In the summer of 2023, Mansion Entertainment Group announced it was bringing Disneyland to Oklahoma. It would be a chance for middle America to experience a Disney-style theme park without traveling, and the plans would be grand.
Mansion hired over 20 former Disney Imagineers to help build the $2 billion theme park, which was expected to cover over 1,000 acres. The American Heartland theme park and Resort were going to be grand.
The theme park would have six distinctive lands, similar to the Magic Kingdom or Disneyland Park. Each land would feature a unique section of America, featuring rides, attractions, and shows.
American Heartland would also include a massive RV park with cabins, a water park, and a hotel. It was going to rival any theme park in America.
That was then, and this is now. After nearly 18 months, developers haven’t put a shovel in the ground for the theme park. After starting on the RV park, they were forced to revise their plans to move parts of the park out of a flood zone. Those delays have halted construction, and there is no time to restart the work.
Rick Lauchner, who has worked in construction in Vinita, Oklahoma, his entire life, told News 2:
I’m not surprised. I’ve been in construction all my life. I know how long it takes to put these places in. I don’t think they can do it in three years.
I think they said it’d be ready in ’26. I don’t see it. They haven’t even started on it yet.
Mansion Entertainment Group said they are still planning to proceed with the project. However, with no timeline to restart construction, the opening of American Heartland will be delayed until at least 2028.
Vinita, Oklahoma, is located in the northeastern part of the state. Residents have seen industry leave the state and have high hopes for the new theme park to breathe some life and much-needed money back into the area.
The residents are still hoping that the park will be ready by the end of the decade and that new businesses will come to the town to service the expected thousands of tourists.
Vinita resident Sarah Chamberlain said:
Nothing good is built overnight. We live in a world where everybody wants everything from a microwave, we drive thru, we want it now. And it’s going to take some time I think for something good and big to come out of this.
I believe it’s one thing, you know, and that’s what we just got to keep praying, If it’s the right thing, it’ll work out, and if it’s not, it won’t.
Hopefully, these delays will only be temporary for the residents of Vinita, who desperately need this theme park to succeed.