OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Long before towering slides and wave pools became summer staples, Ocala had Wild Waters – a homegrown waterpark beside Silver Springs that thrilled generations of Floridians.
Opened in 1978 by ABC Television as a sister attraction to Silver Springs Nature Theme Park, Wild Waters quickly became a regional favorite. Silver Springs was already famous for its glass-bottom boat tours and lush subtropical scenery. ABC, which acquired the nature park in 1962, expanded its offerings with one of Central Florida’s first waterparks – compact, affordable, and deeply local.
Next to the Silver River, the park featured twisting slides, a children’s splash zone, and its most iconic attraction: a 450,000-gallon wave pool. With waves up to four feet tall, it simulated a beach experience in the heart of inland Florida. Wild Waters was also among the first parks to use fiberglass flumes, setting new standards in slide construction.
Courtesy: Kathy Dugan/352today
Courtesy: Kathy Dugan/352today
Launched during an era when smaller attractions dotted Florida’s roadsides, the park appealed to both tourists and Marion County residents. It offered a budget-friendly, laid-back alternative to the rising theme park giants in Orlando.
In 1984, ABC sold Wild Waters and Silver Springs to Florida Leisure Attractions. The park continued to operate under various owners, including Palace Entertainment, which managed the park from 2002 until 2013.
By the mid-2010s, however, its age and infrastructure became difficult to maintain. Repairs to the wave pool and slides became more frequent and expensive, and attendance steadily declined. The transition of the surrounding land into a state park also played a role – the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which took over Silver Springs in 2013, decided not to invest in restoring or reopening the waterpark. Instead, the agency opted to focus on preserving the area’s natural beauty and ecological integrity. Wild Waters’ high-water usage – over 2 million gallons per month – was seen as counterproductive to these goals.
Despite efforts to modernize the park and reduce its environmental impact, the final summer season came in 2016, after which the park was permanently closed. In 2018, demolition of the slides and structures began, and the land was absorbed into Silver Springs State Park. Today, the site where Wild Waters once stood is open green space – quiet, unassuming and empty of the shrieks and splashes that once defined it. No signage marks what used to be there, and no visible remnants remain of the park or the attractions that once stood.
Wild Waters may be gone, but it remains a cherished piece of Ocala’s history – a reminder of when summer fun didn’t require a theme park empire, just a swimsuit, a tube and a wave machine in the middle of the woods.