These early postcards from Outdoor Resorts of America at Orlando/Disney World set the stage for the start of our beautiful community and its history. Thanks to Carole Lefferts for sharing these gems with us! On the other side, the following description introduced our community to everyone who received one of these postcards:
Located on US 192 at beautiful Lake Davenport, only five miles from the entrance to Walt Disney World, Outdoor Resorts provides facilities for tennis, golf, swimming, fishing, and indoor activities at a spacious recreation lodge. Activity directors plan fun and excitement for the entire family. All sites have paved drives, concrete patios, picnic tables, and complete utility hook-ups for recreational vehicles.
Many thanks to Jim Caldwell for sharing the following photo from 1972 and his wonderful memories of ORO (known as ORA at the time):
1972 was another very good camping year for the Caldwell family. With a 13 year old daughter and a 9 year old son, my wife and I had accumulated five years of camping experience in Gatlinburg, Western NC, Myrtle Beach, and now in Central Florida. We had heard from friends that Walt Disney had opened their first theme park at Disney World called Magic Kingdom, and Outdoor Resorts was building a luxury RV park only five miles away. We had to check this out so we planned our trip to Orlando.
Driving through Orlando and past Disney World was easy… not much traffic and development along US 192 to the new ORA campground under construction. The sales team and office were near the entrance in a mobile trailer. We took the tour, listened to the exciting plans, examined the newly completed sites, and purchased lots 880 and 881 on the par-three golf course. As you can see from the photo, we had the place to ourselves. We had a great time golfing. boating, tennis, shuffleboard, and walking to the produce stand next door for fresh orange juice.
As I mentioned earlier, Disney had just recently opened Magic Kingdom. Being new Florida property owners, we were eligible to purchase an annual pass to Disney. The price was just slightly more expensive than the four-day ticket and included parking and everything except food. Needless to say, we enjoyed driving the approximately 6 minutes, visiting Magic Kingdom a few times each day, trying all the eating places for several hours, and then returning to ORA to rest. Looking back nearly fifty years, I remember listening to all the briefings at ORA and Disney about what the future would look like for both places. Never in my wildest imagination could I have envisioned the present ORO and Disney World.