Ark Encounter
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Ark Encounter is a
Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
theme park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...
that opened in
Williamstown, Kentucky Williamstown is a home-rule-class city in Grant and Pendleton counties in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The population was 3,925 at the 2010 census, up from 3,227 as of the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Grant County. History When Gra ...
, United States, in 2016. The centerpiece of the park is a large representation of Noah's Ark, based on the
Genesis flood narrative The Genesis flood narrative (chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis) is a Hebrew flood myth. It tells of God's decision to return the universe to its pre- creation state of watery chaos and remake it through the microcosm of Noah's ark. The B ...
contained in the
Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
. It is long, wide, and high. Ark Encounter is operated by
Answers in Genesis Answers in Genesis (AiG) is an American fundamentalist Christian apologetics parachurch organization. It advocates young Earth creationism on the basis of its literal, historical-grammatical interpretation of the Book of Genesis and the Bib ...
(AiG), a
young Earth creationist Young Earth creationism (YEC) is a form of creationism which holds as a central tenet that the Earth and its lifeforms were created by supernatural acts of the Abrahamic God between about 10,000 and 6,000 years ago, contradicting established ...
organization that also operates the
Creation Museum The Creation Museum, located in Petersburg, Boone County, Kentucky, Petersburg, Kentucky, United States, is a museum that promotes the pseudoscience, pseudoscientific Young Earth creationism, young Earth creationist (YEC) explanation of the or ...
away in Petersburg, Kentucky. Australian creationist and CEO of AiG Ken Ham founded the park. The theme park promotes
pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...
young Earth creationist beliefs about the
age of the universe In physical cosmology, the age of the universe is the cosmological time, time elapsed since the Big Bang: 13.79 billion years. Astronomers have two different approaches to determine the age of the universe. One is based on a particle physics ...
,
age of the Earth The age of Earth is estimated to be 4.54 ± 0.05 billion years. This age may represent the age of Earth's accretion (astrophysics), accretion, or Internal structure of Earth, core formation, or of the material from which Earth formed. This dating ...
, and co-existence of humans and non-avian dinosaurs. After feasibility studies projected that the park would be a boon to the state's tourism industry, Ark Encounter received
tax incentives A tax incentive is an aspect of a government's taxation policy designed to incentivize or encourage a particular economic activity by reducing tax payments. Tax incentives can have both positive and negative impacts on an economy. Among the po ...
from the city,
county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
, and state to induce its construction. This drew criticism from groups concerned with the
separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and Jurisprudence, jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the State (polity), state. Conceptually, the term refers to ...
. A dispute over AiG's hiring practices was adjudicated in U.S. federal court, which found in 2016 that the organization could require Ark Encounter employees to sign a statement of faith as a condition of their employment, prompting criticism of the park's discriminatory hiring practices.


Visitor experience

The ark contains 132 bays, each standing about high, arranged into three decks. Visitors enter on the lowest deck and move between decks on ramps constructed through the center of the ark. Bays on the first deck contain models of some animals that AiG believes could have been on the ark. The models are meant to represent " kinds" of animals, which AiG says gave rise to modern animals after the flood. Prior to the Ark's opening, media outlets reported it would feature models of dinosaurs and " Biblical unicorns". The second deck contains more animal models, along with
diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional model either full-sized or miniature. Sometimes dioramas are enclosed in a glass showcase at a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies like mili ...
s of Noah's workshop and a blacksmith. Bays on the third deck contain displays presenting what AiG believes might have happened inside and outside the ark during the flood. Displays in three of the bays include artifacts from the
Green Collection The Green Collection, later known as the Museum Collection, is one of the world's largest private collection of rare biblical texts and artifacts, made up of more than 40,000 biblical antiquities assembled by the Green family, founders of the Am ...
and promote the
Museum of the Bible The Museum of the Bible is a museum in Washington, D.C., United States, owned by Museum of the Bible, Inc., a non-profit organization established in 2010 by the David Green (entrepreneur), Green family. The museum documents the narrative, histo ...
, a Washington, D.C. attraction constructed by the Green family, who donated to the Ark Encounter's construction. RoadsideAmerica.com rated the displays depicting the sinful state of the world before the flood, including a priest sacrificing an infant to an unnamed snake god and people fighting a giant and a dinosaur in a gladiatorial arena, as among the most memorable exhibits in the attraction. Visiting scientists, however, find the juxtaposition of humans and dinosaurs not only ridiculous, but also harmful to young guests. In an interview discussing her tour of the Ark Encounter, Bailey Harris states that, while she was impressed with the size of the attraction, she found it “all much sillier than I expected. The dinosaurs that are everywhere in displays with humans, like in the Flintstones, gets old really fast...The
antiscience Antiscience is a set of attitudes and a form of anti-intellectualism that involves a rejection of science and the scientific method. People holding antiscientific views do not accept science as an objective method that can generate universal k ...
represented along with this magnificence is so dangerous to children...It is designed to overwhelm children with its size and beauty to then present untruths from beginning to end.” The ark is held off the ground by a series of concrete towers. The
starboard Port and starboard are Glossary of nautical terms (M-Z), nautical terms for watercraft and spacecraft, referring respectively to the left and right sides of the vessel, when aboard and facing the Bow (watercraft), bow (front). Vessels with bil ...
side of the hull merges into three masonry towers containing stairwells, elevators, and restrooms. Besides the Ark Encounter itself, there are a handful of other attractions within the theme park, including Emzara's Kitchen, a two-story, buffet-style restaurant with a capacity of 1,500 guests, making it one of the largest restaurants in the world. The park also has ziplining and a
virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...
theater. There is also a zoo, called Ararat Ridge Zoo, on the grounds. Live animals are sometimes brought into the Ark exhibit from the zoo.


