Disney TBT - The Lost Treasure Island (Bahamas)
I have in the past, posted articles about the abandoned Disney attractions at Walt Disney World in Orlando. They are River Country (click HERE) and Discovery Island (click HERE). They were two of my most popular posts so far, so I thought I’d give you the story of the third abandoned Disney “park”. It might not actually be a true Throw-Back-Thursday, because the small amount of information I can find on it says it may or may not have opened at all. Most people are intrigued by abandoned things; and yes, I admit I’m one of them. If you are too, I suggest you spend some time on a few of my Pinterest boards: “Creepy, Abandoned & Erie Places” (click HERE), “Creepy, Abandoned & Formerly Fun Parks” with tons of abandoned amusement parks (click HERE), and “Insane Asylums, Sanitariums and Prisons” (click HERE). That ought to keep you out of trouble for a while!
(Above: The remains of the piers for Treasure Island, Baker’s Bay)
I want to note that at one point, I lived in the Bahamas for about 6 months back in 1993 when Club Med was building a $72 million dollar “village” on the tiny island of San Salvador (I have also been to Freeport and Nassau several times). The locals refer to it as “Columbus Isle”, because this is allegedly where Christopher Columbus really landed when he didn’t discover America (he never discovered America but I have to wait for the history books to get it right before I get on my soap-box about that). While I scuba dived in many places when I was there (a perk of working for the Club), I didn’t see one of the three ships in Columbus’ company, which is said to be lying on the bottom of the ocean nearby. There is also suppose to be a Columbus memorial under the water, too. (By the way, some of the best diving in the world is there!) The reason I mention my time there is because, while I was researching this post, a couple of places noted that Treasure Island employed “lazy Bahamians”. I take offense to this! It’s like people who say, “I hate French people! They’re so rude!” And how many French people do you know? It doesn’t matter that they don’t know any, that would be their answer. Usually it’s because they have different manners from us and don’t bother to humor the Americans who go to France and expect all the French people to speak English. Did I mention Club Med is a French company? At any rate, please don’t pay any attention to references to “lazy” Bahamians. San Salvador boasted about 800 people when we arrived; most of them descendants of slaves, and many have never been off the island. They had an extremely poor economy: They lived in shanties, had outhouses, and a couple of tiny villages. The club brought tons of new jobs and a significant boost to the economy, and the locals loved working with us. The Bahamians can be justly accused of being more laid back than Americans who are always in a hurry to get somewhere, but super-friendly, very hard working and happy people. The more I see on the news in this country (and all it’s many idiots), the more I often wish I was still there. Sigh.
OK, got that off my chest. Bottom line: BE NICE TO BAHAMIANS! Getting back to Treasure Island; while I thought this would be an easy post, I found it enormously difficult to find information about it. Six hours later, I’m finally getting it posted. I have heard rumors about it for years, but it seems a lot of people are very confused about this. I’ll address those points first:
1. Treasure Island is NOT the same as either Castaway Cay or the abandoned Discovery Island in Bay Lake, Walt Disney World. This seems to screw most people up as to what they think they know and post inaccuracies.
2. There is a popular, fictional “ghost” story about an abandoned Disney resort called “Mowgli’s Palace” in North Carolina. Depending on what you read, the inspiration for this story was either Discovery Island at WDW, or Treasure Island in the Bahamas. If you want to read the story, click HERE.
3. I am unable to find a date or detailed information anywhere for when Treasure Island was built and all the amenities. Depending on what articles you read, the Island may never have been completed and guests may never have been there. Others say it was open briefly, but costs to keep the area up were too much, so Disney abandoned it and later built Castaway Cay on a different island. I can tell you that I’ve been hearing rumors about the Island for quite a long time. This was the precursor for Castaway Cay and that resort opened July 30, 1998. I actually found some useful information in an article of Links Golf Magazine which also, mistakenly, calls it “Shipwreck Island” (this is actually a reference to Castaway Cay and it’s pirate theme - Someone got their wires crossed, I guess). “A deep channel was dredged back in the ’80s by the Walt Disney Company…the Mouseketeer era was short-lived, and after more than a decade of no activity, Discovery Land Company bought” the property. This would put it in the same time period as the abandoned River Country and Discovery Island at WDW. The end of an era, I guess.
(Above: The abandoned center of the Treasure Island project)
Why is there so little information about Treasure Island on the Internet? Well, I love a juicy conspiracy! Besides people mistaking it for other Disney properties, Disney made a few serious boo-boos on this one, so of course they would want to downplay it. Some of the ‘big’ Disney fan websites deny It’s existence at all. However, this may be because very little of it remains. I have absolutely no idea when the few available photos were taken. The same, or nearby property has since been developed into Baker’s Bay Golf & Ocean Club, a private resort, residences, shopping ‘village’ and of course, a golf course. The company which built the club is called Discovery Land Company. Hmmmm… coincidence? While I wouldn’t be at all surprised is some of the company is owned by or has agreements with Disney, I couldn’t find a confirmation of that. Later another development cropped up called Treasure Cay Beach and Golf Resort; whether they took the name from the failed Disney project is a mystery.
