Gps Coordinates / 38.621675,-84.591103
Noahs Ark Ark Encounter Kentucky VR Tourism Locations
1 Ark Encounter Dr, Williamstown, KY 41097, United States
The ark contains 132 bays, each standing about 18 feet 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
Earth creationist beliefs about the age of the universe, age of the Earth, and co-existence of humans and non-avian dinosaurs
Gps Coordinates / 38.622333,-84.592261
On February 27, 2014, AiG founder Ken Ham announced that his February 4 debate on the viability of creationism with TV personality Bill Nye "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.
Link Location Gps / Gps Link -84.592408 / Gps Link -84.5923615 / Gps Link -84.5914236
Gps Coordinates / 38.622228,-84.592408 / 38.6223488,-84.5923615 / 38.6211472,-84.5914236
The ark is held 15 feet off the ground by a series of concrete towers. The starboard side of the hull merges into three 80-foot masonry towers containing stairwells, elevators, and restrooms.
Prior to the Ark's opening, media outlets reported it would feature models of dinosaurs and "Biblical unicorns".
Link Location Gps / Gps Link -84.5921631 / Gps Link -84.5928108 / Gps Link -84.5917383
Gps Coordinates / 38.622448,-84.5921631 / 38.6219334,-84.5928108 / 38.6224567,-84.5917383
The park's structures and infrastructure were constructed using environmentally friendly Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified methods, including geothermal heating, rainwater capture, active and passive solar heating. The Washington Post 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".
Link Location Gps / Gps Link -84.59192 / Gps Link -84.5923462 / Gps Link -84.5923004
Gps Coordinates / 38.6223833,-84.59192 / 38.6220398,-84.5923462 / 38.6223793,-84.5923004
Construction crews began clearing timber from the site late in 2012 in order to remove the shagbark hickory trees before the endangered Indiana bats 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 toured the Ark Encounter, accepting an invitation from LeRoy Troyer, president of the Troyer Group.
Link Location Gps / Gps Link -84.5923004 / Gps Link -84.5922928 / Gps Link -84.5919952
Gps Coordinates / 38.6223793,-84.5923004 / 38.6223755,-84.5922928 / 38.6223259,-84.5919952
Ark Encounter opened on July 7, 2016, a date (7/7) chosen to correspond with Genesis 7:7: "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 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.
The second deck contains more animal models, along with dioramas of Noah's workshop and a blacksmith.
Link Location Gps / Gps Link -84.592308 / Gps Link -84.5922699 / Gps Link -84.5931716
Gps Coordinates / 38.6225128,-84.592308 / 38.6220169,-84.5922699 / 38.621571,-84.5931716
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 lamps. According to AiG, the Ark Encounter is the largest timber frame structure in the United States.
Buffet-style restaurant with a capacity of 1,500 guests, making it one of the largest restaurants in the world.
Link Location Gps / Gps Link -84.5919913 / Gps Link -84.5930862 / Gps Link -84.5926208
Gps Coordinates / 38.6224888,-84.5919913 / 38.6218109,-84.5930862 / 38.6220551,-84.5926208
Is this an admittance that the dinosaurs and animals didn't get along?
Link Location Gps / Gps Link -84.592011 / Gps Link -84.592019 / Gps Link -84.591933
Gps Coordinates / 38.622333,-84.592011 / 38.622342,-84.592019 / 38.622514,-84.591933
From early planning became heatly argumentative
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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 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. The privately owned tax free exempt religious recruiting business ended up getting the much needed vast majority from government causing much anger from athiests and other even other religions
Gps Coordinates / 38.625345,-84.585709
Book your visit today at The Ark Encounter at their official website below
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Can be spotted easily from the main highway
Gps Coordinates / 38.630528,-84.580847
Controversy has usually plagued this construction
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.
Organizations dedicated to supporting the separation of church and state were divided on the question of providing tax incentives for the Ark Encounter. "The government should not be giving tax incentives for religious projects. Religion should be supported by voluntary donations, not the government." Staff attorney 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."
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".
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.
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.
Applicants were required to sign a statement of faith before being hired.
