In 2023, a brand new theme park concept

made headlines as a rare independent

theme park set to rival Disney. The

makings of this concept seemed just as

striking, too, with over a thousand

acres of land set to be developed,

former Disney Imagineers designing the

park, and a chief creative officer

pouring his own Pizza Hut franchisee

fortune into the project. All of this

was going to be led by a former preacher

from Missouri. However, this two billion

dollar theme park project would quickly

take a dark and twisted turn with

delays, lawsuits, and alleged

manipulation and elder abuse. Needless

to say, this story gets very weird and

will probably end up in a direction you

won't expect. What's up, guys? My name

is Jake, and in this 18th episode of

Cancelled, let's take a look at the

massive failure that ultimately became

of the American Heartland Theme Park. It

all started with a press release. It was

July 2023, and seemingly out of the

blue, a brand new massive theme park had

just been announced. It wasn't one

overseas in Asia or in the Middle East,

but one deep in America's heartland. In

fact, the project itself would be called

the American Heartland Theme Park and

Resort. The entire concept would be

comprised of three major elements across

its thousand-acre site. The first would

be the Three Ponies RV Park and

Campground. An expansive complex which

could fit up to 750 RV spaces along with

another 300 cabins. Across the street

would be the theme park and accompanying

flagship hotel resort. American

Heartland Park was planned to be around

125 acres, which, as they pointed out in

the press release, was a comparable size

to the domestic Disney parks. In fact,

the whole project was being marketed as

something which was being developed by

former Disney Imagineers. Many of them

listed on their website. American

Heartland, though, was going to be

rather different. It generally wasn't

going to have any major IP tie-ins or

branded partnerships. It was honestly

going to be rather similar to the

never-built Disney's America Park, which

was once planned for Virginia. The core

idea being bringing guests through the

American story. American Heartland,

fully built out, was going to be

comprised of six different lands. As you

first enter through a grand plaza with

vintage cars zooming overhead, you'd

enter Liberty Village. A recreation of a

classic American town. Further on, you'd

encounter the Great Plains, a rural

themed area complete with some kiddie

attractions and a large wooden coaster.

Themed to the Pacific Northwest would be

Big Timber Falls, complete with forests,

mythic tales, and an enormous log flume

ride. Bayou Bay would have a lush

Louisiana swamp where you would find

paddle boats amongst the trees, rugged

boat rides, and even a pirate stunt

show. At the far end of the park would

be Stony Point Harbor. This would all be

themed around a classic American coastal

town, complete with a haunted lighthouse

dark ride, a small lagoon where guests

could take a boats and tall ships to

explore. This is also where guests could

check in to the 300-room four-star

hotel, one which was integrated into the

park itself and as such themed to the

area, evoking its own New England-style

architecture. Finally, there's

Electropolis, an Art Deco-inspired

amalgamation of various iconic World's

Fairs of the past. This land would not

only have a Tesla Tower drop attraction,

but would also have, perhaps, the most

thrilling ride in the park, a launch

coaster which would weave through the

buildings. Overall, American Heartland

would feature 19 different rides and

attractions and would cost over two

billion dollars to fully build out.

These plans and concept art were all

really well received from a conceptual

level. Even looking at it today, it all

does sound really cool and exciting. The

concept art and model that was unveiled

showed and described a detail-oriented,

highly themed, and immersive park, all

at a scale which theme park fans had

never seen before. But, it was no

mistake that the park and concept images

were all really well thought out as

design firms like THG, FORREC, and

Cunningham had all designed plans for

the park. These individual designers and

firms had put in a lot to create a

unified vision, one which was pretty

exciting and was the reason why this

looked so professional. However, after

the announcement and following its

wide-reaching press, which stretched

across the country and even

internationally, most articles that were

written usually came with a healthy

level of skepticism, and it's easy to

see why. The project was announced and

being developed by a company called

Mansion Entertainment Group LLC. At the

helm was CEO Larry Wilhite. Wilhite was

a former preacher and entrepreneur,

dabbling in many fields within the

entertainment business. He primarily

owned the Mansion Theater in Branson,

Missouri, touted to be one of the

largest indoor entertainment venues in

the area. His theater had been

moderately successful, and Wilhite had

continued to expand the Mansion

Entertainment business into other

ventures like animation, distribution,

as well as a TV and film studio which he

had announced in 2022. Now, this concept

would also include an attraction element

which would have guests go behind the

scenes. Ultimately, though, none of

these film studio's plans came to

fruition, but it was clear that Wilhite

had aspirations for something much

larger. In fact, the whole keynote

ceremony they held for the grand

unveiling was so intense. Not only did

they open the ceremony with a

performance of God Bless America, but

they also did a dramatic reveal of the

large-scale model and even concluded

with kind of goofy dramatic exit with

Larry Wilhite opening his arms, confetti

flying everywhere, all for some reason

under the score from the 1996 film

Independence Day. Following the American

Heartland announcements, it was soon

revealed by the company that they would

be completely funding it themselves.

