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Gatorland's entrance on South Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando is built as a gaping alligator jaw. Gatorland's fact sheet says Frank Godwin, son of the founder, conceptualized and built it in 1962 from steel beams, customized rebar and concrete, and gives its size as 15 feet wide, 21 feet long and 14 feet high. Gatorland's timeline says a fire on 6 November 2006 destroyed the original gift shop and theme park entrance; the mouth was incorporated into a new admissions complex completed on 22 May 2008.
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Gatorland
This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Approximate location · 28.381° N, 81.397° W
FIELD GUIDE
The story
The way into Gatorland, on South Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando, is through the open jaws of an alligator.
Gatorland's 2024 timeline says the park's founder bought land in 1947 that turned out to be a "borrow pit" that had supplied dirt for the new highway, and that the attraction opened in 1949. The timeline lists the founder's youngest son, Frank, designing the gaping gator-jaw entrance in 1962, painted in his father's favourite colours, Florida aqua and white. Gatorland's fact sheet says he conceptualised and built it in 1962, and Orlando Weekly in 1999 also gave 1962. The fact sheet adds that he took a taxidermy gator head home, set it on his kitchen table, studied it for weeks and built the mouth from steel beams, customised rebar and concrete. It gives the entrance as 15 feet wide, 21 feet long and 14 feet high.
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PRACTICAL
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WHAT TO EXPECT
The gator-mouth entrance is the working ticketed entrance to the Gatorland attraction; visible from the street/parking area even without buying a ticket.
ACCESS
Ordinary street-address commercial access on South Orange Blossom Trail; the mouth itself is visible without admission, walking through it into the park is part of the paid attraction.
COMMUNITY
Visitor Log
TRANSPARENCY
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