Gatorland keeps Orlando's roadside wildlife story alive

Gatorland reminds you that Orlando’s visitor story did not begin with giant resorts.

Owen Godwin kept alligators near his Sebring home before he tried a bigger idea in Central Florida. In 1949, he opened Florida Wildlife Institute with alligators and snakes. The name later changed. By 1954, it was Gatorland.

The place grew as more visitors came to Florida. The huge gator-mouth entrance came in the 1960s and became the part many people remember first. Gatorland later added shows, a train, a swamp walk, a breeding marsh, bird nesting views, and zip lines.

For Orlando, Gatorland keeps an older kind of stop on the map: roadside animals, family business, local show work, and swamp edge all together. Check current tickets, hours, show times, animal rules, and weather before going. It sits near the big parks, but it belongs to an earlier Florida travel world.