The arrival of heavy plant and construction crews on Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch has prompted speculation that his family are planning to construct a Graceland-style memorial to the late King of Pop at his most famous home.

Thousands of mourning fans are expected to converge on Neverland on Friday for a public wake due to coincide with a private memorial service at the 2,500-acre estate in the hills of Santa Barbara County, in California's wine country.

But there were reports today that Jackson's body, which is to be taken to the ranch tomorrow, will formally lie in state at the ranch, allowing fans to pay their last respects to the entertainer, who collapsed and died at his home in Los Angeles last Thursday.

In its heyday in the 1990s Neverland, named after the house where Peter Pan refused to grow up, featured its own amusement park, a zoo with giraffes and tigers and statues of children at play. Jackson left the estate, however, after his acquittal in 2005 on charges that he had molested a 13-year-old boy there and the rides have since disappeared.

Last night, journalists at the ranch reported the arrival of heavy construction and building workers. More than a dozen vehicles, including a tractor, a cement mixer and an excavator were spotted on the property, along with groups of gardeners and florists bearing huge wreaths.

The arrival of the construction gear at Neverland appeared to suggest that the singer's family, led by his parents Joe and Katherine, were planning to construct some kind of permanent memorial or Michael Jackson museum at the ranch, similar to the Graceland memorial built at Elvis Presley's home after his premature death in 1977.

There is already a tussle, however, to host what is likely to become the most visited memorial in entertainment history. The mayor of Gary, Indiana, the rustbelt city where Jackson was born, wants the singer buried there and a museum built to mark his life. "If they can do it for Elvis Presley in Graceland, we can do it for Michael Jackson in Gary," said Mayor Rudy Clay.

But tourism experts were sceptical about Gary's long-term potential to draw the crowds compared with Neverland, a place already linked more closely to Jackson in the minds of both diehard fans and the merely curious from around the world.

"It was his place as an adult," saiod Roger Brooks, CEO of Destination Development International. "It was his vision that built the place from the ground up. "People would go to California to see that."

Members of Jackson's family met yesterday with officials from the Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol about arrangements for al funeral, but no decision has yet been announced.

Fran Clader, a spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol, said that it would need to be consulted if the body was moved from Los Angeles to Neverland. County officials have already promised to enforce parking restrictions to keep traffic moving on the narrow, two-lane Figueroa Mountain Road that runs past Neverland.

Thomas J. Barrack Jr, the Los Angeles billionaire whose company took control of a majority stake in Neverland last year, issued an open letter to the Santa Barbara community urging them to welcome Jackson fans. Many had objected to hordes who arrived in 2005 during Jackson’s most recent child abuse trial.

It is still unclear, however, whether Jackson could be legally buried at the ranch. California's health and safety code makes interring any uncremated remains outside of a cemetery a misdemeanour.

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