Disney's River Country was the first water park at Walt Disney World. River Country was located along the shores of Bay Lake and near Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground, the park was themed as a rustic, old-fashioned swimming hole. It opened on June 20, 1976, and closed indefinitely on November 2, 2001, with The Walt Disney Company later announcing on January 20, 2005, that the park would remain closed permanently. This made the water park the second of only two Disney parks in the company's history to close permanently, with nearby Discovery Island on the lake closing in 1999. A new hotel, Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge, was set to be built at the former site of Disney's River Country starting in 2019 and was planned to open in 2022, but construction was halted during the COVID-19 pandemic. History Positioned on the shore of Bay Lake, near Discovery Island, the park featured a rustic wilderness theme, complete with rocks and man-made boulders. It was described as an "old-fashioned swimming hole". The original working title was "Pop's Willow Grove". The park was featured in a musical number from the 1977 Wonderful World of Disney episode "The Mouseketeers at Walt Disney World", which included a song titled "River Country" and featured the then-current Mouseketeer lineup from the late 70s incarnation of The Mickey Mouse Club enjoying its attractions. The park featured a sandy bottom and unique water filtering system using confluent water from adjacent Bay Lake, which was dammed off creating a natural-looking artificial lagoon. The park's water was at a higher level than the lake's, which was an effort to prevent lake water from going into the park. There were several deaths that took place at River Country. The first was of an 11-year-old boy who contracted an amoebic infection of the brain from the water in 1980. Park officials noted that similar amoebic infections also occurred relatively frequently elsewhere and said it was an inherent problem with freshwater lakes in warm weather and thus could not be blamed on the park's water system. Three other children had died similarly in Florida in the same month. The other two deaths were from drowning, in 1982 and 1989. Closure In 1989, Disney opened a second water park, Typhoon Lagoon; it had much more parking, many more slides, newer amenities, and was much larger. Six years later in 1995, Disney opened