(Above: Shattered windows of the main resort building of Treasure Island)
“Treasure Island” was supposed to be the name of the Disney-developed portion of Baker’s Bay. The development is/was located on Great Guana Cay in the Abacos Islands (Northeastern Bahamas). Like Castaway Cay, Disney planned to use the location as a private resort area for cruise ship passengers to enjoy the beautiful waters, excursions, private beach, cabanas, sports, etc. There was even a theater built there for shows. But for a company that is usually extremely good about research and getting things perfect, it seems someone forgot to do their homework. Disney laid out $30 million dollars for this resort in the ‘80′s - about $66 million in today’s dollars.
(Above: I’m sure this tower had a purpose, but I don’t know what.)
The bay near the development was too shallow for the cruise-ships to get to the island or near enough for tendering passengers. But Disney imagineers thought nothing of it and continued to build. They determined that they could dredge up the bay enough for the ships to come in. A horrible idea, not just for Disney but for the environment. The research they didn’t do was to track currents. Every time they’d dredge the bay, the currents would sweep all the sand back in again. This may be the reason that the resort was finished or was finished and never opened. The cost to continue dredging was enormous. Additionally, there weren’t sufficient workers on the island so Disney would have to ferry them to and from another island. The closest being a journey of about 2 hours in each direction. This goes back to the “lazy” Bahamians…allegedly unwilling to take the ferry for work. Major storms and a lot of damage from Hurricane Floyd took It’s toll, as well.
(Above: The remnants of the guest service area of the restaurant)
But the resort must have at least been close to opening. There was a main building, the theater, other buildings, sports huts, and more. And much like River Country and Discovery Island, when Disney abandoned it, many big ticket items were left in place. The article I read stated that things had been broken, stripped, destroyed, burned and otherwise damaged. This was blamed on the Bahamians, however I found one article where an American and friends gleefully looted and destroyed the place and described the whole scene. I’d seriously like to kick this guy’s ass. You can see his article HERE. One article stated that Disney did have some ocean critters at the site that they just released into the ocean. I only saw that once.
(Above: Abandoned industrial grade kitchen equipment)
Some of the items that were left behind included a huge safe in the main building, paddle boats, jet-skis, all the electrical panels and wiring, toilets and plumbing, the cooler and other parts of a bar, ceiling fans, air conditioning equipment, bookshelves, kitchens containing grills and ovens that can cost upwards of $15,000 and more. I guess since they weren’t planning on using it for anything else, they left it all there, again, just like River Country and Discovery Island. Disney’s philosophy is that if they’re not going to use the space immediately, there’s no point in spending the money to clear it out. Besides, Baker’s Bay Golf Club would do it for them.
(Above: The resort safe. Wonder if there were any goodies left behind?)
Now when I talk about Disney’s mistakes and why they don’t want it advertised is that Disney did some major damage to the ecosystem with this project. Granted, back in the ‘80′s, there weren’t as many concerns about damaging an existing ecosystem. Especially if the ecosystem is in someone else’s country. And truthfully, while the Disney project created some environment issues with the relatively small project, Baker’s Bay Golf & Ocean Club has created much more, even though they like to tell people they cleaned up “Disney’s Mess”. Again depending on the story, Disney’s contribution to the issue was minor compared to Baker’s Bay. Disney did dredge the bay which possibly contributed to the destruction of part of the coral reef there, their big mistake was bringing in non-indigenous plants, which took over a large part of the natural ecosystem. Baker’s Bay has allegedly managed to get these plants under control and has used the main building of Treasure Island as a nursery for those species. That nursery is in the middle of Baker’s Bay’s shopping village. There may or may not have been some issues with some dolphins that belonged to the Disney resort, but I couldn’t confirm that. Much as Baker’s Bay Golf would like nothing more than to lay all the problems at Disney’s feet, Baker’s Bay Golf has made way more contributions to changing and destroying the natural habitat. Environmental activist groups such as SGCR and The Global Coral Reef Alliance have made allegations and filed law suits over golf course fertilizers and terraforming of the resort for killing the reef and the life that surrounds it, endangering sea turtle breeding beaches and more. They are being closely monitored for this. Not Disney’s fault.
(Above: The remains of the Treasure Island theater; stage and benches)
At any point, this abandoned Disney is no more and there are few remnants and photos of it. Judging from the pictures and descriptions, I kind of imagine it like a thatched-hut version of summer camp. This one is a lot easier to deny than River Country and Discovery Island. I found this BLOG from 2005 of a couple who happened to be on a hike to the old Treasure Island remnants. At that time, they had men there working on dismantling the remaining buildings. So, Treasure Island is no more and Disney bought a whole island instead of a corner to be shared with competition and then they started all over again.
(Above: One of the Disney cruise ships in port at the present Castaway Cay)
http://www.i-mockery.com/ , http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/
