The latest from Ghost Town in Maggie Valley
The long and winding road that is the history of Ghost Town Village – aka Ghost Town in the Sky – has taken another turn. Ghost Town’s owner Jill McClure told ABC News13 that the potential buyer operates an entertainment venue in Florida.
“Not a big attraction, but one I think that Maggie Valley can accommodate – something similar. Actually, not even similar. It will be a totally different venue. They love country music, rodeos, convention-type events, festivals,” McClure told the TV station.
Will this buyer bring new life to the park that has been closed for nearly two decades? As it always does in Maggie Valley, only time will tell.
IN THIS ARTICLE
The rise and fall of a mountain tourism icon
Ghost Town launched in 1961 – the same year as Rebel Railroad, the park that would become Dollywood. Capitalizing on the nation’s fascination with the Wild West, Ghost Town became a success. However, there were difficulties with operating a park on top of a fairly remote North Carolina Mountain. At its peak, the park drew up to 600,000 visitors a year.
However, in 1973, founder R.B. Coburn sold the park to a larger attraction operator, and it was the beginning of a very long, slow end. The new owners didn’t view the park as an important part of its portfolio and didn’t invest in it. By the time Coburn bought it back in 1986, the same year Dollywood opened, the incoming revenue wasn’t enough to keep the park up to date.
Coburn tried to bring in more rides to attract more people. But the limitations of the ski-lift system to get people up to the park and back down was a hinderance in drawing larger crowds. Also, changing infrastructure standards meant getting water up and down the mountain and maintaining proper power and sewer standards was more expensive and more difficult.
In July of 2002, the chairlift broke, stranding passengers in the summer sun for two hours. Coburn closed the park and put it up for sale.
The park reopens in 2007
In May of 2007 the park reopened following a $38 million investment. A few months later the housing market crashed, the economy tanked, and that $38 million investment seemed imprudent. The park limped through 2009 as various ownership groups were sought. However in February of 2010 massive mudslide seemed to provide the park its death knell.
Still, hope remained. A local named Alaska Presley – who’d recommended the site to Coburn all those years early – bought the location for $2.5 million with hopes of getting enough investment for a limited reopening which happened briefly in 2014.
Other groups tried to buy the park, but funding efforts fell through.
When Pressley died in 2022 at the age of 98, she left her half of the ownership to her niece McClure. The other half belonged to South Carolina developer Frankie Wood. The two sides squabbled a bit over who owned what but settled and came together to try and come up with a plan.
Late last year, Wood died in a horrible construction accident in his hometown of Myrtle Beach. And this left McClure in charge of the future of the park.
“I am the sole owner, member and manager. I had a professional appraisal done by the Palmer Company, and it was valued at $6.4 million, and that includes 285 acres,” McClure told News13. “If by chance this does not come to fruition, I will be putting the property on the market.”
Can Ghost Town be saved?
McClure didn’t say what the potential buyer’s vision for the site would be. She did say that they would be likely to keep the Western Town and a family-friendly theme.
Whatever the vision is, salvaging anything atop the mountain will be no small task. It’s been more than a decade since anything viable was operating atop the mountain and nearly two since the park operated as anything close to a theme park.
While it’s tough to speculate, McClure’s indication seems to be that the potential buyer would turn it into another entertainment venue and not a full-fledged theme park. Building and operating a theme park in today’s competitive market would run in the hundreds of millions – if not billions – of dollars.
I’ve long been skeptical of any successful tourism venture succeeding there. I know Anakeesta and the SkyPark in Gatlinburg have been successful using a skylift model to get people to the park. But, I don’t how that works in Maggie Valley.
Still, I won’t rule anything out. There isn’t a problem atop that mountain that couldn’t be solved with the right vision and enough money.&
Do you think Ghost Town can be restored or reimagined? Let us know in the comments!