Post #587053 by TikiTomD on Fri, Apr 29, 2011 8:46 AM

Adding to the story of Johnny Weissmuller’s Tropical Wonderland in Titusville, Florida (posted back on page 20), I ran across an interesting web article by Ron Masters from August 14, 2010. It seems that Ron acquired an original theme park map and got permission from the current property managers to do a bit of urban archeology among the ruins. His story, complete with photo slide show, may be found at

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5685986/the_abandoned_tropical_wonderland_theme.html

Here’s the map Ron used (pardon the poor resolution)...

The surviving building with the A-frame structure apparently housed the “Snake Farm” according to Ron’s map. In Ron’s article, he noted that “No one has been able to tell me exactly how long the park was open, but it apparently wasn't very long.” From the newspaper archives, I was able to pin that down to the period, 1971 to 1972. There’s in fact much confusion about this among various web references as well. People’s memories are no doubt challenged on this point because there existed a Florida Wonderland at the site from the early 1960’s that went defunct before the park was reincarnated as Tropical Wonderland, and it lived on without Johnny Weissmuller for a bit longer.

My wife came across this personal souvenir from the earlier Florida Wonderland period when Michael Landon (aka “Little Joe” from TV’s Bonanza) made an appearance. She was in her early teens...

An article from the local newspaper helps to place it in time...

Titusville Star-Advocate May 29,1964

-Tom