American Heartland Theme Park
By: J. David Chapman/July 27, 2023
Like most summer weekends, I spent last weekend at Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees in Oklahoma boating; floating-out off our dock; watching floatplanes; day-tripping to Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas; eating at great restaurants on the water; and building memories with family and friends.
There was an announcement recently from state officials and developers that a new $2 billion Disneyland-sized theme park and resort is slated to open on Route 66, just west of Grand Lake in Vinita in 2026. It is expected to bring in 4.9 million guests each year and create 4,000 jobs for the four-state area of Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri.
The development is called the American Heartland Theme Park and Resort and will celebrate all that we stand for in hometown America. The development will be built in phases, starting with a large-scale RV park with cabins scheduled to open in the spring of 2025 and a world-class theme park and resort to open in 2026, the same year as the Route 66 centennial.
We arrived at the lake, like most weeks, on Thursday evening. This was the day after the huge announcement. It was met with a fair degree of skepticism from locals around Grand Lake. This should be expected because there are always rumors, and sometimes even announcements, of developments and projects that simply don’t come to fruition around Grand Lake.
My opinion? Glad you asked. I believe there is plenty to celebrate, and share, about the American Heartland lifestyle and culture in the “flyover” states in the middle of the U.S. I am cautiously optimistic that we will see a theme park and RV park near Grand Lake that will communicate that message. This part of the U.S. already has seen significant change and increase in population, although nothing as significant as the theme park and resort would create.
States in this part of the U.S. may be fly-over; however, there appears to be a fair number of tourists choosing to drive, and even travel in RVs, which is increasing tourism. The RV parks around Grand Lake are drawing huge investments and now catering to a whole-new client that purchased RVs during the pandemic years. The inability of the airline industry to serve recreational travelers may just be the catalyst to make a project like this succeed.
J. David Chapman is a professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).