Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Heritage, USA (part two)

Here's a personal view of the ruins of Heritage USA from DQ reader Matt Curtis:
My wife and I actually live in Fort Mill now, having built our home there last fall. Oddly, we had never even known about the whole Heritage USA scandal; We're in our late 20's and our memory of the downfall of Bakker and PTL lacked enough detail for us to place its origin near our new residence. It wasn't until after we signed the contract and construction began that we were told about the whole saga. Needless to say, it spooked us a bit and we were uneasy about our new hometown for a while. We've snooped around the Heritage USA ruins now and take out-of-town guests there whenever possible, but barricades and security guards prevent too much trespassing. It's quite eerie, I'll say that.

Evidently, the campgrounds adjacent to (and once part of) the park are rented out to various, shall we say, odd groups including at least one cult. We're not sure what kind, but apparently you don't want to hang around them. However, Fort Mill is being sucked up in suburban sprawl from Charlotte (yes, my wife and I are part of the problem) and the ruins of Heritage USA are soon to be gone, so we're told. A Malaysian investor has apparently bought up the land and is selling it in chunks to development companies and homebuilders. A coworker of mine just purchased a house in a new development that runs right near the Tower of Doom from those pictures. In the near future it will all be sod and vinyl siding. Personally, I'd rather live on an ancient Indian burial ground.

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