History


Planning

On December 1, 2010, the young Earth creationism group Answers in Genesis (AiG) and the for-profit corporation Ark Encounter, LLC announced that they would partner to build a
theme park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...
called Ark Encounter that, as they claimed, would "lend credence to the biblical account of a catastrophic flood and to dispel doubts that Noah could have fit two of every kind of animal onto a 500-foot-long ark". The partners projected that the fully completed park would cost $150 million, which they intended to raise privately. Under a program enacted by the
Kentucky General Assembly The Kentucky General Assembly, also called the Kentucky Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It comprises the Kentucky Senate and the Kentucky House of Representatives. The General Assembly meets annually in th ...
in 2010, Ark Encounter investors applied for Economic Development Incentives that would allow them to recoup 25 percent of the project's construction costs by keeping a portion of the park's
sales tax A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...
es during its first ten years of operation. Receipt of the incentives would be contingent upon Ark Encounter meeting established performance goals upon opening. A press release from Kentucky Governor
Steve Beshear Steven Lynn Beshear ( ; born September 21, 1944) is an American attorney and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 61st governor of Kentucky from 2007 to 2015. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1974 ...
's office cited a feasibility study commissioned by Ark Encounter, LLC and conducted by consumer research corporation America's Research Group Limited, Inc. The company had also conducted the feasibility study for AiG's Ark Encounter and an attitudinal survey included in Ken Ham's book ''Already Gone''; ARC founder C. Britt Beemer was credited as a co-author of the book. This projected the park could employ 900 people, attract as many as 1.6 million visitors in its first year of operation, and generate a $214 million economic impact for the region. The group selected an parcel near
Interstate 75 Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from S ...
in
Grant County, Kentucky Grant County is a county located in the northern part of the U.S. commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 24,941. Its county seat is Williamstown. The county was formed in 1820 and named for Colonel John Grant, w ...
, near the city of Williamstown and about from AiG's Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. The city of Williamstown designated a radius around the Ark Encounter site as a tax increment financing district, meaning 75 percent of sales and
property tax A property tax (whose rate is expressed as a percentage or per mille, also called ''millage'') is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or Wealth t ...
es collected in the district would return to Ark Encounter for a period of 30 years. Employees working in the district would also pay a 2 percent employment tax over the same time frame that would go to the Ark Encounter. The Grant County Industrial Development Authority paid Ark Encounter, LLC $195,000 to compensate the corporation for the fact that word of their interest in building the attraction in Grant County had leaked early, causing land prices to double in the area. Further, the Grant County Fiscal Court discounted the sale price of of the site to influence the final selection. Citing the proffered incentives, Ark Encounter, LLC made the Grant County site their final selection and scheduled groundbreaking for August 2011. Plans for additional phases of the park include a model of the
Tower of Babel The Tower of Babel is an origin myth and parable in the Book of Genesis (chapter 11) meant to explain the existence of different languages and cultures. According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language migrates to Shin ...
, along with replicas of an ancient walled city and a first-century Middle Eastern village.


