A year after breaking ground, the much-hyped Three Ponies RV Park in Vinita, Oklahoma—billed as the largest RV park in the South-Central region—appears to have hit a wall.
Once part of a $2 billion vision for the American Heartland Theme Park and Resort, the 320-acre RV park was slated to open in spring 2025. Now, with construction liens, funding shortfalls, and no recent activity on-site, some locals are beginning to question whether the project will ever be completed.
Three Ponies RV Park just a part of a $2 billion theme park dream
We first wrote about Three Ponies back in the fall of 2023. At the time, it was part of a dream $2 billion theme park. Crews broke ground on the RV park portion of the American Heartland Theme Park and Resort in Vinita, Oklahoma. The RV park would take up 320 acres of the total 1,000 acre project. Promoters promised Three Ponies RV Park would open in spring 2025. Local business promoters were ecstatic.
Today the ecstasy has been replaced with skepticism.
“It doesn’t surprise me that nothing’s happened,” Vinita resident Donna Fowler told 2NewsOklahoma. “I’m not sure what’ll happen in the end. At the very beginning, you thought, yeah, this could be done. Then as time went on and on, it’s like, is it gonna happen?”
Construction liens and legislative fail show holes in Three Ponies project
Along the development trail, the signs of abandonment popped up. After some months went by following groundbreaking, Mansion Entertainment, the developer, stopped paying the bills. Two groups, Crossland Construction and FORREC, filed a $352,429.31 and $5.5 million lien against the development company, according to Craig County records. FORREC’s big lien is for design work, and has yet to be resolved.
Muddying the waters of Three Ponies RV Park’s future was a water-related issue. The city of Vinita was concerned about being able to provide water and sewage treatment for the big RV and theme parks. A bill was floated in the Oklahoma House of Representatives that would have given up to $35 million in rebates to help offset the city’s infrastructure development costs. That bill dried up before passage—making the project’s future even murkier.
“Don’t want to comment”
And how does Mansion Entertainment Group, the force behind the development, feel about the future of Three Ponies? The local TV station says it called the company’s public relations group and asked for their thoughts. “They have no update,” reports the station, “and don’t want to comment.”
So long, Three Ponies.
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RVT1218b
Thank you, Russ and Tina! Too bad that the plan was so grandiose from the start. Perhaps a much more modest beginning could have been made that was scalable. If the initial effort is deemed a success, then expansion could legitimately occur. More is the pity that, instead of a few dozen campsites possibly becoming several dozen later, several dozen campsites becomes none. 🙁 Have a great day and safe travels!
It was doomed the day the first investor’s check was cashed…..
Tornado’s target?