The Christmas season always reminds me of the glistening lights that once illuminated the winter skyline of the Christian-themed village Heritage USA in the 1980s. It was the third-largest theme park by attendance, with a staggering five million visitors per year, behind only the Walt Disney parks in Orlando and Anaheim. For a moment, the world seemed right, and the lavish owners of this now-defunct park near Charlotte could do no wrong. It became the classic tale of greed, power, crime, legal troubles, and scandal that stemmed from televangelist Jim Bakker and his wife Tammy Faye. One woman stood in the epicenter, Jessica Hahn, after reports surfaced of an affair between her and Bakker, along with other allegations. The brightly lit fire of fellowship, hope, and love may have attracted people to the small village, but the smoke billowing from the ashes in the late 1980s left many with a shortness of breath from the power of abuse.
It has been almost thirty-five years since the park officially closed. The last remaining attraction is the Upper Room Chapel, which resembles the biblical Upper Room, with the original pews still intact. Most of the other attractions have been either repurposed or torn down to make way for housing. During its heyday, the park spanned 2,300 acres, which included a hotel, water park, Main Street USA, skating rink, campground, amphitheater, cable TV channel, and buses to shuttle visitors around the grounds. In many ways, it’s the hidden holy land that many in this area didn’t know even existed.
The late 1970s paved the way for Jim Bakker and his wife, Tammy Faye, to launch a mega Christian-themed Park inspired by Disney’s theme parks. Heritage USA opened in 1978 to give Christians a safe place to vacation. The early days of the operation were prosperous, providing numerous investment opportunities for growth. Some reports estimate that PTL viewers contributed over one million per week. According to Wikipedia, Jessica Hahn worked as a church secretary for the organization in 1980 when an incident occurred between her and Bakker. Hahn was given a $279,000 pay-off for her silence, paid for with PTL’s funds.
The mid-1980s saw the internal struggle for control when the allegations of Bakker’s affair began to rip and destroy the massive playground from within. Things continued to get worse when Bakker officially stepped down in 1987. Two scandals ultimately brought down the empire when Bakker was accused of sexual misconduct by church secretary Jessica Hahn, which led to his resignation, and his illegal misuse of ministry funds eventually led to his imprisonment.
Jim Bakker was officially indicted in 1988 after a 16-month federal grand jury probe on eight counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy. In 1989, after a five-week trial, a jury found him guilty, sentenced him to 45 years in federal prison, and imposed a $500,000 fine.
In 1992, the sentence was reduced to just eight years. Although Bakker was gone, Heritage USA could not recover from its past woes. At its peak, the park earned $126 million. After allegations against Bakker and employee John Fletcher surfaced, park attendance dropped, forcing Jerry Falwell to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with estimated debts of $72 million, which led to the park’s permanent closure in 1989.
Written By: John G. Clark Jr