Purchase of site

Ark Encounter, LLC finalized the purchase of the entire Ark Encounter site in February 2012. At that time, AiG announced the decision to construct the park in phases, saying it had raised only $5 million of the $24 million needed to begin construction. The first phase included a full-scale model of Noah's Ark and a petting zoo. Plans for five subsequent phases included replicas of an ancient walled city, a first-century Middle Eastern village, and the
Tower of Babel The Tower of Babel is an origin myth and parable in the Book of Genesis (chapter 11) meant to explain the existence of different languages and cultures. According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language migrates to Shin ...
; an
aviary An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds, although bats may also be considered for display. Unlike birdcages, aviaries allow birds a larger living space where Bird flight, they can fly; hence, aviaries are also sometimes known as flig ...
; and a 500-seat special effects theater. In December 2013, the city of Williamstown offered $62 million using
tax increment financing Tax increment financing (TIF) is a public financing method that is used as a subsidy for redevelopment, infrastructure, and other community-improvement projects in many countries, including the United States. The original intent of a TIF program i ...
of bonds to jump-start construction on the Ark Encounter. The unrated bonds were backed by the Ark Encounter's projected future revenues, but the city was not liable for repaying them in the event that the revenues did not materialize. At the time of the offering, Ark Encounter, LLC had raised approximately $14 million toward construction of the park. A group of atheist objectors to the Ark Encounter attempted to disrupt the offering by registering for the sale themselves and conducting a public relations campaign against the bonds. In early January 2014, only $26.5 million in bonds had been sold; if at least $55 million in bonds were not sold by February 6, all of the bonds would be automatically redeemed. On February 27, 2014, AiG founder Ken Ham announced that his February 4 debate on the viability of creationism with TV personality
Bill Nye William Sanford Nye (; born November 27, 1955) is an American science communicator, television presenter, and former mechanical engineer. He is best known as the host of the science education television show '' Bill Nye the Science Guy'' (1 ...
"the Science Guy" had spurred bond sales, and that the Ark Encounter had raised enough money to begin construction. AiG officials said the final cost of the park at its opening exceeded $100 million, including $62 million from the Williamstown bond offering and $36 million from individual donations. The second phase of the park construction was projected to commence in 2018 or 2019. The 2014 Kentucky General Assembly allocated $1.15 million to Grant County for road improvements to accommodate the heavier traffic expected to be generated by the Ark Encounter. The Assembly also projected the need for $9.1 million in 2017 to improve the Interstate 75 interchange at Williamstown, but this allocation was beyond the scope of the state's two-year road funding plan. The 2016 General Assembly allocated $10 million to create a new interchange between Kentucky Route 36 (KY 36) and Interstate 75. Until the improvements are completed, AiG is paying for workers to direct traffic on KY 36 near the Ark Encounter. After the initial allocation by the state, AiG invested $500,000 of its own money into improving KY 36; this, and better-than-expected traffic flow, led to the Kentucky Department of Transportation scaling back the proposed improvements, awarding a $3.5 million contract in December 2017. The project was projected to be completed November 2, 2018. In July 2014, with the approved tax incentives set to expire if work on the park had not begun, Ark Encounter withdrew the approved application and filed a new one to receive incentives on the $73 million first phase. The new application required a new feasibility study to be conducted. AiG paid for the study, again conducted by Hunden Strategic Partners, which projected a more conservative 400,000 visitors a year, 787 new jobs, and a $40 million economic impact. Shortly after the application was given preliminary approval by the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority, Kentucky House Speaker Greg Stumbo said he believed the incentives to be unconstitutional. He added that he expected the state to be sued and lose a costly lawsuit over the issue.


Design and construction

Cary Summers, who headed
Herschend Family Entertainment Herschend is a privately owned themed-entertainment company that operates several theme parks and tourist attractions within the United States, and as of 2021, one of its aquariums in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded by Hugo, Mary, ...
from 1992 to 1998, was hired as the lead consultant for the Ark Encounter. Patrick Marsh, who helped design exhibits for the Creation Museum and previously designed attractions for
Universal Studios Florida Universal Studios Florida is a theme park located in Orlando, Florida, that opened on June 7, 1990. Owned and operated by NBCUniversal, it features numerous rides, attractions, and live shows that are primarily themed to movies, television, and ...
, was part of the planning and design team. The Troyer Group, a construction firm in
Mishawaka, Indiana Mishawaka () is a city on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States. The population was 51,063 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Its nickname is "the Princess City". Misha ...
, was contracted to oversee construction of the ark, which was constructed by
Amish The Amish (, also or ; ; ), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, church fellowships with Swiss people, Swiss and Alsace, Alsatian origins. As they ...
builders using traditional
timber framing Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...
techniques. In total, over 1,000 craftsmen were employed in the ark's construction. As possible, board pulling was used rather than steaming. Steel nails were used to conform with building code regulations. While the builders originally planned to hold the ark together with wooden pegs, modern building codes required the builders to use steel fasteners, thus 95 tons of metal plates and bolts were used to connect the wood together. The electric lighting inside was designed to look like
oil lamp An oil lamp is a lamp used to produce light continuously for a period of time using an oil-based fuel source. The use of oil lamps began thousands of years ago and continues to this day, although their use is less common in modern times. The ...
s. According to AiG, the Ark Encounter is the largest
timber frame Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...
structure in the United States. AiG considered twelve different possible lengths for the biblical
cubit The cubit is an ancient unit of length based on the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. It was primarily associated with the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Israelites. The term ''cubit'' is found in the Bible regarding Noah ...
, and AiG chose to use a length of ; this produced plans for an ark measuring long, wide, and high. The Ark Encounter consists of approximately of wood. The framing of the ark consists mostly of
Engelmann spruce ''Picea engelmannii'', with the common names Engelmann spruce, white spruce, mountain spruce, and silver spruce, is a species of spruce native to western North America. It is highly prized for producing distinctive tone wood for acoustic guitars ...
, while the exterior is made of pine; some of the logs were as long as long and in diameter. The park's structures and infrastructure were constructed using environmentally friendly
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a Green building certification systems, green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating ...
certified methods, including
geothermal heating Geothermal heating is the direct use of geothermal energy for some heating applications. Humans have taken advantage of geothermal heat this way since the Paleolithic era. Approximately seventy countries made direct use of a total of 270 PJ o ...
, rainwater capture, active and
passive solar In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, reflect, and distribute solar energy, in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design because, unli ...
heating. ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' wrote that the decision to use such techniques was exemplary of "a fundamental shift in how religiously conservative Christians think of two basic biblical ideas: dominion and stewardship".
Hydroponic Hydroponics is a type of horticulture and a subset of hydroculture which involves growing plants, usually crops or medicinal plants, without soil, by using water-based mineral nutrient solutions in an artificial environment. Terrestrial or ...
gardens produce lettuce to feed the animals housed at the attraction's petting zoo, as well as the landscape plants for the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum. Construction crews began clearing timber from the site late in 2012 in order to remove the shagbark hickory trees before the endangered
Indiana bat The Indiana bat (''Myotis sodalis'') is a medium-sized mouse-eared bat native to North America. It lives primarily in Southern and Midwestern U.S. states and is listed as an endangered species. The Indiana bat is grey, black, or chestnut in colo ...
s migrated to the area to nest in them. Much of the wood used to build the Ark Encounter was sourced from renewable forests or trees infested by beetles. During construction, former President
Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
toured the Ark Encounter, accepting an invitation from LeRoy Troyer, president of the Troyer Group.


