“These people have left a trail of tears all over — it’s insane,” said Shannon Reilly, who filed a lien against Mr. Peterson and his wife in 2007. The Petersons arranged to have their horses boarded at her Florida ranch, she said, but after seven rather unfit horses were delivered, she never heard from them again.

Michael Johnson also knew of Mr. Peterson — calling him a man “who can weave a story like nobody you’ve ever met.”

Mr. Johnson said he allowed Mr. Peterson to move into a property in San Diego on the understanding that he was getting the money to buy it. Not only did Mr. Peterson never come up with the money, Mr. Johnson contended in a legal action in 2007, but when he was mistakenly sent a deed by a title insurance company, he used it to secure a $450,000 loan. Mr. Peterson was evicted, but the loan has not been repaid, Mr. Johnson said.

David Anthony, a Nashville lawyer, had heard about Festival Tennessee before just about anyone around here. Last year, he said, a man facing foreclosure on several homes came forward with a promise that a millionaire in Florida was planning to buy three of the homes, at an inflated price of around $7 million. As proof of his financial resources, Mr. Anthony said, the millionaire — Mr. Peterson, as it turned out — sent the man a packet of material about vaguely planned projects, including Festival Tennessee and the “Unicorn” movie, with promises that the money would come later.

“These were magic beans,” Mr. Anthony said. The bank he represented in the case was unmoved.

This sort of thing gives pause to many Spring Hill residents, including Jonathan Duda, a city alderman. Mr. Duda said he had the same concerns now as he did last year when a man identifying himself as a Nigerian king — a claim viewed skeptically by everyone from the State Department to the Spring Hill police chief — was received with a ceremony on the steps of City Hall.

“We’re being used to provide credibility for something that may be counterfeit,” he said.

The mayor, however, remains cautiously optimistic.

“It should be a very positive story,” Mr. Dinwiddie said in an interview at the Cracker Barrel, where the hostess urged him to ignore all the negativity and asked if her daughter-in-law’s Irish dance troupe could get a show at the theme park.