Morgan's Wonderland is an accessibility-focused

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San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

founded in 2010. The park was developed by Gordon Hartman, a former homebuilder from San Antonio. Morgan's Wonderland has had over a net million guests since its opening in 2010. The park features several attractions including rides, playgrounds, gardens, a catch-and-release fishing lake, a special-event center, and 575-seat amphitheater. The park's focus on accessibility makes it free for disabled individuals to attend the park.

History

In 2005, Hartman sold his homebuilding business to establish The Gordon Hartman Family Foundation so he and his wife, Maggie, could aid children and adults with special needs. During a family vacation, their disabled daughter Morgan wanted to play with kids tossing a ball in a hotel

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...

, but when she approached them, they abruptly took their ball and vanished. "I'll never forget the look of anguish and dismay on Morgan's face, so I decided there had to be a way to bridge the gap of misunderstanding about people with special needs. That incident was the tipping point for Morgan's Wonderland and ultimately Morgan's Inspiration Island," Hartman said. On March 3, 2010, Morgan's Wonderland opened, with

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legend David Robinson and actress

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as special guests. Starting in 2012,

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partnered with the park as a long-term sponsor. On June 17, 2017, Morgan's Wonderland unveiled a major addition: the Morgan's Inspiration Island splash park. In 2020 the park closed after only 11 days into the season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The park reopened for the 2021 season at limited capacity. In 2022 the park hosted the

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Texas Summer Games.

Events

The park holds a Snowball Run annually in December, which involves both 5K and 1K walking/running events. The events are open to all ages and abilities.

Related complexes

Morgan's Inspiration Island

On June 17, 2017, Morgan's Wonderland unveiled the Morgan's Inspiration Island splash park. The park features waterproof wheelchairs that guests can use. Some parts of the park use warm water, to be accessible to visitors with certain muscular conditions.

Morgan's Sports

In 2021 Morgan's Sports opened, which includes

wheelchair A wheelchair is a mobilized form of chair using two or more wheels, a footrest, and an armrest usually cushioned. It is used when walking is difficult or impossible to do due to illnesses, injury, disabilities, or age-related health conditio ...

-accessible

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

fields, and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

pickleball Pickleball is a racket or paddle sport in which two or four players use a smooth-faced paddle to hit a perforated, hollow plastic ball over a net until one side is unable to return the ball or commits a rule infraction. Pickleball is played i ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

, and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

courts.

Morgan's Camp

In summer 2022 Morgan's Camp opened, an accessible camping program that can serve about 500 campers of any ability. The San Antonio Food Bank uses the camp's kitchen year-round.

Morgan's MAC

The Multi-Assistance Center (MAC), which provides medical services to disabled individuals, opened on October 2, 2022. As of its opening, services provided included therapeutic care, dental care, and same day surgery.

Awards and recognition

Morgan's Wonderland and Morgan's Inspiration Island have been acclaimed for their emphases on inclusion and accessible design.

References

{{San Antonio Accessibility 2010 establishments in Texas Tourist attractions in San Antonio Amusement parks in Texas Water parks in Texas Buildings and structures in San Antonio