Opening

Ark Encounter opened on July 7, 2016, a date (7/7) chosen to correspond with
Genesis 7 Noach (, ) is the second weekly Torah portion (, ''parashah'') in the annual Judaism, Jewish cycle of Torah reading. It constitutes Book of Genesis, Genesis 6:9–11:32. The parashah tells the stories of the Genesis flood narrative, Flood and N ...
:7: "And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood." AiG also announced that, for the first 40 days and 40 nights of Ark Encounter's operation – an allusion to the inundation period (rain and subterranean hydrological eruptions) of the
biblical flood The Genesis flood narrative (chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis) is a Hebrew flood myth. It tells of God's decision to return the universe to its pre- creation state of watery chaos and remake it through the microcosm of Noah's ark. The Bo ...
– it would extend its hours of operation, offering day and evening tickets. On July 5, AiG held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Ark Encounter, during which members of the media and an estimated 7,000 donors to the project were given an early tour of the ark. According to the park's publicists, there were 30,000 visitors in its first six days of operation (an average of 5,000 per day). Tri-State Freethinkers planned to protest the Ark Encounter's opening with a nearby billboard depicting people drowning around Noah's Ark with the caption "Genocide and Incest Park: Celebrating 2,000 years of myths", but billboard companies Lamar Advertising Company and Event Advertising and Promotions LLC rejected the design. ''
The Courier-Journal The ''Courier Journal'', also known as the ''Louisville Courier Journal'' (and informally ''The C-J'' or ''The Courier''), and called ''The Courier-Journal'' between November 8, 1868, and October 29, 2017, is a daily newspaper published in ...
'' reported that approximately 150 opponents of the Ark Encounter gathered near the highway exit to protest the park on its opening day. Eric Hovind of Creation Today led a counter-protest during which he offered to pay for any of the ark protesters to tour the ark; the ''Northern Kentucky Tribune'' reported that 21 anti-ark protesters accepted Hovind's offer. The next day, popular science communicator Bill Nye accepted Ken Ham's invitation to tour the Ark Encounter, and they had an informal debate as they toured the structure. Nye stated, "It's all very troubling. You have hundreds of school kids there who have already been indoctrinated and who have been brainwashed. (...) This is about the absolutely wrong idea that the Earth is 6,000 years old that's alarming to me." Earlier in the debate, Ham stated, "My biggest concern is you're teaching generations of young people that they're just animals." Footage from Nye's visit was subsequently included in the documentary film '' Bill Nye: Science Guy'', which was released in 2017. The
Freedom From Religion Foundation The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for atheism, atheists, agnosticism, agnostics, and nontheism, nontheists. Formed in 1976, FFRF promotes the separation of church and state, and ch ...
, an organization that advocates for the separation of church and state, sent letters to over 1,000 public school districts in
Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...
,
Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
,
Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
,
Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
and
West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...
warning them not to organize field trips to the Ark Encounter, arguing that such trips would "expose children to religious proselytizing in violation of the constitutional separation of church and state." Grant County, Kentucky Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt responded that approval of field trips is a decision of local school boards but that such trips should be directly related to curriculum. He said it is not appropriate for "outside third parties to dictate field trip selections." Contending that FFRF was incorrect in their assertion, Ham posted on his blog that he would encourage public school groups to visit the ark by offering admission of $1 per child and no charge for accompanying teachers for the remainder of 2016.


