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Ghost Town Village (formally "Ghost Town in the Sky) 〔http://www.ghosttownvillage.com/press-releases.html〕 is a Wild West-themed amusement park in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, USA. An unusual aspect of this park is that it is located atop a mountain which can only be accessed by visitors via a chair lift or an inclined funicular railway. These start at the parking area beside Jonathan Creek at an elevation of , climbing to the lower level of the park at , a climb of . The recreated "Ghost Town" sits at , with the highest elevation in the park being about . The park is located on a ridge extending from Buck mountain which is in turn an extension of the Cataloochee Divide, border to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The park's entrance is located on U.S. Highway 19, the main road through the town. Ghost Town is promoted as "North Carolina's mile-high theme park". ==History== Ghost Town was the brainchild of R.B. Coburn, a Covington, VA native who moved to Maggie Valley, North Carolina. 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.〔(Themountaineer.com ), Retrieved on 2009-03-13.〕 At one point, 620,000 people visited Ghost Town each year.〔Bill Studenc, "Maggie Valley Considers Loan for Ghost Town," ''Asheville Citizen-Times'', May 14, 2009.〕 This number declined to 340,000 in 2008.〔Andre Rodriguez, "Ghost Town Back in Business," ''Asheville Citizen-Times'', May 28, 2009.〕 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 chair lift 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 chair lift 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.〔Jason Sandford, "Ghost Town in the Sky, one of WNC's most unique tourist attractions comes back to life", ''Asheville Citizen-Times'', July 7, 2012.〕 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.〔Andre Rodriguez, "Struggling Ghost Town Files for Bankruptcy," ''Asheville Citizen-Times'', March 12, 2009.〕 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 Libertyland in Memphis, Tennessee. It 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 on 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 debt to SunTrust and $5 million 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 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.〔"Company makes bid to buy Ghost Town," ''Asheville Citizen-Times'', 2010-05-04.〕 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 2012, the park was purchased at public auction by Alaska Presley for $1,500,000 〔http://www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item/6231-resurrecting-a-ghost-town-alaska-presley-hopes-to-revive-maggie-valley-by-reopening-the-once-popular-ghost-town-amusement-park〕 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 reopened 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.〔 Although Alaska Presley opened the park in the summer of 2012 for tours and western town visits, the 2013 season was planned for a limited re-opening. During the 4 years of being idle the property was without security and much vandalism and theft occurred. For the 2015 season, building of the cross atop the mountain set aside for a Holy Land is planned. Plans have been drawn by professional engineers and permitting has been verbally promised by local authorities. The massive requirements imposed by new laws cost millions in labor and time lost due to step by step state inspections. Wells for private water were condemned simply because they were too close to potentially unacceptable objects. Four new wells were drilled and all were failures except one of limited output. The option of city water was decided and virtually every piece and part of an old system had to be replaced...This new system is expected to be operational by early 2015. The crowning touch for Ghost Town will be the addition of the cross near the highest point on the mountain. This cross height will be the highest elevation above sea level of any such structure in the western hemisphere. Named Resurrection Mountain, an old Jerusalem town centered on this cross will emerge and become a year round location for Christian events. It will operate separately adjacent to Ghost Town in the Sky. In November 2014, Ghost Town was listed for sale in the amount of $3,000,000 by Action Creak Realty MLS #: 573956. The ad states: "Established in 1961 this approx 100 acre mountain theme park is now offered for sale with possible owner financing. Includes all rides, the largest chair lift in eastern United States. City water has just recently been installed to the entire park. Park was extremely profitable this last season and has much room for growth.".〔http://www.beverly-hanks.com/search/detail/573956〕 The current owner purchased the note for Ghost Town in 2012 for $1,500,000.〔 The sale of the lower half of the property which housed the western theme park was placed up for sale in hopes to gain investors for Alaska Presley's redevelopment of the upper portion of the property known as the "Holy Land replica theme park". On January 24, 2015 The listing was pulled stating "Ghost Town is no longer for sale. It has been removed from the market". The removal of the property listing was prompted by major progress in the redevelopment of some of the other parts of the property and current plans are still underway for Presley's vision of "Resurrection Mountain". On October 22, 2015 park management announced the rebranding of the park to Ghost Town Village, and is set to open June 1, 2016. The rebranded park will feature gunfights; chair lift, gift shops, zip lines, a museum, a paintball course, arcade, horseback riding and more.〔 The park has stated its rebranding was due to the park's inability reopen any of its former roller coasters and rides as the repair costs were too high.〔https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1163742070319921&set=p.1163742070319921&type=3&theater〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ghost Town Village」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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