If you’ve ever driven through the Great Smoky Mountains near Maggie Valley, North Carolina, you’ve probably looked up at Buck Mountain and wondered about that weird, rusting silhouette on the ridge. That’s Ghost Town in the Sky. For decades, it was the place to be, a Wild West theme park perched 4,600 feet up in the clouds. Today, it’s a skeleton. It is a haunting mix of rotting wood, faded paint, and broken dreams that refuses to stay dead but can't quite seem to come back to life either.
Most people think it just went bankrupt once and closed. Honestly? It's way more complicated than that. It’s a saga of mechanical failures, mudslides, and a revolving door of wealthy investors who thought they could save it.
The Wild West on a Mountain Top
R.B. Bunnell was the visionary—or maybe the madman—behind the whole thing. He opened the park in 1961. Think about the logistics of that for a second. He didn't just build a park; he built a town on a peak that was barely accessible. The only way up was a double chairlift or a steep funicular railway. It was a logistical nightmare from day one, but people loved it. At its peak, Ghost Town in the Sky was pulling in 10,000 visitors a day.
The draw wasn't just the view. It was the "gunfights." Actors like Herbert "Cowboy" Coward—who you might recognize from the movie Deliverance—would square off in the street every hour. People would line the boardwalks of the "Mountain Town," "Mining Town," and "Indian Village" to watch the bad guys get shot off the roofs. It was visceral. It was loud. It was exactly what 1960s Americana craved.
But gravity is a mean boss.
Maintaining a theme park on a mountaintop is basically a constant war against the elements. The chairlifts were finicky. The wood rotted faster because of the moisture in the clouds. By the time the 2000s rolled around, the park was looking rough. Really rough.
Why Ghost Town in the Sky Kept Falling Apart
In 2002, the chairlift broke down. Not just a "wait ten minutes" glitch, but a full-blown "people are stuck for hours in the heat" disaster. That was basically the beginning of the end for the original run. The park closed. It sat there, gathering moss and rust, until 2007 when it was reopened after a massive renovation.
They spent millions. It didn't matter.
The 2009 mudslide was the nail in the coffin. A massive chunk of the retaining wall gave way, sending debris down the mountain and burying parts of Maggie Valley. The park was forced to close again. Since then, it’s been a cycle of "Coming Soon" signs and heartbreak. You have these figures like Alaska Presley, a local businesswoman who bought the park in 2012. She poured her heart and soul into it, trying to turn it into "Resurrection Mountain," a more faith-based attraction. But the mountain just kept winning.
It's expensive to be high up.
Infrastructure is the silent killer. You can’t just call a plumber or an electrician to the top of Buck Mountain without it costing a fortune. The water lines were old. The power grid was ancient. Every time someone tried to fix one thing, three other things broke.
The Urban Explorer Era
Because the park is so hard to secure, it became a playground for urban explorers. If you search YouTube, you'll see dozens of videos of people sneaking up the mountain. It’s eerie. You see the "Red Devil" roller coaster—a rare Cliffhanger model—just sitting there, its tracks turning orange with rust. The fake saloon doors are swinging in the wind. The chairs on the lift are still hanging, swaying slightly like they're waiting for passengers who are never coming back.
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It's dangerous, though.
The buildings are structurally unsound. The mountain is unstable. Most of those "explorers" are trespassing on private property that is heavily monitored by local police who are, frankly, tired of rescuing people who twist their ankles in the ruins.
The Ownership Circus
Who owns Ghost Town in the Sky now? That’s a question that changes depending on which month you ask. After Alaska Presley passed away, the future became even murkier. There have been talks of developers turning it into a high-end resort, a branded theme park, or even a shopping destination.
A group called Storyland Studios was attached to a rebranding effort a few years ago. They had big designs. They talked about "honoring the heritage" while bringing in modern tech. But as of 2024 and 2025, the mountaintop remains largely silent. The local community in Maggie Valley is caught between wanting their biggest tourist draw back and being exhausted by the constant false starts.
The reality is that Ghost Town is a victim of its own geography. What made it special—the height, the isolation, the "sky" aspect—is exactly what makes it a financial black hole.
What You Should Know Before You Go
First off: You can’t go in. Don’t try to hike up there. You will get arrested, or worse, you’ll fall through a rotted floorboard.
If you want to experience the vibe of Ghost Town in the Sky without the legal trouble, there are better ways to do it.
- Visit the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds: They often have events that celebrate the history of the park, and you can see the mountain clearly from the valley floor.
- The Wheels Through Time Museum: It’s right down the road. It doesn’t have gunfights, but it has that same "old school North Carolina" grit and history.
- Talk to the Locals: Go to a diner in Maggie Valley. Half the people working there probably had their first summer job at Ghost Town. They have the real stories—the ones about the animatronics that used to glitch out in the fog or the time a celebrity visited and no one recognized them.
Ghost Town in the Sky is a reminder that nature always takes back what you borrow. You can build a city in the clouds, but the clouds don't want it there. It remains one of the most fascinating failures in American tourism, a ghost of a Ghost Town that refuses to completely vanish from the horizon.
Practical Steps for Enthusiasts
If you are fascinated by "lost" Americana or the history of this specific park, your best bet is to support the preservation of its stories rather than trying to physically access the site.
- Digital Archives: Check out the Digital Heritage projects by Western Carolina University. They have incredible high-res photos of the park from the 60s and 70s.
- Legal Sightseeing: Take the Blue Ridge Parkway to the overlooks near Milepost 450. On a clear day, you can see the ridge of Buck Mountain. Use a pair of binoculars; you can spot the lift towers.
- Support Maggie Valley: The town suffered when the park closed. Spending money at the local motels and shops is the best way to keep the spirit of that era alive.
The story of Ghost Town isn't over, but it's definitely in a long intermission. Whether it ever hosts another gunfight or just continues to crumble into the forest is up to the next person brave—or crazy—enough to sign the deed.