The Roanoke Times / File 2004

At the frontier fort in Explore Park, 18th-century coordinator Eddie Goode (left) shows Fred and Ben Eckert how deer hide is dried.

The Roanoke Times / File 1991

Explore Park was a field trip destination for schoolchildren well before its general opening. School outings continued to be a vital part of the park until the historic interpretation section closed in 2007.

The Roanoke Times / File 1988

Explore Park was a dream under construction in the earliest stages.

The Roanoke Times / File 1987

Richard Burrow, project engineer for Explore Park, points to a detailed map of the project.

The Roanoke Times / File 1999

Dirk Dock and Michael Poindexter from the Lexington Carriage Co. provide rides for park visitors.

Photos by The Roanoke Times

The Taubman Welcome Center at Explore Park is empty and boarded up.

"The park is not closed."

Fred Anderson, chairman of the Virginia Recreational Facilities Authority, which oversees Explore Park, doesn't want anyone to forget that.

Yes, the authority board did have to shut down the living history portion of the park in 2007 for lack of funds. The park's buildings, except the Blue Ridge Parkway Visitors Center, were shuttered.

The next year the board let its 13 employees go.

And now, Florida entrepreneur Larry Vander Maten -- who was going to build a $200 million overnight family vacation destination to rejuvenate the park called "Blue Ridge America" -- is out of the picture, unable to come up with funding for the project he first announced five years ago.

But a faithful cadre of volunteers has continuously kept portions of the park open for uses such as hiking, mountain biking, fishing and boating, Anderson said.

And now that Vander Maten's right to develop the property has expired, Anderson and other authority board members are expressing a renewed confidence that they can find a new route with new investors to make the park popular and profitable.

Well, at least make it break even, they hope.

They plan to do that by using existing facilities that can be quickly reopened for rentals and finding new partners to build and operate new attractions -- some similar to those Vander Maten proposed.

What's coming is "not a new incarnation of the park, but an evolution of what has been happening over the last 24 years," said K.C. Bratton, an authority board member and chairman of the Explore Park Economic Development Consortium.

The consortium is made up of authority members as well as business people, government representatives and economic development experts who are charged with recommending a new park model.

Established a year ago, the group has been talking to businesses and individuals interested in specialty attractions at the park. Ideas include rental of the Mountain Union Church for events such as weddings and receptions, converting portions of the Taubman Welcome Center into a retail showcase for Virginia wines, adaptation of the Brugh Tavern into a catering kitchen venue and construction of rental cabins.

The Rev. Rod Broker, a retired Lutheran minister, has already put together a preliminary budget and proposed uses -- weddings, receptions, interpretive programs -- for the church.

"Mountain Union Church already has a special place in the heart and spirit of so many people. The operation and development of this treasured facility will surely be a special draw and complement to any restructuring and reopening of Explore Park," he wrote the board.

"Someday, Walt Disney may come in," Bratton said. "You never know. But this is not the right time for that. It's time to present to the public the asset as is right now."

* * *

Since its creation, some $60 million in public and private financing has been invested in the 1,100-acre park straddling the Roanoke and Bedford county lines. The lion's share of the money came from taxpayers.

"This is a public facility," Bratton said, something the board couldn't forget when critics of its agreement with Vander Maten complained about the potential lack of public access and control of the site.

"What we were hoping to gain with Vander Maten was tax revenue or an increase in tourism that would benefit the community," Bratton said. "Now, we'll be looking for a return based not on revenue, but on usage."

Drawing enough visitors to financially support the park as it tried to fulfill its broad, legislatively mandated missions of education, conservation and historical preservation has been an issue from Day One.

Although the first master plan was conceived in 1987, the park didn't formally open until 1994.

By then, the original vision of a $350 million Lewis and Clark-themed park with hotels, a zoo, retail and other attractions was just a memory. The park began its public life as a conservation education center, and morphed into a living history experience as buildings were acquired and exhibits of frontier life were raised on the site.

The park always relied heavily on field trips by schoolchildren -- helping fulfill its education mission but failing to fill the coffers.

Even with a contingent of ardent volunteer labor filling some staffing needs, there was never enough money to do the things the park's managers and employees strived to achieve.

"When Vander Maten came into the picture, staff was diligently working with the River Foundation [the park's private funding arm] and the board starting a process for re-evaluating what Explore Park was, and what it was going to be in the future," said Debbie Pitts, the park's executive director.

The re-evaluation was named "Explore Now," and one of its proposals "was to hire a firm to do a feasibility study on moving the park forward," she said.

"We quickly realized the $25,000 we had for that was not enough."

That's one reason a prominent feature of the authority's lease agreement with Vander Maten was that if his company chose not to proceed, it would turn over "all written marketing studies and reports" with some exception based on "an obligation of confidentiality."

While conceding they are not sure exactly what that last clause will entail, Pitts and others at Explore are expecting to have those documents for guidance. Vander Maten has said he will provide everything he is "contractually obligated" to release.

Ideas for the original park plan -- which have been reconsidered over the years -- have been validated by Vander Maten's research, Pitts said. Those include things such as cabin rentals, a canoe and tubing concession on the river, and an RV park and campground.

Bratton noted that Vander Maten's approach taught the authority that it can partner with private entities.

At the same time, the authority learned over the past five years how important free access is to the public, he said.

* * *

Explore also has been a lightning rod for critics since its inception.

The original Lewis and Clark-themed attraction was vilified by those who thought it was too grandiose and too far from major highways -- criticisms also leveled at Vander Maten's plan.

When Roanoke County began to heavily subsidize the park a decade ago, some taxpayers balked at the expense, and the county eventually turned off the funding faucet. Other visitors complained that the living history exhibits were too limited to merit return visits.

And a vocal contingent has argued for years that the best use for the acreage would be to leave it alone -- as a state or national park -- in its natural state.

That seems an unlikely option, if a majority of the current board members have their way. The consortium's planners, while considering a range of new options, also have borrowed freely from the work of their predecessors.

Vander Maten, for instance, bargained with Norfolk Southern Railway Co. to get access across its property from one county to the other, and with the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority and Blue Ridge Parkway on access issues.

Authority board member Elmer Hodge insists Vander Maten "was a good teacher."

The developer led the board to be more willing to address the realities of a changing economy and shifting expectations, he said.

Hodge believes the park's future could include "some blend of history, some blend of competitive sports, some blend of family tourism for use of the river and trails."

Anderson believes the authority can begin to move forward on some aspects of a "Plan B" fairly quickly, even though a report is still due to the General Assembly detailing it.

"We always could reopen in six months, with some educational and events programming" using existing facilities, he said. "Retailing and other new recreational opportunities would open as quickly as possible after we negotiated with a private sector lessee."

Those might include cabins, a campground and a riverside pavilion.

"We don't want to be in the same business we were before," operating all of the park's activities, Anderson said. "I think we learned the lesson that we can't manage everything, but we can oversee everything."

Dale Wilkinson, a Roanoke Valley developer who introduced Vander Maten to Explore, said a smaller-scale approach could work, but that the board will need help.

"They're still going to need a primary developer who can help them put this together," he said. While not lobbying for the job, he said he would look at it if asked.