Subsequent events

The Tri-State Freethinkers has protested annually at the Ark Encounter on the anniversary of its opening, citing its hiring practices, anti-evolution teachings, and acceptance of state tax incentives as causes for protestors' concerns. Local media coverage estimated the size of the 2018 protest to be between 120 and 200 people. In December 2016, for the holiday season, AiG lit the Ark with
rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...
colors, the purpose being to "reclaim the symbol from the
gay rights movement Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBTQ people in society. Although there is not a primary or an overarching central organization that represents all LGBTQ people and their i ...
" and remind viewers of the
Noahic covenant The Hebrew Bible makes reference to a number of covenants () with God (YHWH). These include the Noahic Covenant set out in Genesis 9, which is decreed between God and all living creatures, as well as a number of more specific covenants with Abr ...
. In February 2017, Ken Ham announced AiG would permanently continue the rainbow lighting. Permanent lights were installed in July 2017. AiG also plans to open a "Rainbow Garden" near the petting zoo where flowers create a rainbow display. In November 2017, construction began on a 2,500-seat theater on the park's grounds. The theater was originally projected to be completed in time to host the "Equipping Families to Stand" conference, scheduled for July 18, 2018, but construction has been delayed, and the building was subsequently projected to open before the end of 2018. AiG also announced a new children's play area scheduled to open in spring 2019 and an expansion to the petting zoo, projected to open by mid-2019. The Ark Encounter's dispute with the FFRF that began upon the former's opening continued, with the latter sending letters to 1,000 school districts surrounding the attraction after AiG offered free admission to school trips. In May 2019, Ark Encounter filed a federal lawsuit against its five insurance carriers for not covering nearly $1 million in damages from roadway failure subsequent to rain. According to the lawsuit, an access road was damaged by heavy rains in 2017 and 2018, which caused a landslide. Insurance companies cited an exclusion for correcting design deficiencies or faulty workmanship. The suit asked for compensatory and punitive damages. The ark itself was not damaged in the incident, and the attraction remained open to visitors. The insurance company, Allied World, applied to separate the "breach-of-contract" claims from the " bad-faith claims" but the court rejected the request. The case was settled in August 2020 when lawyers for both sides requested that the case be dismissed. Settlement details were not made public. Pursuant to an
executive order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of the ...
from Kentucky governor
Andy Beshear Andrew Graham Beshear ( ; born November 29, 1977) is an American attorney and politician serving as the 63rd governor of Kentucky since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 50th attorney gen ...
closing all non-essential businesses in the state, Ark Encounter was temporarily closed on March 17, 2020, during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. During the closure, AiG staff conducted events on
Facebook Live Facebook is a social-network service website launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg. The following is a list of software and technology features that can be found on the Facebook website and mobile app and are available to users of ...
, but no visitors were allowed in the park, and many of its staff members were temporarily laid off. After Beshear lit the governor's mansion with green lights as a show of solidarity and compassion for the victims of
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
, AiG lit the Ark Encounter green as well. Upon reopening on June 8, AiG limited the number of visitors allowed in the park to one-third of its capacity to facilitate
social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dise ...
and observed other sanitation guidelines recommended by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. In August 2020, Ark Encounter officials announced it would host a Christian music festival the following year that would last "40 days and 40 nights." Also in August 2020, Ark Encounter opened a new $3 million virtual reality experience called the "Truth Traveler". In July 2021, Ark Encounter announced expansion plans. These plans included a
Tower of Babel The Tower of Babel is an origin myth and parable in the Book of Genesis (chapter 11) meant to explain the existence of different languages and cultures. According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language migrates to Shin ...
attraction, an indoor scale model of what Jerusalem may have looked like during the time of Jesus, and a themed carousel. According to Ham, the Tower of Babel attraction is intended to confront racism by showing that humanity is descended from a common ancestor (
monogenism Monogenism or sometimes monogenesis is the theory of human origins which posits a common descent for all humans. The negation of monogenism is polygenism. This issue was hotly debated in the Western world in the nineteenth century, as the assum ...
).


