Heritage
USA
Fort Mill, SC (1978-1989)
Heritage USA is located in Fort Mill, SC. It's about 2 miles down the street from Paramount's Carowinds. This Christian Theme Park has been closed and abandoned for well over a decade, so we wanted to check out how the place looks now.
The Heritage Grand Hotel and Partner Center has recently been pruchased
by a new ministry called Morningstar. Part of the Heritage USA Resort
may now have a chance at a new life after being closed since 1989. Who
knows the fate for the rest of the park.
For those who are not familar with it's story, this place was created
by the PTL Ministry which was ran by Jim and Tammy Bakker. Heritage
USA started out as a camp ground but quickly grew to be the 3rd most
visited theme park in the world attracting over 6 MILLION visitors!
Walt Disney World and Disneyland were the only 2 other parks ahead of
Heritage USA during one point in the 80's.
This complex was over 2000 acres, but a lot of the land has been sold
and subdivisions and golf courses have been built on the undeveloped
portions.
This 500 room hotel was never completed and now sits abandoned.
This was what is was suppose to look like.
This is the elevator shaft where glass elevators were going to be installed.
As you can see bricks are now falling off.
This indoor/outdoor mall area was called "The Main Street Shoppes".
Here is what they used to look like.
It reminds me of the buildings at Main Street at Walt Disney World. Bakker was a big Disney fan and got his ideas from Walt Disney World in Orlando.
Inside the mall area were were clothing shops, a "Bakkery", resturants, arcades, and other attractions.
This is the Heritage Grand Hotel.
They also had this cool water park. I actually went a few times in the early 90's. After Heritage USA closed, this park ran for a few years after under the name "Carolina Splash Water Park".
This is the park today.
It sits on an island in the middle of a lake on the property.
This bridge would take you over to the park from the tram stop at the Heritage Grand Hotel.
How much does it cost to get in?
Here is some old artwork.
Watersides, lazy rivers, speed slides, and cliff jumps were all built in and around this mountain.
Here is a tunnel where a train went through. The train went all around the resort.
Green water now surrounds the mountain.
This is the entrance to the water park from the Heritage Grand Hotel.
Now removed, the train tracks went under the bridge. The tracks were where you can see the rock beds on the right.
This is a small bridge where the train crossed the lake and in the back is "The Kings Castle". This was a large arcade and it had the largest go-cart track in the south.
Click here for page 2 of Heritage USA