Ghost Town in The Sky - History

History

Ghost Town was the brainchild of R.B. Coburn, a Covington, VA native who moved to Maggie Valley, NC. The park was designed by Russell Pearson and constructed for approximately $1 million in 1960. The park opened on May 1, 1961, and quickly became one of Western North Carolina's most popular tourist attractions. Pearson also opened another wild west theme park in Florida, Six Gun Territory.

At one point, 620,000 people visited Ghost Town each year. This number declined to 340,000 in 2008.

The park was sold in 1973 to National Services for a stock swap, but Coburn bought it back in 1986 and constructed the park's famous Cliffhanger roller coaster. In its later years under Coburn's ownership, the park suffered from mismanagement and a lack of maintenance. The Cliffhanger, Goldrusher, Sea Dragon, Monster, Mountain Town Swings, Undertaker, Dream Catcher, Casino, Round Up, Lil Devil, and Silver Bullet rides were constantly breaking down and were rarely opened, causing many visitors to tell others not to go. The chairlift and incline railway also required constant maintenance and repair and Coburn spent thousands of dollars maintaining them. On July 16, 2002, the chairlift stopped, stranding passengers for over two hours. Although there were fewer-and-fewer people visiting Ghost Town because of the bad condition of the park. Coburn closed Ghost Town a few days after the chairlift failure and put it up for sale. The park remained closed for the next four years, with no maintenance on any of the rides, leading many to believe that no one would buy the park because of the bad condition of the rides. Ghost Town was sold in August 2006 and reopened on May 25, 2007 after $38 million had been spent on renovations and improvements. All of the rides were reopened except the incline railway, the train, and the Monster. Two years later, after over $11 million more had been spent, $6 million of that on the Cliffhanger roller coaster, Ghost Town filed for bankruptcy. The economy and high gas prices the previous year were blamed for the park's problems, but managing partner Lynn Sylvester said reopening was planned for May 15 and the park would continue to operate.

In mid-May 2009, the park's rides had not been inspected, and Ghost Town claimed to need a $330,000 loan in order to reopen for the summer on May 22. The park was asking the town for that money. If the town turned down the request, this was expected to mean the loss of 200 jobs and a $2 million payroll, as well as the impact on local businesses that benefit from the visitors. However, "an anonymous investor" provided the money instead, according to park president Steve Shiver, so a vote by the town became unnecessary and the park opened as planned, except for a couple of rides that were not yet inspected. Ghost Town also added a new ride, Geronimo Drop, which had been at a park in Memphis, Tennessee. Geronimo Drop had been bought by Ghost Town in 2007. Shiver said the park had an $27 million plan to improve the park over four to five years, including moving and adding rides and introducing new events.

Ghost Town continued to struggle financially until the end of the 2009 season when the park closed while the owners dealt with the bankruptcy issues amid complaints that employees were not getting paid.

On February 5, 2010, a massive mudslide occurred when retaining walls on the Ghost Town property gave way. Although there were no injuries, more than 40 homes had to be evacuated, and three homes were damaged around the mountain. The park itself is said to have sustained damage, but to what extent is not publicly known. This led to speculation that the park would not open at all for the 2010 season. Steve Shiver announced on a local news program that the park was still slated to open Memorial Day weekend, but this did not happen. Federal funding was granted to the park in the amount of $1.3 million for the clean-up of its main access road, Rich Cove, which was buried in the slide.

In early March, 2010, a judge ruled in favor of the park's largest creditors, SunTrust and BB&T, to proceed with foreclosure on Ghost Town and sell the property to begin paying off its $9 million dollar debt to SunTrust and $5 million dollar debt to BB&T. Ghost Town partners negotiated a separate deal with SunTrust and BB&T which gave them until May 31, 2010 to come up with an alternate plan, allowing the park to continue to operate if funding was obtained by the deadline. On May 4, a judge approved a takeover bid by American Heritage Family Parks. The company has pledged to pay SunTrust $7 million of its debt and BB&T its entire $5 million dollars of debt, and $100,000 in back taxes to Haywood County. The park was said to be allowed to open for the season while details of the sale were worked out. Instead, the park remained closed.

In April 2011, the bankruptcy administrator recommended dismissing the case citing the failure of Ghost Town partners to submit a sufficient re-organization plan to pay off its debts. This allowed foreclosure proceedings to continue as the park was no longer protected under Chapter 11.

In February of 2012, the park was purchased at public auction by Alaska Presley, a Maggie Valley business woman who has been involved with the park since its beginning, and is moving towards the goal of having at least a portion of the park re-opened for the end of the 2012 season.

On June 29, 2012, Ghost Town in the Sky's A-Frame Entrance opened to the public for the first time in four years, for gifts to be sold, leading to a full opening of the park coming up in the following months.

Visitors can ride the chair lift and tour the town, but action will not resume until 2013. Future plans call for a replica of Jerusalem called "Holy Land" opening in 2014 at the park's highest point.