Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 1, 1994 TAG: 9401010038
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY STEVE GOLDSTEIN KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Long
Farm animals in this theme park often outnumber daily visitors. There are no lines for exhibits, no costumed tour guides. No food concessions, fast or otherwise.
"Bring 5 loaves and 2 fishes and have lunch by the Sea of Galilee," suggests the park's brochure.
Finally, the playland as parable.
This 245-acre replica of ancient Israel is a fantasyland tucked far away from mall-to-mall America.
Unpretentious and modest in size, the vision of a small-town grocer who invested his life savings in the project, this is where the Bible Belt - not the money belt - holds sway.
Manna, yes. Mammon, no. Admission and parking are free.
Souvenirs are a bargain in the Bethlehem manger gift shop, from the Holy Land baseball caps ($5) to the large nails "similar to ones Jesus was crucified with" (three for $1).
About the only thing Holy Land has in common with other amusement parks is a central theme.
With its wooden cutout camels and Three Wise Men, the low-budget, low-key Holy Land U.S.A. is a far cry from the latest vision of an outdoor fun factory, a proposed 3,000-acre "Disney's America" in Manassas, about 150 miles north.
A difference, quite definitely, by design.
"It's like having a friend with a place in the country, where you have the freedom to go and meditate and get things in perspective," said Clayton Carroll of Madison Heights, who has visited Holy Land about 40 times since it opened 21 years ago. "It's a break from the rat race," he said.
"It's not Mickey Mouse, that's for sure," said his wife, Jane.
Holy Land is a nature sanctuary/religious theme park that replicates most of the sites important to Christianity in what is now Israel, Syria and Jordan.
Beginning with Bethlehem and the Nativity, the route through the park carries the visitor past Nazareth, the Jordan River, the Sea of Galilee, Jericho, the Dead Sea, Gethsemane, Calvary, Joseph's Garden Tomb and the Mount of Olives.
"Holy Land U.S.A. is dedicated to the one who loves you, Jesus Christ, and is a living memorial," says a sign at the park entrance five miles outside Bedford, in the shadow of the Peaks of Otter.
"Holy Land is not commercial. Has no insurance. Please be careful as you journey on your own through God's beautiful nature sanctuary."
Admission is by optional donation only, except for large groups who book guided riding tours in open wagons or minibuses. Fees vary for these tours from about $150 to $350 per group, depending on the size of the group and length of the tour.
As with the park itself, its creator, Robert Johnson, is more David than Goliath. As he neared retirement from the grocery business he started in Bedford more than a half-century ago, Johnson conceived of a religious spectacle in his own back yard.
A roadside madonna is not what he had in mind.
Johnson's son, Campbell, had a vision of a new "holy land" in the United States, with reproductions of all the sites one might see on a trip to the Middle East.
In 1972, Johnson bought a 400-acre farm in the rolling hills outside Bedford, and he and Campbell began working to fulfill their ambition.
A week after he began working on his dream, Campbell, 24, was found dead in his apartment. The cause was a heart ailment he had had since boyhood.
In shock, Johnson buried his only son and the youngest of his four children on the site, declaring it a living memorial to Campbell.
"It's for peace of mind," said Johnson, now 82, during a recent interview. "Holy Land is for everybody."
Johnson poured nearly $2 million into the park, helped by donations of time and money. He worked on the replicas night and day.
"He spent all of his money, everything he had," said Nancy Dooley, an office assistant. "It was a lifeline to his son."
Earlier this year, Johnson turned Holy Land over to a local church, the Bible Center Chapel. He has given parts of the property to his three daughters. He often visits Campbell's grave in the park cemetery and still drops by the office.
"When you work for 21 years on one thing, you have to love it, you don't just do it for fun," said Johnson, wearing a fedora and a suit coat as he chatted, surrounded by stacks of Holy Land brochures. "I became obsessed."
Johnson's obsession has wrought a winding trail carved through a thickly wooded, rocky tract, leading from a mock manger to a sunny hillside that portrays the Resurrection.
The route is self-guided by reddish-brown signs adorned with gold lettering that describe the sites in the "journeys" of Jesus and list the appropriate verses from scripture. Visitors are encouraged to bring Bibles.
On a sunny December day, sheep and donkeys grazed near a pleasant stream designated the River Jordan. A sign read: "Mark 1:9 - Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John."
The Sea of Galilee turned out to be a mud-brown pond, in which a sad, paint-peeled fishing boat sat on its keel.
Nearby, another passage from the Gospel of Mark described "2,000 hogs drowned to destroy unclean spirits." A large plastic pig was surrounded by dozens of foot-square concrete blocks, from which spiraled metal "tails."
The Last Supper is portrayed on the second floor of a makeshift wooden barn, a long mural of Jesus and the Apostles sitting behind a rough-hewn table. A sign outside read, "$till, A$ of Old, Men by Them$elves are Priced."
Past the Via Dolorosa and the rocky mount that serves as Calvary is the Mount of Olives. Along the way are depictions of other faiths: a Muslim tomb, and Moses at Mount Sinai receiving the 10 Commandments.
Near the end of the journey is a large brick house, attached to which is a wooden prow.
"Noah's Ark," it turns out, is available to groups of 50 or more who want to spend the night.
The journey concludes at a large outdoor amphitheater with stone blocks that serve as seats. From a distance it looks like a cemetery.
At the center of the theater is a basketball court in the shape of the cross, with goals at all four ends.
Here the Carrolls and another couple from Lynchburg, the Gerrys, ruminated about what they had seen.
"It's really a personal place of reflection, rather than a tourist trap," said Elbridge Gerry, a tall man with a formal manner.
A guest book in the gift shop revealed a steady stream of visitors during November and December. Holy Land's manager, Richard Dooley, said close to 20,000 people had visited Holy Land this year.
Dooley is the pastor at the Bible Center Chapel, the current owner of Holy Land U.S.A.
The park survives on individual donations and the modest fees paid by groups. With these funds, Holy Land U.S.A. will be enlarged and improved, the replicas refined and enhanced.
He's been there. The real Holy Land, that is.
"It's all here," said Dooley proudly. "You don't have to go to Israel, but some still do."
by CNB