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Atlantic Writer Gets Inside Look at Ark Encounter Plans

The Atlantic Monthly has taken note of a massive Kentucky project with very simple specs.Writer Amanda Petrusich visited Kentucky's Creation Museum to get more information on the Ark Encounter,the theme park planned for Williamstown, Ky., by the museum's founders Answers in Genesis. It's a short piece,but Petrusich still manages to go into some detail about the labor that's gone into the planning for re-creating the Noah's Ark in a small northern Kentucky town. She writes:

As for Ark Encounter, so far, land has been purchased, design work has been completed, and Amish builders from Indiana have been enlisted for construction. The ark is expected to cost about $21 million, of which the ministry has raised more than $8 million (supporters can sponsor a peg for $100; a “Lifetime Charter Boarding Pass” is available for $3,000 per family). When I asked Zovath whether his project was really achievable—whether he could safely and efficiently fabricate a multimillion-dollar tourist attraction to God’s specifications, using only wooden pegs, planks, beams, and whatever else might have been available to Noah—he didn’t hesitate. “It’s certainly possible,” he said. “It was done a few thousand years ago.”

She adds that the land-locked boat will feature energy-efficient LEED technology.As a side note, Petrusich is a New York-based writer but is familiar with Kentucky. She wrote the book It Still Moves, in which she tells of her travels through the South to learn more about folk music. It Still Moves dwells on Kentucky some, and I talked to her for Velocity Weekly way back in 2008.The Ark Encounter's planners may benefit from good timing -- the ark is on the verge of entering the zeitgeist. Petrusich notes that this isn't the only recent attempt to recreate the ark. And Darren Aronofsky, the Black Swan director, recently Tweeted a photo from the set of his forthcoming film Noah, starring Russell Crowe.The film is scheduled for release in March 2014, Huffington Post reported.The Ark Encounter may open as early as 2014, too, the park's website said.That's provided we're all still here to see them.
Joseph Lord is the online managing editor for WFPL.