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All the United States North Carolina New Bern Green Springs
Green Springs is permanently closed.

This entry remains in the Atlas as a record of its history, but it is no longer accessible to visitors.

Green Springs

This multi-story wooden waterpark offers homemade thrills.

New Bern, North Carolina

Added By
Aakelley
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CAPTION
Green Springs   George Wetherington‎
Another Gainer   GoPro Greensprings NC / Chris Murphy / Youtube
Multiple people doing backflips   GoPro Greensprings NC / Chris Murphy / Youtube
Backflip off the top   GoPro Greensprings NC / Chris Murphy / Youtube
The structure from afar   Nick Haskin Productions / GoPro: Green Springs Water Park! / Youtube
Green Springs   George Wetherington‎
Yet another Gainer   GoPro Greensprings NC / Chris Murphy / Youtube
Green Springs   George Wetherington‎
Green Springs   George Wetherington‎
Green Springs   George Wetherington‎
Green Springs   George Wetherington‎
The structure from afar   Nick Haskin Productions / GoPro: Green Springs Water Park! / Youtube
Backflip from the top   Nick Haskin Productions / GoPro: Green Springs Water Park! / Youtube
Still there mostly, but inaccessible   littlestinker471 / Atlas Obscura User
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There are two very brief statements you hear down South that sum up the region’s mentality in that storied and bloodied narrative of dealing with the federal government.

Those statements are “This is my damn property.” and “Don’t tell me how to raise children.” Perhaps never has the scofflaw spirit of such words been better illustrated than when one Coastal Plains resident, Korean War vet, Boy Scout leader, and great american, George Wetherington built a perilous timber-frame water park on his property overlooking the Neuse River and invited children of all ages to come jump off of it.

Wetherington built this wild, splintery delight in the 1970’s, a time before bicycle helmets, rubber-coated playground equipment, and Nerf guns took much of the danger out of childhood. In this current milieu, talk of water parks, diving boards, rope swings, and zip lines tend to get answered with words like insurance company, stitches, and lawsuit. Mr. Wetherington’s pressure-treated palace harkens back to an age when there was nothing but giddy cries for more “Spank the Baby!” “Jackknife!” “Double Gainer!” and “Hey, what happens when Nate rides a pogo stick off of this thing?”

Like most good things to jump off, Green Springs has several graded tiers reaching up to four stories high, which no doubt, generations of teenagers have accorded their own safety rating system, with lower heights getting nicknames like “Gee, Golly” and “Goodness Gracious!” and more advanced levels named stuff like, “Oh, Jesus” and “Gimme another beer if I even survive this mammerjammer!”

Of course, the danger is very real and Green Springs has seen its fair share of accidents. In the summer of 2015 a 21-year-old man drowned, as did another teenager in 2010. In 2014 a teenager got airlifted out after doing an alley oop.  Last year, the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources issued a swimming advisory warning about a bacteria that gives you diarrhea within 200 feet of Green Springs.

At 83-years-old, Mr. Wetherington has gotten a lot of heat to take down his structure, but he probably won’t, because as a Korean War veteran, Boy Scout leader, and kid who grew up during a time before "safety first," danger comes in way scarier forms than a massive gainer to be cowabungaed.

Related Tags

Water Temples Amusement Parks North Carolina Waterparks

Community Contributors

Added By

Aakelley

Edited By

Molly McBride Jacobson, tfair, littlestinker471

  • Molly McBride Jacobson
  • tfair
  • littlestinker471

Published

October 13, 2015

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Sources
  • http://www.wcti12.com/news/swimming-advisory-issued-for-neuse-river-site/27742530
  • http://www.wcti12.com/news/craven-co-official-man-found-dead-after-fall-at-green-springs/34930026
  • https://www.facebook.com/groups/196511863739233/
Green Springs
818 Neuse River Drive
New Bern, North Carolina, 28560
United States
35.08505, -77.025587
Get Directions

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