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PLEASANT GROVE — The new 45-acre Evermore Adventure Park is a never-before-seen type of interactive, ever-changing theme park.
The planned park will take patrons on a trip back in time, to Victorian England with a fantastical twist. The park will be a choose-your-own adventure experience, with options for guests who want to explore and immerse themselves in the environment.
"The creativity of doing an immersive entertainment place like this had been a lifelong dream," said Evermore founder Ken Bretschneider, who is putting $20 million dollars of his own money into the $100 million dollar project.
To enhance the experience, making guests feel like they have truly entered another world, the employees in the park will be responsible for acting out different stories for visitors.
"We're plopping a European village — the coolest European village — right in the middle of Utah that is kind of like a giant movie set, if you want to think of it that way," Bretschneider said. "Everybody in the park is an actor, so you are embedded into an environment, and it changes with the seasons."
The ambitious project will have a town square, ice cream parlor, three restaurants, a lake with an island and a Victorian hotel that will be open to guests.
Three thousand trees will be planted in the park to help bring the fantasy world alive. Bretschneider said the houses and buildings in the area won't be visible from the inside of the park, and guests will only see landscaping and mountains.
Based on the success of ComicCon, Bretschneider is optimistic that Evermore will be well-received by Utahns, but he also hopes to attract tourists who come to Utah to ski or enjoy the national parks.
"Give us a chance to build this thing, and come out to enjoy it and experience it. It's going to be amazing," Bretschneider said.
Bretschneider and his team have been working on the project for two years so far, and they are hoping to start building this summer. They aim to open Phase 1 of the park in the fall of 2015
