Fort Wilderness Resort, 1988I’m sorry that things have been a little mappy lately, but they’re just so darn interesting. I promise I’m working on some meatier stories, though. Time takes time!
In any case, we’re at Fort Wilderness in 1988. You may or may not know of my intense love for Fort Wilderness, but I’m convinced that it’s the single best enclave of pure 1971-era Walt Disney World essence that still exists. Its offerings have been pared down over the years, but it’s still there plugging away. Sometimes I can’t believe something as simple, entertaining, and free as their campfire movies still exists in the modern corporate age.
Many of the lost wonders can be seen in this map; the Fort Wilderness Railroad was already gone, but guests still had River Country and Discovery Island to entertain them.
Interestingly, the leftmost bus loop only extends halfway through the resort in this map; it currently continues all the way to the Settlement Depot. There were two bus loops in 1988: the silver-flagged and the brown-flagged. These were later known as Chip and Dale, with additional service being provided by the Crockett and Boone buses, and today the campsites are served by the Purple, Yellow and Orange routes.
The bike trail that passes off the map to the left would eventually connect the resort with the Wilderness Lodge in 1994.
Are there any Fort Wilderness folks out there who can spot other differences?
Discovery Island. The actual land still there of course but the attraction gone and the land being wasted and going to seed.
Yes, I don’t see the coral snake (looked like one) that that my sister and I stubled arcross while ” exploring” the wild! Thank goodness we had enough sense even at that age not to take em back to the campsite.
Among other things, the map also includes Marshmallow Marsh which has been shuttered for years now. It also doesn’t show the current location of the trail rides’ stable and the Backyard BBQ pavilion.
Ack… I’m embarrassed that I didn’t realize that Marshmallow Marsh had been shut down. Guess it’s been a while since I made it out there… what happened? That’s a real shame.
There’s a great thread on DisBoards discussing this, and because they’re FW experts there are a lot of nice details.
I had noticed “Fleetwood Pass” on the map (Fleetwood was a big sponsor for FW), and that’s now Peacock Pass. Also, “Terry Trail” was named after one of Fleetwood’s line of travel trailers.