At last count, more than 150,000 visitors since the May 28 grand opening have made the pilgrimage to this $27 million marvel located about 25 miles from Cincinnati. They’ve traveled from nearly every state in the nation. They’ve traveled from overseas. They’ve traveled by car, plane and train.

Turns out Ken Ham was right. If you build it, they will come.

It’s less certain whether Ham thought the CM would be so controversial, but given the nature of the beast – in this case, a dinosaur living at the same time as man – it’s safe to assume that the former Australian school teacher turned “Young Earth” lightning rod knew what he was getting himself into.

Not that he minds. The more commotion stirred up through the comparison of creationism to evolution, the more exposure the museum receives. The more exposure, the more visitors who arrive. And the more visitors, the more souls that can be saved.

So bring on the “bad” press, the protesting scientists, the airplanes trailing banners that include: “Thou Shalt Not Lie.” Ham is ready for it all. The president of the Answers in Genesis ministry simply points people toward the first book of the Bible and asks:

“Is America getting better or worse? Is the compromise really working?”

Those questions have nagged at Ham since 1980, when he began contemplating the idea of a creationism museum to impress upon people the importance of Biblical authority. Twenty-seven years later, Ham’s dream became reality in the dirt of northern Kentucky.

The museum, located on 49 acres, is a mixture of ancient and modern: exhibits depicting Adam and Eve complete with the latest in audio-visual technology. A planetarium. Outdoor trails and fossil bones. It is impressive to say the least.

Live chameleons share space with a scale cutout of Noah’s ark. The serpent in the Garden of Eden tempts on one side of a walkway while Moses stands tall not far off.