before they covered it with asphalt and concrete. Moreover the question was whether they existed there bur rather whether they were more or less likely to be found in the Seven Seas Lagoon in 1972 or today. So your answer in part makes not sense as you are talking about Bay Lake, which although now connected to Seven Seas isn't what the OP asked about. Then of course you simply state that they existed long before WDW existed, which might still doesn't answer the OP's question. Dinosaurs existed before WDW too, so what?

I'm sure if you went back in time far enough there were probably lots more alligators in the area that became Seven Seas, but the question was specific to 1972 when alligators were still on still trying to recover their numbers from the low in the 1950's of 100,000 estimated in the whole of the US... since hunting them was only banned in the earl 1960's the reality is the number of alligators in Florida was decidedly lower in 1972 than it is today where their population has reached the point that they are no longer endangered. From that alone you would know that the number in the Seven Seas in 1972 versus today has increased.

Oh ok...thanks have a good night