They didn't go into exact details, but

they claimed that the resort had already

been fully committed and that they

wouldn't be taking on various loans and

additional investors as many other

projects would. They would basically be

funding all of this through their chief

creative officer, Gene Bicknell. Gene

made his fortune through various

investments, though mainly through his

time as a Pizza Hut franchisee, at one

point operating hundreds of locations

which he had started in the 1960s.

Bicknell was also an investor in the

Mansion, and with aspirations of his own

to build something truly exciting, he

joined forces and was seemingly funding

the entire effort. At the time of the

announcement, Bicknell was 89 years old.

While those in the entertainment

industry cautioned the legitimacy of a

first-time theme park operator, many

more would question the actual logistics

of their plan. American Heartland had

already purchased two large parcels of

land, not on the outskirts of some

massive American city, but pretty much

in the middle of nowhere. The park was

planned to be just outside of the small

town of Vinita, Oklahoma, which is

around 65 miles or around an hour's

drive from Tulsa, the nearest

international airport. More

specifically, the two already acquired

parcels of land would be located along

the historic Route 66. The park was

destined to be placed along the famous

highway, and the other parcel, intended

to be the RV park, was offset to the

north across from an existing quarry

mine. This was rural, too. The plots of

land were surrounded by what were

essentially country roads, some of them

just dirt, while the largest hotel in

the former booming town of Vinita was a

Holiday Inn Express. While these details

were already baffling enough, what

people really doubted was their very,

very ambitious timeline. Mansion

Entertainment said during their 2023

announcement that by 2025,

they would have the RV park open, and a

year later in 2026, they promised to

have the theme park open. This was a

ridiculous timeline. Regardless, the

surrounding local communities all seemed

to fully embrace the plan. With an

advertised five million guests a year,

this would have been the first major

independent theme park built in America

in years. It would have also been one of

the largest private investments into

Oklahoma and really the surrounding

states, especially in terms of

entertainment, in a long time. With such

a unique location, it would also bring

major investment to the often-overlooked

communities. In fact, following the

announcement, Facebook groups were

created to advertise investment

opportunities with local parcels going

up for sale with the potential for

future investors to snatch up the land

in anticipation for the upcoming park.

Meanwhile, the company would show off a

revised fly-through of the park in

August, still pressing on with their

aggressive timeline. Indeed, the company

had seemed to be making progress, too.

On October 30th, 2023, they hosted a

groundbreaking ceremony for the Three

Ponies RV Park and Campground. A whole

shovel photo op was held with all major

executives and politicians on the

project in attendance, reassuring the

media that this project was indeed

happening. The opening date of 2025 was

once again reassured, and by the end of

the year, they shared a construction

update showing heavy machinery at work

with gravel being laid. Both the

ceremony and the update videos were

uploaded to their YouTube channel with

comments turned off. By early 2024,

while Mansion Entertainment was

sponsoring the Rose Parade with their

own custom floats, the Three Ponies site

was more or less stagnant. While a small

gravel staging area had been constructed

as well as temporary fencing, an office

trailer, and the official sign, not much

else had actually been done. They did,

however, make a social media post

claiming that the scope and budget of

the project had increased all while

asking for people's patience, announcing

a partnership with Pepsi, and claiming

that they would have further

announcements in the coming months. By

April, representatives for the park went

before city council in an effort to

answer some questions. The whole thing

was just weird with two representatives

from Mansion Entertainment speaking to

why things have slowed down. One of

their executives, Steve Hedrick, claimed

that the reason why the RV park progress

had slowed was apparently his fault and

it was because he asked his designers to

compress the RV park and move sections

of it off a flood plain.

Some of you may notice that the uh RV

park is lagging a little behind and

that's my fault. I'm sorry. Regardless,

their chief marketing officer claimed

that even then, in April 2024, they were

still on track for a Three Ponies

opening in 2025

and the theme park, which hadn't even

broken ground yet, for 2026.

As they concluded with the promise of

more frequent updates, the news on the

project would only get worse. While both

sides had continued to remain dormant

and basically unchanged, in May of 2024,

both FORREC, one of the contracted theme

park design firms, as well as Crossland

Construction Company, had filed liens

against American Heartland for unpaid

fees. This was seemingly one of the

first cracks in the plan. While the

company did have a very small presence

at the local Route 66 Festival, still no

progress had been made on either of the

project sites. The projected opening

dates were basically becoming

impossible. And finally, in October of

that year, they claimed that their plans

had been pushed back by at least 3

years. They said that issues with the

flood plain over Three Ponies was the

root cause and stated that the earliest

the theme park would now open would be

2028.