In the media

On October 22, 2016, the Ark Encounter hosted the premiere of evangelist Ray Comfort's film ''The Atheist Delusion''.
Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and media personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead singer of the heavy metal music, heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which per ...
and his son, Jack, visited the Ark Encounter in April 2017 to film an episode of their reality television series '' Ozzy & Jack's World Detour''. The episode, entitled "Kentucky Fried Osbournes", aired on A&E on November 29, 2017. Ark Encounter was designated the "Sight of the Week" for January 1–7, 2018, by Doug Kirby's RoadsideAmerica.com. The site gave Ark Encounter its highest rating ("The Best"), noting, "the Ark is an attraction that should be visited – if only because it's unlikely that you'll ever visit anything else like it." The review characterized the ark as "a very nuts-and-bolts ''American'' Ark, with Noah and his clan in the mold of self-sufficient Pilgrims and innovative pioneers" (emphasis in original). On February 17, 2020,
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aired a documentary about the Ark Encounter entitled '' We Believe in Dinosaurs''. The filmmakers stated that their intention was to produce "a non-judgmental look at the Ark Encounter and its history", but upon release, Ken Ham called the film "an agenda-driven propaganda piece that does not rise to the level of a real documentary". Filmmakers Monica Long Ross and Clayton Brown followed the storyline of a "religious organization creating their own alternative science in a legitimate looking museum." The Ark Encounter was chosen as the Best Religious Museum in the 2020
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/10Best.com Readers Choice Awards. Its sister attraction, the Creation Museum, was ranked second. Polling for the award was halted during the COVID-19 pandemic, but resumed in 2023, when the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum were again voted first and second, respectively, in the Best Religious Museum category.


Attendance

AiG initially predicted yearly attendance for the attraction of 1.4–2.2 million people. After a year of operation, AiG reported attendance of about 1 million, attributing the lower number to opening in the middle of tourist season. On February 24, 2017, Executive Director of the Grant County
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Jamie Baker stated that the Ark had drawn additional tourism to the area, and that the challenge now was to expand accommodation and other local amenities in order to convert this into economic growth for the county. In March, the Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau presented the Ark Encounter with its Star of Tourism award for 2016. Bureau President Eric Summe reported a $23 million increase in visitor spending in nearby Boone, Kenton, and Campbell counties in 2016 over 2015, the year that the region hosted the
Major League Baseball All-Star Game The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual professional baseball game sanctioned by Major League Baseball (MLB) and contested between the all-stars from the American League (AL) and National ...
; Summe attributed a large part of the increase in spending and hotel occupancy to the opening of the Ark Encounter and an expansion of its sister attraction, AiG's Creation Museum. In June 2017, Mayor Jim Wells of
Dry Ridge, Kentucky Dry Ridge is a home rule-class city in Grant County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 2,191 at the 2010 census, up from 1,995 at the 2000 census. From around 1910 to 1960, the city's economy was dominated by business relate ...
stated that the Ark Encounter had a positive effect on the town, with hotel occupancy rates increasing from 60 to 98 percent since the opening of the attraction. In July 2018,
Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
-based Athena Hospitality Group broke ground on a hotel and restaurant development in Dry Ridge, citing the need for more accommodations for Ark Encounter visitors as the motivation. The planned development will accommodate three hotels and three restaurants, with the first hotel, an 80-room Comfort Suites projected to open in the third quarter of 2019. At the end of Ark Encounter's second year, July 2017 to June 2018, AiG reported an attendance of 1 million visitors for the year. County tax revenue (called "safety assessment") from paid ticket sales reflected approximately 860,000 paid admissions. The balance were young children and people with long-term passes, who did not require paid ticket entry. Because the city of Williamstown based their annual budget on AiG's attendance projections, the city was forced to readjust its budget downward when the number of paying guests fell short of 1 million. In 2020, Williamstown Mayor Rick Skinner noted that Ark attendance had been averaging about ten percent higher than the city had forecast until its temporary closure due to COVID-19. At the end of the fiscal year, revenue from the safety assessment fell twenty percent short of projections. In 2021, Ark Encounter returned to its 2019 attendance numbers and set record attendance numbers for certain days during the summer. Local businesses were booming as a result of increased tourism to Ark Encounter and Creation Museum. In April 2021, the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum were preparing to welcome their 10 millionth visitor altogether.


