Bedford, Virginia - Virginia's Holy Land USA

I use to go to The Holy Land USA in Bedford VA all the time when I was a kid. We use to take my children also when I got married. I called the Holy Land USA and they opened April 1st according to the voice mail. It's a really neat experience. I plan on taking my Awana Children. [Janet, 04/12/2008]

I can verify that the Holy Land is still closed. All you can see from the road are a couple of giant crosses and what's apparently a historical Biblical-era transport that blocks the entrance.

As I bought my Holy Land postcards at the Bedford Area Welcome Center, the woman at the register said, "It's a shame that place had to close, and I don't think it's ever going to re-open. The people that own it have just gotten too old to keep up with it." [Dean Jeffrey, 10/21/2007]

[RA: April 2008: Holy Land USA is back in business; its closing was only temporary.]

I was reading the story on Holy Land USA in Waterbury, CT. I have an eerie, yet almost identical, roadside adventure. I have been visiting this Holy Land USA since I was a child.

My gandfather was a local minister in Bedford, VA, and we would have the big family "gettogether." here. We would always stay in "the Ark" -- an enormous 3-story cabin that was made to look like Noah's Ark. I can remember sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner one year and there were tours that would come through -- peering through the windows -- as if we were part of the exhibit.

It comes complete with dilapidated old buildings, and something called "the nothing" -- by far the most artistically created piece in the park. There's also the little town of Bethlehem, complete with creepy old figures, half lit displays, and lots and lots of animals running free throughout the park. [J. Carton, 09/23/2002]

[RA: An old favorite of ours, chronicled in the first Roadside America book. It's a 250-acre Bible-themed nature sanctuary that relies on donations and the occasional gift shop buying binge. Wonder if they still sell the souvenir Crown of Thorns and nails "like those used to crucify our Lord"? December 2007: Added this photo from Elizabeth Massie's visit in 1994, here in front of "King Herod's Idol" folk art contraption.]