The No. 1 missed attraction won in a landslide, while the others were a close race
In his treatise on faith, the power of the past and perception, the great Long Island philosopher William Martin Joel said, “The good old days weren’t always good and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems.” It’s a sentiment that rings true in the mountains of East Tennessee where yesterday is often viewed through rose-colored glasses while today and tomorrow are viewed with skepticism. Certainly, it’s a funny outlook for a place where change isn’t just inevitable. It’s fast and unforgiving.
Still, there’s no harm in looking back and remembering our past. The places where we had great memories and at one time looked forward to building more. So, we asked our followers on social media: which long, lost attraction from the region they missed the most. The answers, for the most part, were surprising.
The team at TheSmokies.com asked our followers on social media which long-lost attraction they missed the most. Several ghosts of Gatlinburg past got votes but there was one long-gone attraction that took the contest in a landslide. Most of our readers identified a single attraction as the most missed in the Smokies. While several other deeper cuts got votes, the overwhelming winner was Maggie Valley’s Ghost Town in the Sky.
1. Ghost Town in the Sky
In Maggie Valley, there was once a magnificent place. A mountaintop theme park that rivaled Pigeon Forge’s Silver Dollar City. Birthed in 1961, Ghost Town in the Sky was built to capitalize on the national obsession with the Wild West. For years, the park was a success, drawing nearly 700,000 people annually. The park offered staged deer hunts and raids on a frontier village. Cowboys mowed each other down in the street every hour. Rides included the Sea Dragon, Casino, Black Widow Scrambler and Silver Bullet Flume.
But times changed. Just about the same time Dolly Parton bought into Silver Dollar City and Dollywood was born, Ghost Town began to struggle. The park, which had thumbed its nose at the logistical challenges of supplying and maintaining a mountaintop theme park, began to run into infrastructure issues. Getting enough water up to the park was a problem. As attendance sagged and affected finances, maintenance became an issue. In 2002, the chairlift – the only way to get visitors up to the park – or back down – broke down. Guests baked for hours in the July heat. The park was essentially done.
A resurrection was attempted a few years later. The park limped through a season or so. But it fell silent again and all subsequent attempts to resurrect the ghosts haven’t managed to get off the ground. In our poll of attractions our readers missed, a whopping 61% voted for Ghost Town in the Sky. What are the chances our readers get their wish and Ghost Town returns to its former glory? At this point, pretty much none. What’s left of the park is in vast disrepair. The investment just to get the doors open would have to be massive. Ghost Town will likely continue to be only a memory for the foreseeable future.
2. Ogle’s Waterpark
Coming in second in our poll, with 8% of the vote, is one of the late greats. A paeon to skin cancer and road rash, Ogle’s was a must-visit summer destination located right at the intersection with Wear’s Valley Road. Just the mention of Ogle’s is a rush of sensory memory. From the smell of Panama Jack’s tanning oil and the feeling of chlorine-irritated eyes, Ogles was a concrete oasis with water slides. It was a wave pool and enough teenage pheromones to stun a charging rhino.
Nearly drowning in the Ogle’s wave pool was a rite of passage. You surely hadn’t experienced Ogle’s until one of its attractions had skinned a toe, foot or leg to the point it drew blood. But don’t worry about the DNA in the water folks, the chlorine was thick enough that no microorganisms – or at least very many could survive. In fact, in the 80s if you wanted to go blonde, you didn’t need to get a dye job, just go to Ogle’s for a week. The sun and the chemicals would do the job every time.
What are the chances Ogle’s ever coming back? Well, the site is gone. Today, Lumberjack Feud and a dozen other things are on the land where Ogle’s used to be. I suppose Soaky Mountain is a spiritual ancestor, keeping the waterpark spirit alive.
3. The Smoky Mountain Opry
Honestly, the third-place finisher in our poll was something of a surprise to me. With 6% of the vote, our readers said they wished Smoky Mountain Opry would make its return. The Opry began its life in the late 1990s when building music theaters was all the rage in the area following in the wake of the successful opening of Country Tonite. The Opry was designed to be the home for Louise Mandrell, one of the famed Mandrell sisters. Louise had a string of hits in the 70s and 80s and by the late 90s had enough of a name to still be considered a draw. Mandrell was the lead act for about eight years before the theater was purchased and became the religiously themed The Miracle Theater.
In 2011, it reopened as the Smoky Mountain Opry Theater with a variety show. After being sold to the company that owns Dolly Parton’s Stampede, the Opry closed in 2020 and never reopened. The site is in the process of becoming the Crayola Experience and the Nerf Action Xperience, so its days as a theater are done.
Could the Opry come back? Theoretically, in another place, maybe. But musical theaters haven’t had a lot of success in the area. Country Tonite is still going but it doesn’t have a lot of what I would call buzz. The dinner theaters all seem to be doing better. With the trend in Las Vegas of large acts setting up residence, it seems like something of that nature could work in Pigeon Forge. However, the artists willing to do it appear not to have enough pull to draw the crowds while the artists who could draw don’t seem eager to settle down in Pigeon Forge.
4. Thunder Road
Fourth and fifth place in our poll was a tie. But with four percent of the vote is Thunder Road – a 4D theater experience located in Dollywood that featured motion seats and a 3D movie centered around a moonshiner trying to escape John Q. Law through the mountains. For a long time, it was one of Dollywood’s more popular attractions until Dollywood’s expansions brought more roller coasters and actual thrill rides replaced the simulated thrill ride.
Could a Thunder Road-like attraction return? I don’t see why not. Most Universal Orlando rides are 3D experiences not dissimilar to the experience on Thunder Road. If Universal Orlando can run the better part of two theme parks on this type of ride, I don’t see why Dollywood couldn’t bring it back.
5. Porpoise Island
Our last entry in the top five also got 4% of the vote. This attraction is so bizarre that it doesn’t seem like it could have ever been real. Porpoise Island – located where The Island is now – was a Polynesian-themed attraction in the late 70s that imported trained Mississippi porpoises to Pigeon Forge each summer. In addition, the attraction was staffed by Pacific Islanders who were brought to the mountains each summer.
How could you build a Smoky Mountain business model around importing workers from halfway around the world, housing and feeding them and importing trained dolphins for a business that was only open from late May through August? It is perplexing to me that anyone ever thought it would work. What are the chances Porpoise Island could come back? I’d say zero.
Honorable mentions
Other attractions that finished just outside the top five were Magic World – the bizarre underfunded Pigeon Forge theme park built of fever dreams and nightmares, Tommy Bartlett’s Water Circus – I can’t believe a Pigeon Forge attraction couldn’t capitalize on a water show using the cachet of Minnesota’s aquatic PT Barnum, and the Mountain Slidewinder – the Dollywood attraction/slide that had guests flirting with death or serious injury and a foam-type log raft that frequently tested the integrity of the flume on which it was built.
This is a lesson in the rose-colored glasses through which we view the past. While each of these attractions had its charms, if we were able to resurrect them in today’s environment, it’s highly unlikely they would succeed. It seems to me, that as much as we enjoyed these attractions in their heyday, they – and we – are better off with them remaining in the past.
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