[RollerBee]

It is a shame we can't ban together buy the resort. Sorry, I am in a funny mood.

[montumax]

^
Reminds me of the Trekkies trying to raise 32 million for another season of ENTERPRISE.

I was looking for the slide that Falwell went down in the suit. Guess its still standing.

[CarowindsThrills]

Does anyone have any links to pictures of when it was open? I want to see all the slides and the huge wavepool when it was open.

[carowindsfreak13]

I was there for camping. The place was a bit spooky also they had a Hollywood Tower Hotel look alike. It was bout to fall the way it looked.

Yes I would like to see some pics too.

[extreme]

Try this link, it has some good pics.

<a href='http://www.pbase.com/kappasigmapi/heritage_usa' target='_blank'>http://www.pbase.com/kappasigmapi/heritage_usa</a>

[carowindsfreak13]

Do you guys think that this is the sign of a old park to be restored and remodeled new park in the future and be a competition for PC. If they can restore all that stuff in the park? Any comments.

[RollerBee]

Maybe, but I doubt anyone will. I wish everyone would, but we ain't got the will.

[bgwfreak]

I must be losing it. I thought I posted this already, but didn't...LOL!!

Does anyone know what became of the railroad trains from PTL?

I'm always curious what happens to stuff like that. Like when one of PC's ended up at Neverland. :-O


And as a sidenote at the end of those pics it shows what I think was Heritages first church which is now Forest Hill Church. A friend of mine is a member there and he told me one day that PTL used to own the property. I couldn't believe I never knew that!!! LOL!!

Weather or not you believed in the religous aspect of the property, PTL was very good for the economy of Charlotte and it's sad to see it gone and nothing happening now for the past 15 years.

I think at one time PTL was the 3rd most visited attraction in the USA!!! (Behind Disneyworld and Disneyland). Hard to believe.


And ExtremeThanks for the link to those pics!! Ah the memories...

I found this page with some good pics of PTL as well <a href='http://sbno.illicitohio.com/heritage/heritage01.html' target='_blank'>http://sbno.illicitohio.com/heritage/heritage01.html</a>

[swampfox43]

Man, what pictures. I only went to the waterpark once but I still thought that their pool and slides were top notch. Sad to see the graffiti and weeds have taken over the mountain too.

I grew up in a very religious family and I remember even my parents were skeptical of the goings on at PTL. They refused to participate with them in any way. Of course, I was only 14 at the time and all I cared about was the waterpark.

[bgwfreak]

I went surfing around to find some more info on what was going on and found a Yahoo group <a href='http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PTLHERITAGEUSA/' target='_blank'>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PTLHERITAGEUSA/</a>. You have to join to get more info, but I did and they had some pics of the new ministry "H.I.M." that is now using the Grand Hotel.

Plans are to implode the towers at some point in the future. (Finally) I want to see that when it happens too!!! lol (for purely natural reasons, not anything against PTL)

The Grand Hotel will be remodeled into a church and school facility.

[Dukeis#1]

Does anyone know what became of the railroad trains from PTL?

The steam locomotive they had was sold to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. It's now the <a href='http://steamlocomotive.info/vlocomotive.cfm?Display=3897' target='_blank'>Alpen Express</a>. It never actually operated at PTL, but they were planning on restoring it at some point.

I'm not sure what became of the smaller Chance C.P. Huntington trains.

Thanks for pointing out the pictures and brochures. I wonder if Carowinds ever considered Heritage USA serious competition, or if they thought it was in a different league. It was drawing 6 million visitors.

[swampfox43]

I wonder if Carowinds ever considered Heritage USA serious competition, or if they thought it was in a different league. It was drawing 6 million visitors.

I had heard that one of the reasons Carowinds never upgraded the waterpark much in the 80's and early 90's was due to the fact that PTL's would still always be better. Look what happened now that it's closed. The Carowinds waterpark is booming now....

[bgwfreak]

The steam locomotive they had was sold to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. It's now the Alpen Express It never actually operated at PTL, but they were planning on restoring it at some point.

I'm not sure what became of the smaller Chance C.P. Huntington trains.

Wow, I didn't even know that PTL had a full sized train, and I've been on it too! LOL!!! It's a small world after all

I would imagine that would have been a major overhaul to lay down new track for a full sized train.

Oh well, what would have been...

[Jonathan]

I had heard that one of the reasons Carowinds never upgraded the waterpark much in the 80's and early 90's was due to the fact that PTL's would still always be better. Look what happened now that it's closed. The Carowinds waterpark is booming now....

Do you think that it was possibly the Waterworks expansion that caused the waterpark to close a second time? I'm sure there were a lot of factors involved, but I know that the Regency contracted a company to run the waterpark ("Carolina Splash Waterpark") up until 1997. Shortly after Carowinds released the plans for Waterworks, the company opted out of the contract, and the waterpark never reopened.

[Trev32]

Sad pictures....


<a href='http://illicitohio.com/SBNO/heritage/heritagegroup2/DCAO0280.JPG' target='_blank'>http://illicitohio.com/SBNO/heritage/herit...p2/DCAO0280.JPG</a>

IMO, every waterpark should have one of these (Dare Devil Drop Owns)