A potential buyer for Ghost Town touted two months ago as shoe-in has fallen through, according to R.B. Coburn, owner of the Maggie Valley tourist icon.

“It is actually off. The whole deal is they couldn’t get enough money,” Coburn said. “It was supposed to close last Tuesday and it didn’t. It’s off right now. They couldn’t get enough money.”

The 256-acre mountain top property above Maggie Valley is home to Ghost Town in the Sky, an Old West theme park featuring amusement rides, saloons and gun fights started by Coburn 40 years ago. It was a driving force for tourism in the mountains throughout the 1970s and 1980s, attracting 300,000 visitors a year. Visitation to Ghost Town began declining in the 1990s due to the aging facility and the creation of other attractions in the mountains as well as newer amusement parks like Six Flags and Carowinds across the Southeast.

This summer marks the third tourist season since Ghost Town closed for good. Maggie Valley business owners say the loss of traffic through Maggie is taking its toll.

Wade Reece, the owner of the Quality Inn in Maggie Valley, started a non-profit group last fall to promote Ghost Town in hopes of attracting a buyer. While Coburn did not specifically solicit the group’s help, Reece began courting buyers and fielding inquiries for Ghost Town. Reece said it was time to stop complaining about the lack of tourism in Maggie and be proactive about getting Ghost Town open again.

Reece found a potential buyer in March and sent out a press release to local media announcing that Ghost Town had been sold. One local newspaper printed a front-page headline stating Ghost Town had sold. A Maggie Valley restaurant arranged the lettering on its roadside sign calling for Maggie businesses to celebrate the good news, that Ghost Town had sold.

But at the time, the potential buyer had not yet signed a purchase agreement for the property and no money had changed hands. Eventually, a contract was allegedly signed containing a 45-day due diligence period. Reports of how much earnest money the developers put down varied.

It is unknown what their intentions were for the property, although Reece at one point said they would keep it an amusement park and open it by summer.