Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Theme Park Archaeology
Near my house in Knoxville was a house that had been abandoned to the elements sometime around 1985 (judging from dates on the magazines). The owner had presumably died; the house was way back in the country and hard to reach except by foot, so nobody had done much looting. So all the guy's clothes, personal effects, and papers were there, rotting away, as the house slowly disintegrated. I used to go there sometimes in high school and poke around; it was interesting, in an end-of-the-world kind of way. I used to have one of the guy's expired credit cards but I don't anymore.
Anyway, here's a site that provides a similar experience on a much larger scale. I've been meaning to link to this for a while; you've probably seen it already, but here's an incredibly detailed account of the ruins of Jim Bakker's long-defunct theme park, Heritage USA. From the main page, the interesting stuff is under the "Take A Tour of Heritage" link. (And it's a big site, be ready to spend some time on it). It's kind of incredible how much the place has decayed in 15 years or so.
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Anyway, here's a site that provides a similar experience on a much larger scale. I've been meaning to link to this for a while; you've probably seen it already, but here's an incredibly detailed account of the ruins of Jim Bakker's long-defunct theme park, Heritage USA. From the main page, the interesting stuff is under the "Take A Tour of Heritage" link. (And it's a big site, be ready to spend some time on it). It's kind of incredible how much the place has decayed in 15 years or so.
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