Abandoned Illinois Water Park Now Looks Like the Landfill it Once Was

It's as if this water park decided to close and they just turned off the lights and just walked away. Then nature took over and now it's eerie to see.

Abandoned Places Around Illinois

There is no shortage of spots around the state that just went out of business and walked away. Sometimes the story around the abandonment is just as interesting as what happens to these places when nature is left to take its course

There was a television show a number of years ago that told stories about famous places around the world and what would happen to them if people just disappeared. The show was Life After People.

The show used some interesting visuals to answer the big question:

If humans were no longer around, what would happen?

What would happen to Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, if no humans were around to keep trimming the ivy was one scene I remember. It was crazy to see that it wouldn't take as long as you'd think for the ivy to completely overtake and bury the 'friendly confines'.

When I was tipped off about this abandoned water park not too far from Rockford, I had some of these types of thoughts. The water park was built on a landfill so I really wondered what the place looked like more than 30 years later.

As you'll see, the former garbage pile has returned to just that, with a few giant waterslide sections that will remind some of a good time in the 1980s.

Abandoned Water Parks Around the World

The list of these former fun spots is long and one of them provided some big fun for children of the 80s who had grown pretty bored with running through the sprinkler in their backyards.

Ebenezer Floppen Slopper's Wonderful Water Slides in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois

The now abandoned and decrepit water park is located on a hill near the intersection of Illinois Route 38 (Roosevelt Road) and Route 83 in Oakbrook Terrace.

"We were really excited when they built this water slide because we had never seen anything like it before. It was made of rough cement, like a public pool, so you had to ride on a yoga-style foam mat. If you fell off, you would get road rash on your skin and it would tear up your swimsuit but we still had an awesome time. The mats were color-coded so the workers knew how long you paid to be there. The owners later added more attractions and changed the cost to a flat fee for the day. At that point, my friends and I figured out how to sneak in through a break in the fence. I have great memories of the water slide. Unfortunately, it didn't last. It's kind of ironic because the area they built was a landfill nicknamed Mount Trashmore and it's basically back to that now." (Double T, Morning Show Host at 96.7 The Eagle)

Insider.com compiled a list of abandoned water parks, including some really wild stories of why many of these places closed.

The only unfortunate thing is that they weren't able to find out why Ebenezer's closed? Do you know?

Did you visit this place during your childhood?

I bet more than a few people slid off their mats and got a bit of 'road rash' on this cement slide.

• The site opened in 1951 as a gravel pit and landfill. By the 1960s the site was known as "Mt Trashmore"
• The water park opened in July 1980 and closed in 1989.
• When it opened, there were only two 800-foot concrete water slides. People slid down on rubber mats in groups of up to eight at a time.
• During the park's last few years of operation, it was called, Doc River's Roaring Rapids Water Park.

I did find a ton of information on the story of this land and the water park on Wikipedia.

Check out the video of an abandoned water park in Illinois

from @feezo via YouTube