Utah actor fondly remembers park that brought magic to life
PLEASANT GROVE, Utah (ABC4) — William McAllister, a Utah high school teacher and actor, will always look back at Evermore, the now-defunct theme park in the heart of Pleasant Grove, with fond memories of magic and wonder.
Evermore Park was an interactive park where guests became the main characters in a world of magic, goblins, creatures and places to explore. Guests could follow quests and talk to the characters that brought the world to life.
McAllister was one such character. He played an inventor named William Blair Stewart who served as the assistant to the famed Mr. Wiccam. Together the two tinkered with an automaton robot they would then show off to guests. He told ABC4.com it was one of the most delightful experiences he’s had.
“It was so much fun. It felt like when I walked into the park it was the imagination of a child that was brought forth into a tangible reality where there were cool old buildings and caves you could enter and there were props and creatures and amazing costumes,” said McAllister.
McAllister said the founder of Evermore, Ken Bretschneider, spared no expense. The buildings weren’t facades, but were built for authenticity. For example, the church was made of stone and the tavern was made of wood. Props and decorations that filled the park were mostly authentic relics – McAllister recalled a 400-year-old spear Bretschneider won at an auction hanging on a wall in one of the buildings. The props that weren’t real were crafted in a way that made you believe that they were authentic and old.
During its three themed seasons, the park gave Utahns a chance to escape into a world unlike their own, where dragons and goblins roamed the streets. The effects team behind the scenes put in cinema-quality work to make the creatures as life-like as possible. McAllister said it was like walking into a real-life fantasy world.
“I think the magic was you saw, you’ve only ever seen in ‘Lord of the Rings,’ or that you’ve only ever seen in fantasy video games but they were walking around,” said McAllister. “They were physical things that you could see and look at, behold and interact with. For me, that’s where the magic comes from. Things that you only see on a screen or in a book as you’re reading it you see in your mind but then you’re there and they’re there and they’re in front of you.”
The unique park experience provided an equally unique challenge for the actors who gave life to the park as well. McAllister said actors were on shift from the moment the park opened until the gates shut at night. Actors had to stay in character for the entire day, improvising responses that fit within their character and the theme of the park, but were natural for the conversation with the park guests. He told ABC4.com that the guests always kept it interesting.
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“Previously, if I did improv, it was with other actors. We’d sometimes drive a story just through experience as actors – if we previously did scripted shows it would help us as we go forward with our improv.” McAllister said. “But at Evermore, you’d be talking to community members, maybe people who have never acted before. You would never know where they would take things. It was exciting.”
Unfortunately, the Evermore Park experiment was relatively short-lived. The park opened its doors in 2018 and experienced several “trials and tribulations,” which Bretschieder said were intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Brandon Fugal, the property owner of the 12.75 acres the park occupied, said the park failed to make its business model work.
“After months of not paying rent or expenses, they ceased operations and have moved out,” Fugal said.
In April 2024, it officially shut its gates for good.
McAllister told ABC4.com he was going to miss the park. He had worked there for one full season as the assistant tinkerer and came back as a special guest for a week a year later. He didn’t get the news the park was closing until it was too late to visit again. McAllister said he would miss walking around “that magical place.”
The park made McAllister feel like a kid in a candy store. As a fan of movies and the cinematic experience, he said it was cool to see the effects team at work, building new creatures and animatronics. He hoped the guests who had a chance to go to the park felt the same kind of impact. He said it was fun to get out and try different things and experience something positive for an evening.
“I really wish I had gone more often, even just as a guest. I was there a lot. I was there almost every night its opening season as an actor,” McAllister said. “But as far as just going as a guest, I think I only went maybe twice just to maybe go in and visit and see what it was to participate as a guest. I regret not going more often. I should have done that.”
While McAllister loved a lot of things the park brought to life, he told ABC4.com he would miss the people he worked with more than anything.
“They were cool. I made some good friends. Some of the smartest, sweetest, most talented storytellers,” McAllister said. “To be able to have the chance to live that experience with them for a while was really cool.”
As for the future of what was once Evermore Park, Fugal said plans are already in the works for a new attraction, with more details to come soon.
“I have my Evermore property under contract with a very well-capitalized group who is not only keeping the 27 existing old world structures intact, but finishing everything with new improvements,” he said.
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