Tax incentives controversies

Organizations dedicated to supporting the separation of church and state were divided on the question of providing tax incentives for the Ark Encounter.
Barry W. Lynn Barry W. Lynn (born 1948) is an American activist who was the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State from 1992 to November 2017, when he retired. He was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Christ an ...
of
Americans United for Separation of Church and State Americans United for Separation of Church and State (Americans United or AU for short) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that advocates for the disassociation of religion and religious organizations from government. The separation of chur ...
opined that "The government should not be giving tax incentives for religious projects. Religion should be supported by voluntary donations, not the government." Bill Sharp, the staff attorney for the
American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...
of Kentucky, replied that "Courts have found that giving such tax exemptions on a nondiscriminatory basis does not violate the establishment clause, even when the tax exemption goes to a religious purpose." Edwin Kagin of
American Atheists American Atheists is a non-profit organization in the United States dedicated to defending the civil liberties of atheists and advocating complete separation of church and state. It provides speakers for colleges, universities, clubs, and th ...
brought up the difficulty of litigating against the incentives provided by state laws, saying, "The legislation is so drafted that they will give this incentive to any organization that is going to increase tourism in Kentucky, and there's no question whatsoever that this group will." The editorial board of the ''
Lexington Herald-Leader The ''Lexington Herald-Leader'' is a newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and based in Lexington, Kentucky. According to the ''1999 Editor & Publisher International Yearbook'', the paid circulation of the ''Herald-Leader'' is the second larg ...
'' wrote that "Ark Encounters is a private company seeking to make a profit off of a biblical theme. As such, it seems as entitled to apply for incentives from promised profits as any other private, for-profit company in Kentucky." Still, the board was critical of using the incentives to attract low-paying jobs and to facilitate construction of an attraction it characterized as hostile "to science, knowledge and education", which could be off-putting to "the kind of employers that will provide good-paying jobs with a future". Governor
Steve Beshear Steven Lynn Beshear ( ; born September 21, 1944) is an American attorney and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 61st governor of Kentucky from 2007 to 2015. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1974 ...
favored the incentives, stating "The people of Kentucky didn't elect me governor to debate religion. They elected me governor to create jobs," Beshear said, adding, "There's nothing even remotely unconstitutional about a for-profit organization coming in and investing $150 million to create jobs in Kentucky and bring tourism to Kentucky." Responding to an open records request by the ''Lexington Herald-Leader'', Beshear's office later admitted it had not seen the feasibility study cited in its press release, and an administration representative said that the state tourism department would have to conduct its own study in order for the park to be eligible for the incentives. The state-commissioned study by Hunden Strategic Partners and paid for by Ark Encounter, LLC, projected that the park would draw nearly 1.4 million visitors a year, but could require the state to widen the Interstate 75 interchange at Williamstown, at an additional cost to the state of about $11 million. In an editorial in late December 2010, ''
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'' questioned the potential cost to the state government of the project, including highway upgrades and the likelihood that increases to
hospitality industry The hospitality industry is a broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging, food and beverage services, event planning, theme parks, travel agency, tourism, hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, and bars. Sector ...
infrastructure would seek further subsidies. In May 2011, the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority voted unanimously to grant incentives of up to $43.1 million to Ark Encounter, LLC. for the project, by then projected to cost $172 million. In June 2017, Grant County Judge Executive Stephen P. Wood told the ''Lexington Herald-Leader'' that the tax incentives offered to the Ark Encounter were "a really bad deal for taxpayers". Although the valuation of the property within Ark Encounter's tax increment financing district increased from $1.3 million in 2011 to $55 million in 2017, under the terms of its deal with Ark Encounter, the county only retained $63,000 of the $250,000 in property taxes collected within the district, with the rest returning to the park. School taxes were exempted from the deal, and Grant County Schools saw a 58% increase in property tax revenue from 2016 to 2017. In April 2017, the city of Williamstown implemented a "safety assessment" of 50 cents per ticket sold at the Ark Encounter, the Williamstown Family Fun Park, and Main Street Gardens to upgrade the city's emergency equipment to sufficiently serve the attractions. AiG maintained that, as the largest of the three attractions, the assessment placed an undue share of the cost on Ark Encounter. After Williamstown officials rejected AiG's request to cap its share of the cost, first at $350,000 and later at $500,000, Ark Encounter LLC sold the main parcel of land for the attraction to its non-profit affiliate, Crosswater Canyon, for $10 and requested an exemption from the fee based on their status as a religious entity. County officials rejected that request. In 2020, the ''Grant County News and Express'' reported that the Williamstown Family Fun Park had closed, and Main Street Gardens had become non-profit, exempting it from paying the safety assessment and leaving the Ark Encounter as the only business impacted. The assessment generated $432,776 in revenue for the city in the 2018–19 fiscal year, equaling 865,553 paid tickets for the fiscal year. The ''News and Express'' noted that this figure excluded children under 5 years old and lifetime members of the Ark Encounter, since neither group requires a paid ticket to enter. The paper also noted that, in 2020, the Ark Encounter changed its pricing to allow free admission to children under 10 who visit the attraction with a paying adult; Williamstown Mayor Rick Skinner said that he believed this would attract more visitors to the park, offsetting any potential loss in city revenue from tickets that would have been sold to children between 6 and 10 years old. On July 18, 2017, the state of Kentucky notified Ark Encounter that the sale of the property to Crosswater Canyon put them in breach of their agreement for $18 million in tax incentives. Three days later, Crosswater Canyon reversed the sale, transferring the land back to Ark Encounter, LLC for $10. On July 25, Ark Encounter said they would pay the safety assessment and had been collecting it on tickets sold beginning July 1. In a public statement, AiG spokesman Mark Looy said, "The filing for an exemption as a religious non-profit (as permitted in the ordinance), was done in an attempt to get the county to change the wording as it currently stands, which would exempt the Ark Encounter. It was not to avoid paying its fair share, as some articles have suggested." AiG gave no official explanation for the transfer of land to or from Crosswater Canyon, which Williamstown officials had feared could be an attempt to avoid paying property taxes. The '' Grant County News and Express'' reported in December 2017 that the safety assessment had generated approximately $213,000 for the city in four months, with less than $500 of that amount being paid by attractions other than Ark Encounter. In its first year of operation, Ark Encounter generated over $2.28 million in sales taxes for the state of Kentucky, a figure which excluded the period during which the attraction was owned by Crosswater Canyon. Ark Encounter received a rebate of $1.8 million of the collected taxes, the maximum amount allowed for the year under terms of its agreement with the state.


