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TROUTMAN Scottie Brown plans to open a zoo with zebras, giraffes, kangaroos and some 200 other animals next spring on his property off Ostwalt-Amity Road.
But first, he hopes to dazzle everyone with a drive-through holiday display that debuts Friday, featuring a million Christmas lights.
Brown intends to make "Christmas Wonderland of Lights" an annual tradition at his 40-acre Zootastic Park of Lake Norman.
The multicolored lights will be on display from 6 to 10 p.m. nightly through Dec. 31.
Visitors will drive through two miles of forest as they view the lights. They can set their FM dials to a channel that will play music for the display, Brown said.
The drive will end with a 300-foot Christmas light show set to music by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
At the end of the drive, children can also visit with Santa, ride ponies and go to a petting zoo and candy shop. A Nativity scene in Brown's 100-by-100-foot barn will include various live barnyard animals, Brown said.
Students in the Iredell-Statesville Schools are receiving free passes, and $1 from every adult ticket purchased will go to the parent-teacher organization at the school the buyer's child attends.
"Children and their families need a place to be filled with wonderment," Brown said. "The Christmas Wonderland of Lights will be that place for the holidays, and the zoo will be open soon for all to enjoy as well."
Brown said he hopes to open the zoo March 1, culminating several years of planning and work. Animals will be penned, not freely roaming the grounds, he said.
The zoo will have a Western theme to reflect Brown's love of the Old West.
Visitors to the lights display, for instance, will see the 300-foot-long Old West town Brown built out of wood from his land. The town includes a bank, jail, barbershop, doctor's office, post office and general store. An electrically controlled mannequin or two may pop up in the jail and elsewhere during your visit.
"I'm a Western buff," Brown said during a tour of his property last week. "John Wayne and Clint Eastwood are my heroes."
But even months before his zoo opens, Brown said, he's boosting local employment through the holiday display.
Twenty-three people have part-time jobs preparing the light show, and more will be hired to direct traffic. Nonprofit organizations such as the Boy Scouts also are helping with the light show and will receive money from the attraction.
