The Roanoke Times

File June A church group from Emporia tours a re-creation of the site of Jesus' crucifixion at Holy Land USA in Bedford County. The park offers walking or motorized tours of key events in the life of Christ.

Holy Land USA, a Bedford County theme park that offers tours of replicated biblical sites to tell the story of Jesus, is up for auction -- the victim of high upkeep costs and low attendance.

The park closed earlier this month, possibly forever.

Holy Land USA Inc., the nonprofit that runs the park -- which features replicas of Jesus' tomb and the Upper Room where he supped with his disciples -- plans to sell the site of nearly 200 acres to the highest bidder on Dec. 16, less than two years after buying it and reopening it. The park, which first opened in 1972, had been closed from 2005 to March 2008.

"We have given it our best," said Mike Dodson, head of the group that bought the 37-year-old park last year. "We spent a lot of money to get it open, but it's going to take a lot to keep it open."

Dodson said the park, located south of Bedford, costs up to $14,500 a month to run. During the busiest part of its season it averages about 300 visitors a week, netting the park a maximum of $3,000 weekly. Adults pay $10 to take the three-mile walking or motorized tour of the park and its 20 biblical sites.

Holy Land was founded by Robert Johnson on an old farm, and in its first three decades it drew an estimated 500,000 visitors and took in about $5 million in donations, according to former general manager Richard Dooley. The park operated continuously until 2005, when Dooley closed it (Johnson died in 1999) to look for a buyer.

Dodson, head of Tree of Life Ministries in Lynchburg, and a group of trustees bought the property in February 2008 for $750,000, reopening it the following month.

Dodson said the nonprofit organization upgraded the park, invested heavily in advertising and started renting out Noah's Ark, a two-story house with a boat-shaped deck, as a retreat center. Still, the nonprofit was not able to make enough money to pay the high maintenance costs, even though the park is staffed by volunteers, not paid employees.

According to TRF Auctions of Lynchburg, the property will be auctioned as five separate tracts, though bidders will have the opportunity to bid on the property as a whole. The company's Web site touts the property as ideal for use as a camp, church facility, corporate retreat, recreational land or timber investment.

Dodson said Holy Land USA Inc. can refuse to sell the park if the winning bid is deemed too low. If that's the case, the organization will try to reopen next year, he said. He added that he hopes the next owner continues to operate the park, but "if they can't, they can do what they want to with it."