Founded in 1936 by Dick and Julie Pope, Cypress Gardens was a showcase for Central Florida and paved the way for other parks such as Disney and Universal to follow. A master of innovation and marketing, Dick Pope lived by the credo, “If it ain’t fun, the heck with it,” and it served him well. Under his guidance, the beautiful botanical gardens became the backdrop for beautiful belles and peaceful boat rides, as well as many movies and thousands of advertising campaigns over the years. Proclaimed the “water ski capitol of the world,” Cypress Gardens was the birthplace of performance water skiing in 1943, when Dick Pope, Jr., his sister Adrienne and their friends performed a makeshift show for visiting servicemen under the guidance of Julie Pope.
Just as quick-thinking and creative as her husband, Julie Pope is responsible for another of the Gardens’ traditions, the Southern Belles. In 1940, after the park experienced its first freeze, Mrs. Pope noticed one of the Flame Vines at the entrance was damaged by the frost. Quickly, she had one of the female employees don an antebellum dress, complete with a hoop skirt, to stand in front of the drooping vine and greet guests. Voila! A great Cypress Gardens tradition is born.
Always mindful of the changing interests of their guests, Dick & Julie Pope kept the gardens thriving with additions such as the Snively Mansion (now the Magnolia Mansion) the Southern Crossroads Village (Jubilee Junction), Island in the Sky (Sunshine Sky Adventure) and more. The Popes attention to detail and marketing wasn’t just confined to the interests of the park, but to the state of Florida as a whole. Considered a pioneer of Florida tourism, Dick Pope was nick-named “Mr. Florida” for his commitment to bringing people not only to Cypress Gardens, but urging them to visit Florida. In 1962, he turned the reins of the park over to his son, Dick Pope, Jr., and then committed himself to promoting tourism and the development of Florida. He was often quoted as saying, “What is good for Florida is good for Cypress Gardens” and a story circles the tourism industry that Dick Pope was a key element in persuading Walt Disney to build in the Central Florida area.
The park left control of the Pope family in 1985 when it was acquired by HBJ/SW. Four years later, Busch Entertainment Corporation, a subsidiary of Anheuser Busch Companies, Inc. purchased the park and ran it until it was sold to a private partnership in 1995. The park faded in comparison to the larger parks in nearby Orlando and was dealt a severe blow by the decline in tourism following September 11, 2001. The decision to close the park came in April of 2003.
Stunned guests and employees came together and created a grassroots effort to save the park and attracted the state of Florida’s attention, as well as that of Kent Buescher, owner of Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta, Ga. Initially interested in simply purchasing the Christmas displays for Wild Adventures, Buescher was captured by a vision of Cypress Gardens’ potential. Working hand-in-hand with the state, local government and the Trust For Public Land, a historic deal was inked early in 2004 to save the venerable attraction with Buescher at the helm. His plans for the park were based upon the same simple formula that made Wild Adventures such a success; provide a great variety of affordable family fun that all ages can enjoy.
Work revitalizing and restoring the park began immediately but was almost derailed by the hurricane season of 2004. Three monster storms, Charlie, Frances and Jeanne, passed through the area and Cypress Gardens sustained substantial damage. However, Kent Buescher and his staff persevered in the Pope tradition and Cypress Gardens Adventure Park was reborn in November of the same year. Now, guests will find an exhilarating world of thrilling rides, Splash Island water park, dazzling entertainment, historic gardens, animals, the famed Southern Belles and world-famous water ski show, as well as Jubilee Junction, an old-fashioned village chock-full of exceptional shopping and fabulous food. Park officials projected an estimated 750,000 visitors for the first year the park was re-opened and were delighted to find that the estimate was far too conservative. Approximately 1.4 million guests sampled the delights of the newly refurbished park in 2005, one of the highest attendance counts at Cypress Gardens in the history of the park and the trend continued into 2006.
In 2007, Cypress Gardens Adventure Park was purchased by Land South Adventures, LLC, out of Mulberry, Florida. Kent Buescher, President/CEO continues to lead the park's cast in “creating family memories, one adventure after another,” offering thrilling and wholesome family entertainment at affordable prices.