Even that was pretty ambitious and with

local residents and theme park observers

pretty much losing all faith, the news

on the project would only continue to

get even worse. By early 2025, the

park's main social media accounts had

just stopped posting. Their Facebook

would ultimately be deactivated and the

last post on their Twitter account would

be in July of the previous year. It

would make sense that all communications

were about to go quiet as the developers

likely knew what was about to hit the

headlines. On July 25th, 2025,

a lawsuit was filed on behalf of Gene

Bicknell, the chief creative officer and

the primary source of funding. Bicknell,

who was now 91 years old by this point,

had filed a lawsuit against his fellow

American Heartland executives, Richard

Zelenka's Jr., Stephen Hedrick, and CEO

Larry Wilhite. The lawsuit made some

pretty startling accusations and boldly

stated that, quote, "They coerced him

into sinking more than $60 million

into the design and construction of the

American Heartland theme park." The

lawsuit would go on to allege that,

quote, "Zelenka's and Wilhite executed a

predatory conspiracy of psychological

manipulation, convincing Gene, through

fraud and impersonation, that God

himself was commanding him to both

finance the park's construction and to

grant Zelenka's and Wilhite 2/3

ownership over the completed venture."

Okay. So, the lawsuit goes on to detail

the alleged beginnings of the

relationship with Gene and the other

executives, stating that the original

movie studio plans that Wilhite had for

his theater in Branson, Missouri, did

grow beyond the original scope. It

claims that the men had mistakenly

believed that Bicknell was worth

billions of dollars when he wasn't. And

since Wilhite was a former preacher and

Bicknell was a devout Christian, the

lawsuit alleges that the executives had

conspired to use that to manipulate The

lawsuit lays these communications out in

quite detail, alleging that the

executives pretended to be God, sending

text messages, then subscribing Bicknell

to an email that they controlled and

that he thought was being sent by God,

which emailed him nearly every day.

These emails called on Bicknell to

essentially be obedient, to trust his

business partners, not to ask any

questions, and not to rely on his

decades of business sense. The suit also

lays out many other issues with the

development as a whole, from lying to

the press about certain executives'

involvement to baseless economic

viability figures to secure funding, or

in other words, fraud. It also claims

that for all the money being spent and

[snorts] the millions which Bicknell had

sunk into the company, it was all being

used to enrich the developers, each one

purportedly receiving hundreds of

thousands of dollars for themselves and

their families. It also details how, by

the end, Bicknell had sunk his entire

fortune into the project and claims that

he had even overdrafted on his accounts

and took out short-term loans. The

lawsuit is scathing. It alleges serious

claims of fraud and manipulation that

basically showed the entire theme park

project was propped up by lies,

incompetence, and just malicious intent.

I'll leave a link to the lawsuit in the

description below if you want to take a

look yourself. Regardless, everything in

Bicknell's lawsuit was alleged and

nothing, at the time of writing this,

has been proven in court, nor have any

of the men named in the lawsuit been

charged with any crime. One of the

defendants, Rick Zelenka's, who was

defending himself, was accused of using

generative AI in one of his court

filings in January 2026. But, of course,

all of this is still ongoing. This is

all just such an insane situation, one

which has gotten crazier as time has

gone on. I think it goes without saying,

but progress on the American Heartland

park since 2024 has been basically

nonexistent. If the claims in Bicknell's

lawsuits are to be believed, then the

project had run out of money years ago.

The one thing that is for sure, though,

is that through all of this time, those

outstanding payments were never made to

the designers and contractors who were

out of money. And now, going through the

courts, they're looking to foreclose on

the parcels of land to get something out

of it. No work has been done on the site

since. All of their social media

accounts have been radio silence and

even the trademarks for the park, along

with its lands and attractions, all

expired in October of 2025. I think it's

safe to say that the park has now been

officially canceled. In the end, and in

my opinion, this was just a stupid idea

coming from stupid people who had no

idea what they were doing. Larry Wilhite

had a small, yet seemingly decently

successful business, one that he was

desperately trying to make bigger than

it actually was. Again, in my opinion,

his aspirations of building a big

tourist attraction kept his reality

basically unchecked. And with the

financial backer who they thought had

billions of dollars and was allegedly

fully at their will, then what could

possibly stop him from achieving

something really big? But, American

Heartland was an extremely flawed idea

from the start, clearly being run by

developers who did not know what they

were doing, nor how to do it. The only

reason the park actually looked detailed

and high quality was because of the

acclaimed design firms they hired and

subsequently didn't pay. But, it really

comes down to the core idea, one which

was just not going to work. Why would

you build it in the middle of nowhere?

It's a place that has no infrastructure,

operates on wildly different seasons,

and is smack-dab in the middle of

tornado alley. Nobody should have ever

taken them seriously just on the fact

that they said they were going to have

it all open in just 3 years. What an

enormous waste of 60-plus million

dollars. So, as more information comes

out about what really happened behind

the scenes here, and as more time passes

on the now overgrown parcels of land

where the theme park was set to be

built, this might ironically go down as

perhaps the biggest American theme park

failure in the last few decades, one

which was ultimately, and in my opinion,

deservedly

canceled.

If you enjoyed this video and want to

see more like it, please do consider

subscribing to this channel, Bright Sun

Films. Until the next time, my name is

Jake and thank you very much for

watching.