[5] It was the third-largest theme park by attendance, with 4.9 million visitors per year, behind only Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida and Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

[7] According to the September 21, 1987, issue of Time magazine, televangelist Jerry Falwell "plunged" down a 163 feet (50 m) "hellish" water slide called the "Typhoon" wearing a suit, fulfilling "a promise made during a fund-raising drive that netted $20 million for the debt-ridden PTL".

[9] The article said Jim Bakker "arranged for Falwell to take over PTL in March in an effort to avoid what he called a 'hostile takeover' of the television ministry by people threatening to expose a sexual encounter he admitted to having seven years earlier with church secretary Jessica Hahn.

Soon after Bakker's federal indictment and public condemnation for raping and drugging Jessica Hahn with another man in his employ, John Fletcher, seven years before,[13] park attendance dropped.

[15] In return for a promised lifetime annual four-day vacation stay, 165,000 people had donated $1,000 to Jim Bakker's planned Heritage USA hotel tower; each donor received $6.54 in compensation.

[16] Starting in 1987, Bakker's legal and personal troubles made headlines, and in September 1989, Hurricane Hugo caused severe damage to many of the buildings.

[citation needed] Through its local subsidiary Regent Carolina Corporation, MUI built a golf course and residential development on most of the former Heritage USA property.

[27] The buildings that had housed Flames-of-Fire were sold to The Broadcast Group, a television and multi-media production company headed by Dr. Dale Hill, who formerly worked for Bakker and PTL.

[29] In April 2009, ZHOP vacated the grounds, and the building that housed their ministry, a former PTL warehouse complex, was sold to MorningStar Fellowship Church.

[36] In February 2014, The Broadcast Group suddenly relocated their operations from the buildings to a nearby office park in Fort Mill and shortly afterwards it was announced that all of the buildings and the surrounding 18-acre property had been acquired by Antioch International Church,[37] which operated from a converted/renovated former PTL warehouse near the Heritage Grand Hotel, for $3.81 million on April 24, 2014; according to York County, South Carolina tax records.

The county continued to appeal its claims until 2019, and a joint agreement in 2020 gave MorningStar time to start the process of finishing the tower for senior housing.

[46] On March 19, 2013, developer Earl Coulston, who had purchased much of the former Heritage USA property, began demolishing "The King's Castle", an abandoned arcade and go-kart track that was originally intended to house the world's largest Wendy's restaurant.

[failed verification][49] Coulston approached MorningStar and offered to pay for the cost of demolition because it was partially on his property and abutted a nearby housing complex he was developing.

[citation needed] As soon as demolition began, it was halted the same day because the contractor did not have proper permission from either the State of South Carolina or York County.

A large portion of the amphitheater was demolished as part of Coulston's plan to retrofit it with a roof and turn it into a venue for youth concerts.