Heritage USA / PTL in June 1988 Vid #2

Starts where vid #1 left off, at the train station. Next, the tram passes behind the old water park area which, of course, no longer exists.

At 1:33 I pass the Goodie Barn on the right, followed by the old abandoned, unused castle. The castle, I was told, was to have been a Burger King restaurant, which would have been quite suitable for a castle.

At 2:58, the tram passes by what looks to me like a 1987 or 88 Chryler Fifth Avenue or New Yorker parked in the lot at the HGH. In a video I recorded on June 27th, 1988, what appears to be the same car appears to be parked in the same location, and appears to be the same car that Jim & Tammy Bakker hopped into and drove away in. I have a video of that as well.

Most of the iron fencing seen in this video around the yardage, as well as the old-fashioned street lights, are no longer present, and the water fountain seen at 3:02 is no longer working. The tram stop at 3:30 is today such a hopeless complete disaster today that it needs to be demolished.

I got off the tram here and made my way to the water park. The wood rails on either side of the wood bridge leading to the park are either missing, or rotted out, missing paint, or broken and leaning. It looks disasterous.

The round building at 4:17 no longer exists. In fact, practically nothing on the water park exists today, except for a few scattered abandoned lamp posts and a stone sea horse.

See the gate at 4:42 hanging wide open? What you DON'T see is the sign on the other side indicating that the water park was currently closed for the season, and to stay out. Maintenance crews were very busy trying to get the water park ready to be opened by the upcoming July 4th weekend. So, I simply entered the exit ramp and proceeded to explore the water park at my leisure. Amazingly, the sound comes back into the video at 6:10. At 7:08, you can just see a white truck slowly making its way in the corner of the video. This is a TV production truck. Later on that morning, during the 11:00 daily TV show which still originated from the broadcast building, there was to be a live remote from the water park, and a crew was there getting cameras ready. You will see those either in this video or the next.

I imagine no one stopped me to ask what I was doing with a camcorder in my hand was because everyone may have assumed I was with the TV production crew, grabbing video shots for the show. I was walking around inside the water park for nearly 45 minutes before I was asked to leave.

I walked all over this water park, which was easy to do, since it had not yet been filled with water. I am sure you will see some areas in this video that you have never seen before at the park because they were closed off. I just happened to be there recording when I shouldn't have been, and managed to get them on tape.

At 9:08, you can see two rows of dots going across the pool floor. Those were anchors used to secure these round green tubes, and the object was to run across them as fas as you could and not fall into the water. Those tubes are visible in the next video.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Heritage
• USA
• Fort
• Mill
• SC
• South
• North
• Carolina
• Charlotte
• PTL
• Praise
• the
• Lord
• Jim
• Tammy
• Faye
• Bakker
• Baker
• televangelist
• christian
• retreat
• campground
• HGH
• Grand
• Hotel
• Towers
• water
• park
• waterpark

[johncassity123]

@Cincinnatigifts why was it so empty in this video where is everybody? And I live like right up the road from this place I go there all the time to explore

[CincinnatiGifts]

@johncassity123- Contributions and attendance had diminished tremendously as a result of the scandal and resulting negative publicity. There should have been thousands of people seen walking around and mingling in this video, yet hardly one is to be seen besides myself. This video was shot in prime summertime, within a week before the July 4th weekend. The loss of income to the park pretty much sealed its fate.

[mdgtrpckr]

wait, was this before the park even opened? i'm confused. i thought they were booming in 88.

[CincinnatiGifts]

@mdgtrpckr- Well, the park itself was open as early as the summer of 1982, as that was the first time I had visited. Attendance had dropped off considerably after the tumultuous events of '87, so by '88, it was pretty much a ghost town. HUSA was booming from the early 80's up to about the summer of '87. If things had been normal, there'd be hundreds and thousands of people mingling about in this video, not just me.

[mdgtrpckr]

@CincinnatiGifts But you see, I was born in '84, and remember visiting every year until 1991; when they closed for 3 or 4 years and re-opened as "The New Heritage USA" after contributions from Pat Robertson and the 700 Club. Soon after, Radisson bought them out and operated (sans the train, and barely Main Street USA) as Radisson Grand Resort Charlotte.

My favorite childhood memories were made there, and it was always a bustling success, even after 1988. It died in the early 90's if you ask me.

[CincinnatiGifts]

@mdgtrpckr- 1988 was the last time I visited the original HUSA, and it was dead by comparison to previous years. If you watch some of my HUSA vids from 1987, you'll see hundreds of people around. In 1988, hardly a soul. The trams were pretty much completely empty in 1988. The only time I saw a large # of people at HUSA in 1988 was when Jim & Tammy visited the Grande Hotel. Look for my vids of that visit as well!

[CincinnatiGifts]

@southport97- You're welcome. Unfortunately, I have no actual vids of me actually recording inside the park when it was open & operating. I'm sure I have some on VHS somewhere, that I just can't find. I've got close to 65 Heritage USA-related vids on YouTube spanning from 1986 - 2010; be sure to check them all out.

I like comparing my '09 & '10 vids with the same areas seen in my '87 & '88 vids. The changes are enormous.

[southport97]

Thanks for posting these as this is the only way now that people can visit this demolished waterpark.

[ThoughtTraveler]

Something happened to your sound

[gregzintx]

oh i see it- lol ------The first time I saw those holes, I just figured someone got the gun- LOL