Ark park attracts 400K visitors in first few months

WILLIAMSTOWN, Ky. (AP) – Kentucky’s $100 million Ark Encounter biblical theme park has drawn more than 400,000 visitors since its opening.

Media outlets report that the 510-foot-long Noah’s Ark replica opened on July 7 in Grant County. A state consultant predicted that the park would attract 500,000 visitors in its first year. Answers in Genesis, the Apologetics ministry behind the project, estimated 1.2 million visitors.

AiG spokesman Mark Looy says that attendance hit 6,900 Saturday.

Looy says visitors have come from states like California and Texas, and even from other countries. The influx of visitors has doubled attendance at the group’s Creation Museum, located 44 miles away in Petersburg.

Both the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum remain controversial because they argue that science supports the Bible’s creation story, that the earth is 6,000 years old and other claims.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.