Ghost Town In The Sky (later rebranded as Ghost Town Village) was a beloved Wild West-themed amusement park in Maggie Valley NC.
Conceived by Virginia native R.B. Coburn, Ghost Town opened atop Buck Mountain (elevation 4,650 ft) in 1961, and was widely known as “North Carolina’s Mile High Theme Park.”
In its ’60s and ’70s heyday, Ghost Town averaged about 500,000 visitors per year, with the chairlift to the top of the mountain moving around 1,200 people per hour.
But after the property was sold to corporate interests in 1973, the park began a long, gradual decline that was plagued by mismanagement and a lack of maintenance (which led to broken-down rides and bad press).
Ghost Town has essentially been abandoned for more than a decade now, but its fond memories– and dreams of future reopening– have been kept alive by nostalgic locals.
The abandoned amusement park is currently closed to visitors, and the property manager (who has installed security cameras) WILL call the police on vandals.
But thankfully we were given a guided behind-the-scenes tour during a visit coordinated by Haywood County Tourism.
Read on for our exclusive, never-before-seen photos, the colorful history of Ghost Town In The Sky, and an update on where things stand on plans to redevelop the beloved property.
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Ghost Town In The Sky History
Concept & Construction
After R.B. Coburn relocated to Maggie Valley from Covington VA, he got the idea to build a Wild West-themed amusement park in between the mountain towns of Clyde and Waynesville NC.
Alaska Presley, whose family had played a key role in developing Maggie Valley as a tourist destination in the 1950s (and who would later become owner of Ghost Town), suggested he build it atop Buck Mountain instead.
Maggie Valley locals provided a lot of the investment capital needed to build the park, which was designed by Russell Pearson and constructed for around $1 million in 1960.
More than 200 Haywood County locals were hired to construct the 40+ replica buildings in Frontier Town (later known as Mountain Town), which were inspired by Coburn’s trips to the Southwestern US.
All in all, they constructed approximately 120,000 square feet of buildings, using 300,000 feet of lumber, 200,000 feet of plywood, and 20,000 pounds of nails.
According to local folklore, Coburn heard a story about Maggie Valley landowner Uncle Dan Carpenter losing his sheep inside a large cavern at the top of Buck Mountain.
Coburn thought it would be great to add cavern tours to his new tourist attraction. But when Carpenter led him to the area (between the Indian Village and Frontier Town), there was no cavern entrance to be found.
Eventually Coburn filled in the area between these two sections, then paved over them to create a more stable area for the park’s beloved rides.
But still Ghost Town experienced periodic landslides in that area after heavy rainfall, including a minor one in 2007 and a major one in 2010 (which collapsed the retaining wall that had been installed).
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The Golden Years of Ghost Town In The Sky
Ghost Town In The Sky opened to the public on May 1, 1961, and almost immediately emerged as one of the most popular tourist attractions in Western North Carolina.
Visitors entered the park at the base of Buck Mountain, then boarded a double incline railway (similar to the one on Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga) that took them 3,300 feet up to the top.
They eventually added a 2-seat chair lift, which at that time was the longest in the state of North Carolina and the second longest in the entire USA!
One of the park’s most popular attractions was the High Noon-style gunslinger showdowns, which were staged hourly on the main street of “Frontier Town.”
Up ‘n’ coming actors such as Burt Reynolds and Herbert “Cowboy” Coward (whom Reynolds got hired for a major role as an antagonist in Deliverance) cut their teeth here before making a name for themselves in Hollywood.
The park also drew major film and TV stars to make guest appearances and sign autographs, including Tony Dow (Leave It To Beaver), Veronica Cartwright (The Birds, Alien), and Dan Blocker (Bonanza).
By the mid-1960s, Ghost Town was averaging over half a million visitors each year, becoming a major source of revenue for Maggie Valley and a source of jobs for its residents.
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The Decline of Ghost Town
In 1973, R.B. Coburn sold his interest in the park to a company called National Services in exchange for stocks. By many accounts, that sale was the beginning of Ghost Town’s long, slow decline.
Some insiders suggested that the corporate conglomerate didn’t care much about whether Ghost Town In The Sky thrived or failed, because it was small potatoes in the grand scheme of their financial interests.
But accusations of mismanagement and neglect continued even after Coburn bought the park back in 1986.
On the surface, things seemed to be going well in the early ’80s. Country music legends like Reba McEntire and the Statler Brothers performed at the park, and Coors Beer agreed to sponsor a new $1 million roller coaster.
