Cypress Gardens... Going, Going, Gone

The Dusty Traveler bids a sad farewell to the Southern belle

Tuesday, April 15, 2003
by Todd Regan, Mouseplanet staff writer

The Southern belles, hallmark of Central Florida's Cypress Gardens.
Photo © Cypress Gardens.

A golden age is quickly fading away in Central Florida. Cypress Gardens, the park fabled for starting the tourist craze in Central Florida in 1936, is no more. In a sudden and unexpected announcement this past Thursday, the park announced that Sunday, April 13 was its last day of operation.

Known for its tranquil and beautiful gardens, Southern belles and water ski shows, Cypress Gardens will be missed by many. The park was never able to recover from the September 11 tourist meltdown, and continued to suffer during the new Gulf war and SARS epidemic. While the park is shutting down, it is unclear at this time what will happen with the plants and animals cared for by the park.

Beautiful lush foliage drapes over the edges of a pond as a garden gazebo stands in the background. Photo © Cypress Gardens.

Sixteen acres of the most beautiful gardens in Florida are now in jeopardy of being lost forever, including an absolutely jaw-dropping 50-year-old banyan tree — perhaps the most beautiful tree this writer has ever seen — which spans the garden walkways with its massive aerial roots.

Performers and musicians had planned one of the more exciting summers in the Garden's history. However, with over $6 million in debt, there was simply no easy way to keep the park in operation.

A Southern belle clad in yellow stands on a foot bridge in a fern garden.
Photo © Cypress Gardens.

The beginnings of the park are shrouded in colorful legends. It is said that Cypress Garden's founder, Dick Pope, was born in the middle of an Iowa cyclone. With such a blustery start, he used the same energy to create the gardens themselves. Truth be told, Dick didn't know one flower from another. However, with the help of his wife Julie, they eventually pieced together a collection of flora from over 90 countries, including many prized and rare specimens.

In fact, the park gained its unique modern character from a series of fortuitous circumstances. During a hard freeze in 1940, the park suffered a serious loss when the vine covering the entry wall to the park froze and died. To keep the rest of the plants alive, they placed smudge pots around the property. Guest would see this, and would simply turn around and leave before they even set foot on the property. Mrs. Pope had an idea that would form the very basis of Cypress Gardens' theme from that day forward. She had one of the the girls quickly put on the dress of a Southern belle and flirt with the guests so they wouldn't notice the dying vine. It worked. To this day, the park is known for its beautiful and elegant Southern charm.

The children of the original owners unintentionally inspired the water ski show that would eventually become an integral part of Cypress Gardens. Photo © Cypress Gardens.

Just a few years later, Julie's children were innocently water skiing together in the park; this simple little event would have a profound effect on the park's future entertainment offerings. It is believed that a soldier who witnessed the skiing told many individuals on his base about Cypress Gardens and the water skiing. As a result, a few hundred servicemen showed up at the park the next weekend. When Julie realized that they had come to see a show that didn't exist, she quickly gathered together her children and staged the first of the park's famous water shows. It wasn't long before people all over the country would come to know of Cypress Gardens for its water skiing spectacles.

The '50s and '60s were the real heyday of the park. Esther Williams and a myriad of other celebrities filmed movies in the lush tropical waterways of the park. This was a golden era for Central Florida as well, and the real beginning of the tourist craze which was to come.

However, the '70s and '80s brought on a challenge that would ultimately be the undoing of Cypress Gardens and many of the smaller tourist attractions in Central Florida: Walt Disney turned an undeveloped swamp into the Magic Kingdom, and the tourist tides began to shift away from the smaller and more genteel attractions.

Cypress Gardens went through a series of owners during this time, with the Pope family giving up control of the property after nearly 50 years of loving ownership. Various corporate owners added attractions, shows, shopping, and dining to the park.

Eventually, in 1995, the park was sold to its own management team. It was thought that bringing back local ownership would breathe new life into the park. And for a time, this seemed to be the case. The park had never looked better, and wedding bookings numbered over 500 per year.

Then the worst happened.

September 11, 2001 shocked the world, and tourism all but came to a stop. Cypress Gardens would never recover.

While the public face of the company was as bright and rosy as its beautiful gardens, the park quickly fell into a financial mess. With nearly $6 million in debt, park management sadly made the decision that Sunday would be its last day of operation.

A team of precision water skiers spell out the name of the beautiful and famous park in a show never to be seen by an audience again. Photo © Cypress Gardens.

I would love to hear from you if you have visited Cypress in the past. Particularly if you have photos of the park prior to 1970. It is always sad to see something as unique and lovely as Cypress Gardens pass away. Faded memories of Mediterranean waterfalls, Southern belles, water extravaganzas, and of course more than a few alligators, will soon be all that remains. Such is the march of time and the everchanging tastes of world travelers.

Contact Todd Regan at dustytraveler@mouseplanet.com.

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