A local imagines holiday time at Ghost Town in the Sky
We don’t think about it much anymore, but back long ago, Christmas was a time of ghosts. Back in the days of Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” with its holiday hauntings, telling ghosts stories around the Yuletide fire was something a tradition. The peculiar holiday would include the ending of another year and memories of loved ones long gone. It served as the yang to the yin of the idea of holiday cheer.
And so, in this season and its melancholy dichotomy, it’s appropriate to have a bit of a holiday dream and wonder what might have been. What would Christmas be like in modern days if Maggie Valley’s Ghost Town in the Sky had survived and thrived?
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About Ghost Town in the Sky
Opened in 1961 in the mountains of Western North Carolina, Ghost Town was a Wild West-themed theme park. The history of the park itself serves as an interesting mirror to Dollywood – which originally opened as Rebel Railroad in the same year. For its first years, Ghost Town was a massive success. But Ghost Town stumbled in the late 70s and early 80s. In 1986, the original owner bought the park back. The park’s trajectories veered wildly from there. Dollywood was on a path of massive success. Ghost Town, meanwhile, was destined for a slow and painful demise.
Ghost Town’s remote location both regionally and atop the mountain made the challenges of running the park more prominent. Located high in the mountains, Maggie Valley isn’t as easy to get to as Pigeon Forge. In addition to the location, the facilities atop the mountain were worse. Maintaining the infrastructure needed to manage water and sewer and get guests up and down the mountain added significantly to the expense of running the park.
As so, when the park’s chairlift broke in 2002, stranding guests for two hourst, the park closed. Over the years multiple attempts to resuscitate the park failed. Today, what remains of the park sits rotting atop the mountain in ownership limbo. The investment needed to get it back into operation would be astronomical.
What would a modern Ghost Town look like?
For all its problems, most folks who remember this attraction think of it quite fondly. So, I started wondering what it might look like during the holiday season if it were still in its prime. For this exercise, I’m going to imagine a Ghost Town that – in 1986 – got the kind of boost that Dollywood did. The Ghost Town of my dreams remains a Wild West-themed park with rides, shows and a lot more.
So what would a modern Wild West theme park would look like? The Western craze of the 50s and 60s calmed down in the ensuing decades. But we can look to the pieces of Wild West pop culture that either caught or remained in the national attention. I’m talking about “Tombstone” – the 1993 Western that remains beloved after 30 years. Ghost Town always relied on Wild West-themed shows that included demonstrations of the Wild West lifestyle.
My Ghost Town would have tried to catch a piece of “Tombstone” – and other Western movie and TV mania. This Ghost Town would have characters who exist in the public domain. Characters like Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp as well as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid would walk the town, interacting with guests like Mickey and Minnie in Disney. In the tradition of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows, we’d have quick draw contests, rope tricks and horse-riding exhibitions.
In addition to the rides – which in this alternate version of reality would be properly maintained – we’d try to lean harder into the theme side of the park instead of the amusement side.
What about at Christmas?
Here, I’ll look to Dollywood. Of course, it would have thousand of bright lights. There would be hot drinks and hearty holiday treats on every corner. We’d have seasonal shows like caroling with noted piano player Doc Holiday. Saloon dancers would portray family-friendly versions of the can-can. But they’d dress as Christmas elves.
I also like to imagine famous gunslingers of the West firing at real mistletoe. We’d have Butch Cassidy tell Christmas stories while Sundance broods and interjects with a touch of melancholy. The big show, however, would be a retelling of Dicken’s “Christmas Carol” with famous outlaws and cowboys in all the big roles. Billy the Kid as Jacob Marley and Jesse James could be Scrooge.
Not everything would be Wild West-themed, however. For instance, we’d put the chairlift to good use. Our Christmas season at Ghost Town would feature snow machines allowing guests to tube to the bottom of the mountain and then ride back up to the top of the park.
The coup de grace? A massive Christmas parade with our cowboys, outlaws, lawmen and more riding horseback and Butch Cassidy on one of that old-timey high-wheeled bikes. St. Nick would bring up the rear on a stagecoach pulled by eight tiny horses – I’m thinking Shetland ponies.
This Wild West Christmas would be something to see.
Will Ghost Town ever see a revival?
As much as I’d like to see Ghost Town return to its former glory, I don’t think it’s going to happen, especially not in light of recent events. It took $38 million to get the park up and open in 2007 – and that wasn’t exactly running at full capacity. The cost to get the park reopened today would be comparable to building a new park in a better location. I don’t believe the water, sewage and maintenance issues that have plagued the park for nearly 40 years have been solved. I can’t imagine that the rides and buildings have aged well sitting idle atop that mountain for years.
If we ever see Ghost Town again, I think it would have to be in a different location. Someone could buy the brand, salvage whatever they can from the Maggie Valley location and build in a more easily accessed location.
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If it was in a “better location”, it wouldn’t be “mile high in the sky”. The lift, the overhangs (particularly the coaster), and the scenery were part of the attraction. I don’t know it needed anything changed much, just proper maintenance. Aside from tubing, it already had most of the the stuff you describe.