A local offers his opinion on the lesser well-received aspects of Ghost Town in the Sky
Up in the high mountains of North Carolina sits the rusting remains of a dream. The ironically named Ghost Town in the Sky opened in Maggie Valley, North Carolina in 1961. It was a charming – and originally thriving – Old West theme park with rides, shootouts, fake saloons and more.
For a time, it was perfect. There was a big demand in the early 60s for just that kind of entertainment. So with the coming interstate system and Baby Booming families with disposable income, vacation time and large, shiny cars, the time was right to hit the road and explore the country.
But just as in the Old West where Boom Towns would come and go, so did many of America’s roadside vacation destinations. The interstate system made it easier for families to go farther and faster. Families from the Midwest who used to only vacation in the mountains found themselves able to go to the beach. After 1970, they often visited family amusement parks like Disney World in Orlando more often.
Residents of Maggie Valley are likely quite happy today that their charming little mountain town did not become a Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg. The lack of growth made keeping Ghost Town as a thriving vacation destination less likely. Tack on logistical issues and Ghost Town was essentially destined to become a Ghost Town. Today what’s left of the park sits atop the mountain. It is rusting and in disrepair, a relic of a bygone era.
The Top 5 Worst Things About Ghost Town in The Sky
1. It wasn’t Dollywood
Somewhere in the universe, there is an alternate reality in which Ghost Town had the same support in our timeline as Silver Dollar City. I remain fascinated by the mirrored development of Ghost Town and the park that would become Dollywood.
Both opened in 1961 as a Wild West theme park in the Smokies. Dollywood began life in Pigeon Forge as Rebel Railroad, became Gold Rush Junction and then Silver Dollar City. For a time both parks thrived.
At its peak, Ghost Town was drawing in 600,000. But the founder, R.B. Coburn sold his park to a large national amusement park brand for stock in the company. Reports indicate that the smaller Ghost Town in the Sky wasn’t a priority for the larger group. So the park went under-managed and under-supported until Coburn bought it back in 1986. That happens to be the same year the owners of Silver Dollar City partnered with Dolly Parton and rebranded the park as Dollywood.
The major influx of name recognition and financial support was a massive boon to Pigeon Forge. Meanwhile Coburn never really got the financial backing to keep Ghost Town thriving. Over the next 15 years or so, Coburn was unable to keep up with the maintenance of the park. And that led to the disastrous shutdown in 2002. That year, the chairlift – the only real way to get people into the park – failed. A few attempts to reopen were attempted. However, Ghost Town was never really the same.
2. Location, Location, Location
When Coburn dreamed of a Ghost Town in the late 50s and early 60s, he had the idea of building his park between Clyde and Waynesville, North Carolina. Instead, Alaska Presley – who later bought and tried to resurrect the park – decided to build upon the mountaintop in Maggie Valley.
For a while the mountaintop location was fine. But its limitations grew more glaring over the years. While the competition grew and developed, Ghost Town couldn’t. The logistics of getting people and infrastructure – like water – up the mountain proved costly. Once the park closed, it lost some of its “grandfathered in” protections from upgraded planning requirements. There was no way of getting it all back. Had Coburn followed his instinct, he’d have found a better location closer to Clyde or Waynesville. But there is no guarantee that Ghost Town would still have been thriving today.
3. The Theme Limitations
If you were building a theme park in 1961, creating Wild West themes would have made all the sense in the world, even if you were located in the mountains of Western North Carolina. It’s hard for us with today’s multi-culture to understand how much the people of the 50s and early 60s were obsessed with the Wild West. Movies, TV, music—cowboys, outlaws, and range riders were all the rage.
But by 1986? Fascination with Billy the Kid or Butch and Sundance had been tamped down. People 20 years earlier were happy to drive an hour and a half out of their way to visit a Ghost Town with shootouts on Main Street. But later, they had other things on their mind. Had Ghost Town been able to diversify its theming like other parks it probably would have lasted longer.
4. The Management
We’ve already mentioned the disastrous decade that the park was out of Coburn’s control. And how the little things began to slip. But once Coburn got the park back, it was caught in a vicious cycle of underfunding leading to less exacting maintenance standards. And that led to rides being down more, which led to a less satisfied customer experience. Unhappy customers led to fewer tickets sold, and less funding and the cycle would start all over again.
5. The quality of the rides
The successful partnership of Dolly Parton and Herschend Family Entertainment highlights precisely where things went wrong for Ghost Town. At Dollywood, the recognized theme was not enough. They needed to be more of an amusement park and less of a theme park. As a result, they spent the next 40 years turning the former Rebel Railroad into one of the nation’s premier amusement parks. I can remember going to Dollywood in 1986 and again when we moved to the mountains in 1990 and being bored. If I complained, I would be told that it was a theme park, not an amusement park. Over the years that’s changed. Of course, and somewhat ironically, now that I’m old and not an impatient teen, I enjoy theme park aspects a lot more than I did in my youth.
We will never know what would have happened if Dollywood hadn’t added so many great thrill rides. But we do know Ghost Town did not have the financial backing of its Tennessee neighbor. In his defense, Coburn seems to have recognized the issue, bringing in the Red Devil coaster and trying to up the Ghost Town experience. But he just couldn’t keep up. He was stuck with a dying theme park while Dollywood became a thriving amusement park.
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