Hiring policies controversy

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State petitioned the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority in August 2014 to withdraw its preliminary approval of tax incentives for the Ark Encounter because of AiG's hiring practices, which required all applicants to profess Christianity and sign a statement of faith attesting to their beliefs in young Earth creationism and that homosexuality is sinful among other requirements. Mike Zovath, AiG's coordinator for the Ark Encounter project, countered that the Ark Encounter's hiring policies had not been written yet and that the hiring policies of AiG should not be a factor because Ark Encounter, LLC was the entity receiving the incentives. In response to Americans United's petition, a spokesman for the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet said, "As a condition of any incentive program, all projects must follow all state and federal laws, including all laws related to hiring." Following Americans United's petition, the ''
Lexington Herald-Leader The ''Lexington Herald-Leader'' is a newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and based in Lexington, Kentucky. According to the ''1999 Editor & Publisher International Yearbook'', the paid circulation of the ''Herald-Leader'' is the second larg ...
'' editorial board also called for the incentives to be rescinded. In October, Kentucky Tourism Arts and Heritage Cabinet Secretary Bob Stewart wrote to AiG requesting "express written assurance from Ark Encounter that it will not discriminate in any way on the basis of religion in hiring for the project". Citing the
Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
's decision in '' Burwell v. Hobby Lobby'', which found that individuals had the right "to run their businesses as for-profit corporations in the manner required by their religious beliefs", AiG refused, insisting that Ark Encounter had the right to "include religion as a criteria in its future hiring decisions". In December 2014, Stewart announced that the incentives would be withdrawn, because the facility was to be used for religious indoctrination instead of as a tourist attraction, and because of complaints of hiring discrimination. During the Christmas holidays, AiG conducted a billboard public relations campaign in support of the project in several metropolitan areas in Kentucky and a digital billboard in New York City's
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. Ark Encounter LLC, filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against the state in February 2015. Freedom Guard chief counsel Mike Johnson represented AiG for free in the suit, which alleged the state of Kentucky violated Ark Encounter's
First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...
free speech rights by denying the incentives. AiG officials maintained that the incentives, potentially worth $18 million, were not necessary to complete construction of the ark, but they would accelerate the timeline for constructing additional phases of the Ark Encounter. After conservative
Matt Bevin Matthew Griswold Bevin (; born January 9, 1967) is an American businessman and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 62nd governor of Kentucky from 2015 to 2019. He is currently the CEO of Neuronetrix Solutions, LLC. Bo ...
was elected to succeed Steve Beshear as governor in November 2015, Kentucky Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer said he would encourage the new governor's administration to restore the tax incentives and render AiG's lawsuit moot, but Ham insisted that AiG preferred to have the matter adjudicated to set a legal precedent. On January 25, 2016, Federal Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky ruled in favor of AiG in the case of ''Ark Encounter LLC et al. vs. Bob Stewart et al.'', ordering the state to commence processing the application for the tax rebate incentives that would become available once the Ark Encounter opened. Bevin announced that the state would not appeal Van Tatenhove's decision, and later replaced four of the nine members on the Tourism Development Finance Authority. Ark Encounter began advertising to fill 300 to 400 jobs in the park in April 2016; applicants were required to sign a statement of faith before being hired. Two weeks later, the Tourism Development Finance Authority approved the incentives.


See also

*
Flood myth A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these Mythology, myths and the ...
*
List of flood myths Flood myths are common across a wide range of cultures, extending back into Bronze Age and Neolithic prehistory. These accounts depict a flood, sometimes global in scale, usually sent by a deity or deities to destroy civilization as an act of divin ...
* Noah's Ark replicas and derivatives *
Religious cosmology Religious cosmology is an explanation of the origin, evolution, and eventual fate of the universe from a religious perspective. This may include beliefs on origin in the form of a creation myth, subsequent evolution, current organizational form a ...


References


External links

* * {{Creationist museums Amusement parks opened in 2016 2016 establishments in Kentucky Amusement parks in Kentucky Tourist attractions in Grant County, Kentucky Replicas and derivatives of Noah's Ark Young Earth creationism Creation science Buildings and structures in Grant County, Kentucky