Known as Ghost Town in the Sky, this abandoned Wild West-themed amusement park in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, has seen as many ups and downs over the decades as its old roller coaster. Here we explore Ghost Town from its heyday to its decline through eerie photographs courtesy of Abandoned Southeast, taken by Leland Kent.
Click or scroll through the gallery as we step inside this unusual abandoned theme park that's full of secrets…
In 1960, R.B. Coburn, a Virginia-born businessman, purchased Buck Mountain, a mountaintop site towards the bottom of the Great Smoky Mountains, with grand plans to build his own theme park. The site overlooked the town of Maggie Valley, North Carolina.
More than 200 local workers were hired to build around 40 life-sized replica Wild West-style buildings inspired by Coburn's visits to other American ghost towns. The buildings perched right on the mountain's peak would eventually make up the park’s main attraction, known as Old West.
Ghost Town was created by former Disney designer Russell Pearson and reportedly cost around $1m to build. According to Abandoned Southeast, the park spanned roughly 120,000 square feet of land. Around 200,000 feet of plywood, 300,000 feet of lumber, and 20,000 pounds of nails were used to construct the old-fashioned buildings.
The park opened its doors to the public in 1961 and was immediately a huge success. It was promoted as 'North Carolina’s mile-high theme park' and became one of the state's most popular and visited attractions throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.
To visit the park, passengers had to board a double incline railway to the top of Buck Mountain. The exciting journey included multiple slopes towards the peak, varying from 30 to 77 degrees in steepness, and afforded picturesque views overlooking Maggie Valley.
In 1962, Coburn installed a two-seater chairlift built parallel to the incline railway to take even more visitors up to Ghost's Town's entrance. It reportedly moved at a rate of 310 feet per minute and could transport up to 1,200 visitors per hour.
At the time, the impressive chairlift, which climbed more than 1,250 feet, was apparently North Carolina's longest. Sadly as the years passed, like the rest of the park, the chairlift suffered from more and more problems and began to break down.
At the height of its popularity, Ghost Town attracted thousands of guests every year. In the early 1970s, the park welcomed 400,000 visitors during its peak seasons, from families to Wild West enthusiasts.
Located at the heart of Ghost Town was the theme park’s most popular spot, Old West. The town, which is still mostly intact, included a replica bank, saloons, a church, a jail, and more to re-create an authentic Wild West experience for guests.
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A lot of the action happened on the town’s main street. Visitors could live out their Wild West dreams and catch a live country music show at the Red Dog Saloon or enjoy can-can dancers putting on a performance at the Silver Dollar.
The park was also famous for its live shoot-outs which were staged every hour in the middle of Old West's main street. Visitors would line up on the sidewalk for the best view of all the action. More recently, the abandoned Western town has been used as a location for a number of films such as Dean Teaster's Ghost Town (2007), Mandie and the Secret Tunnel (2008), and Ringside Rosary (2010).
Ghost Town also had its fair share of amusement rides which were added over the years. They included the park’s famous Red Devil coaster (later re-named Cliffhanger), Casino, bumper cars, and Sea Dragon.
The Red Devil coaster, one of Ghost Town's main attractions, opened in 1988. Unusually, the steel coaster's boarding station was at the top of a hill. It then rolled around a 90-degree curve into the main drop and an inverted loop.
Unfortunately under Coburn’s ownership, the park reportedly suffered from poor maintenance and bad management which eventually led to its downfall. Although it's claimed that Coburn spent thousands of dollars trying to maintain the park, Ghost Town's attractions would regularly break down.
The chairlift and incline railway especially needed constant and expensive maintenance. In 2002, things went from bad to worse when the chairlift malfunctioned and trapped passengers, leaving them stranded. A few days later, Coburn closed the park for good and put it up for sale.
Ghost Town stayed closed for the next five years and the park fell into a further state of disrepair. The park’s desperate need for major renovations and the prospect of high maintenance costs made it a hard sell for any future owners.
Ghost Town reopened in 2007 under new ownership. Millions of dollars had been spent on restoring the park and its rides. Some rides and the double incline railway were never fully operational again but new attractions were added.
A brand new area called Heritage Town Square opened in an attempt to attract more visitors and families. Located at the chairlift terminus, the spot included a themed restaurant.
In true cowboy fashion, Heritage Town Square also had a mining-themed shooting gallery. Pictured are sinister headless mannequins decked in Western-style clothing, some of the spooky remains of the abandoned area.
In 2007, the Red Devil was renamed the Cliffhanger after a much-needed makeover. However, massive repairs were required and its opening was pushed back to 2009.
Sadly, the Cliffhanger was short-lived. Shortly after it opened in 2009, state inspectors found something wrong with one of the ride's seats. It was closed again for repairs and failed to pass a test run in 2010. It was shut down indefinitely.
The Ghost Town train was another attraction that didn't reopen in 2007. Today the engine and carriages are slowly being taken over by nature.
Sadly, ticket sales in 2008 were 'sluggish' and, combined with the effects of the economic recession, the park went into debt. In early 2009, Ghost Town's owners failed to secure any further funding and declared bankruptcy.
Despite strong fears that the park wouldn't reopen for the 2009 season, the owners were able to secure help from a private business owner. Ghost Town opened in May that year but suffered another poor few months. Smoky Mountain News reported that it failed to cover its operating costs and workers didn't receive their last couple weeks of pay.
After a rocky year in 2009, more bad luck befell the park. In February 2010, a mudslide partially damaged the park and also blocked one of its access roads. On top of that, more financial problems plagued Ghost Town and it didn't open for the year's season.
Two years later, businesswoman Alaska Presley bought the Ghost Town property at auction for $2.5m. Unsurprisingly, the park required repairs that cost millions of dollars and over the next few years, parts of Ghost Town opened sporadically, some areas only temporarily.
The park closed for good in 2016 and despite numerous purchase attempts by various people, none became reality. Before Presley passed away in 2022, she forged a partnership with businessman Frankie Wood, who promised to bring financial backers to help fulfill her dream of reopening Ghost Town, to no avail.
After her death, Presley left the park to her niece Jill McClure, who filed a lawsuit to dissolve the partnership and sell up. However, in May 2024, after a lengthy legal battle, a state business judge dismissed the suit. McClure and Wood are now working together to come up with a positive outcome for the park. Watch this space.
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