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[TlalocW]

1. Yep

I can tell you a ton about it even though I haven't visited it.

It's the brainchild of Ken Ham - the Young Earth Creationist who also has the Creation Museum and runs Answers in Genesis. His thing is that if you can't believe in Genesis 100% then the rest of the Bible would therefore be suspect (which it is, but that's for another day). He talked nearby Williamstown, Kentucky, into giving him $18 million worth of tax incentives to build the thing, promising they would see an uptick in tourism dollars (they haven't, and they're regretting their decision). Other than the fact that it has never attracted the amount of people he said it would, part of the reason the city is suffering is that Ham will do anything to avoid paying any kind of taxes that will help the city out - when a safety tax that raised his tickets (I think by 50 cents) was passed, he sold the Ark from the secular side of his businesses to his religious side for $10 (which somehow allowed him to avoid the tax) until it was pointed out that if he let that stand, he would lose the $18 million in tax incentives so he quickly sold it back and started paying the tax. One main reason that he didn't want to pay the tax was because then it was easier to figure out what his attendance numbers are, which he doesn't want people to know, and now it's more difficult for him to fudge them. For Young Earth Creationism to "work," dinosaurs and humans had to live together, and of course, they were all friendly plant-eaters like every other animal before the fall of man.

I think he has plans to add more to the park - like a large petting zoo as well as other Genesis-based attractions because let's face it - it's a building that looks like a boat (and is beginning to show its age though it's less than a decade old - as if he didn't want to spring for coating it with Thompson's Water Seal) with just fake animals in it, a few animatronics of Noah and his family, and some other attractions. Even the most fervent supporter isn't going to spend EVERY vacation going to see that over and over.

Ironically, last month, Ham sued his insurance companies for refusing to provide coverage to pay for damage done to the tune of about a million dollars done to an access road by heavy rainfall. Kentucky geologists say that the kind of land he built on is prone to this kind of damage so it's quite likely that Ham did not consult actual scientists for an environmental study or did and then ignored them, both of which would be keeping with his character. Flooding is often seen as an Act of God by insurance policies, necessitating a separate flood insurance policy, which he probably didn't want to buy because he knew he would get made fun of for it.

I'm hoping to go one day because I collect smashed pennies, and I think both the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter have a machine.

TlalocW