But by the late ’80s, beloved Ghost Town In The Sky rides such as The Red Devil, Goldrusher, Sea Dragon, Mountain Town Swings, Undertaker, and Silver Bullet began to break down with increasing frequency.
They were often closed for repairs, as were the chairlift and incline railway. Visitors became increasingly dissatisfied, and by 2002 attendance was less than half what it had been at Ghost Town’s peak.
In July of 2002, the chairlift that once took over 1,200 people per hour to the top of Buck Mountain stopped working, leaving passengers stranded for 2 hours. A few days later, Coburn closed the park and put it up for sale.
Ghost Town In The Sky remained closed, with no maintenance whatsoever, for the next 4 years. It would ultimately prove to be the beginning of the end for what was once the most popular theme park in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Despite attempted re-openings in 2007 and 2009, Alaska Presley’s purchase of the property in 2012, and attempts to rebrand and attract new investors, the Maggie Valley attraction remains abandoned to this day.
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Our Guided Tour of Ghost Town In The Sky
When we visited Maggie Valley in partnership with Haywood County Tourism, they connected us with Dave Angel, the former owner of Elevated Mountain Distillery.
Angel (who was born in the area) managed the Ghost Town property on behalf of Frankie Wood’s investment team, which partnered with Alaska Presley on plans to preserve the nostalgia of the theme park.
The team seemed intent on reopening Ghost Town, planning to add modern rides and attractions, lodging (including hotels at the base and top of the mountain), retail stores, and more.
“Ghost Town In The Sky is the reason we have a 5-lane road out there,” he said in a 2021 interview.
“It could be a major game changer for our economy… It’s not just about bringing a park back to life, but also making sure we have the infrastructure to support the workforce and the tourism that will come with that.”
But Angel’s sense of hopeful optimism was balanced by an earnest assessment of the park’s current dilapidated state.
Decades of neglect and vandals eager to steal (or destroy) elements of Maggie Valley’s history have left beloved buildings such as the dancehall and saloon in a complete state of disarray.
All of the buildings along the town’s main street would need to torn down and completely rebuilt to modern codes, and every single ride would need to be replaced.
As we walked the entire property it became clear that, if and when Ghost Town ever reopens, it is incredibly unlikely that it will look or feel anything like the place for which so many Maggie Valley residents have fond nostalgic memories.
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The Future of Ghost Town
Sadly, the potential future of Ghost Town was struck what may ultimately prove to be a fatal blow by the death of Alaska Presley at the age of 98 in 2022.
Frankie Wood’s team had already struggled with getting the Maggie Valley city council to approve its development plans, which were voted down multiple times despite promises that they would provide 200+ local jobs.
Their $200 million design (by California’s Storyland Studios) would include nods to the Wild West past, some Cherokee history, state-of-the-art attractions, restaurants, live entertainment, ziplines, and more.
Since Alaska Presley died, niece Jill McLure (who inherited her aunt’s business interests) has been embroiled in an ongoing legal battle with developer Frankie Wood.
McClure filed a lawsuit to dissolve Ghost Town in the Sky LLC, which she claims is insolvent. But Wood’s attorney argued that her lawsuit has no legal standing, because she was never admitted as a member of the corporation.
Maggie Valley residents have largely sided with McClure, painting Wood as a “carpetbagger”– an outsider with no business meddling in local affairs– implying shady elements to his previous developments in Florida.
You get the sense that, in their eyes, Wood represents the wealthy folks moving into the area from other regions, buying up properties, driving up housing prices, yet contributing little to the local economy.
But you only need to visit the 21,000-member Ghost Town In The Sky Facebook group to see how passionate most of the theme park’s previous visitors are about bringing it back.
Sure, a big part of that is nostalgia, because many of them visited Ghost Town as a kid, and later took their own children to experience it for themselves.
But there’s also a sense that the town of Maggie Valley is losing a part of its cultural and historical identity, and that bringing Ghost Town back in ANY shape or form would provide a much-needed boost to the local economy.
To quote Val Gene Hamilton Sr. of Pops Place Restaurant, “If it doesn’t open, this town is on the brink of dying, in my opinion.”
For now, the future of Ghost Town In The Sky, and possibly Maggie Valley itself, is in the hands of the courts… –by Bret Love; photos by Bret Love & Mary Gabbett.
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