A desire by some Maggie Valley motel owners to turn the town into a national motorcycle destination could be incongruous with full-time and seasonal residents and vacationers seeking a quieter experience.

A dozen Maggie Valley hotel and motel owners came to the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority meeting last week (July 20) to lobby for a larger focus on motorcycle tourism.

“The motorcycling industry for us has increased and is making a huge presence,” said Joanne Martin of the Mountaineer Restaurant and Fireside Cottages. “If it were not for the motorcyclist, many of us would have been in serious financial trouble.”

With the closure of Ghost Town, the main tourism draw in Maggie Valley for the past 40 years disappeared. Along with it went thousands of tourists that funneled through the Valley every summer. Motel owners who once could simply turn on the vacancy sign and fill their rooms aren’t making any money.

Bikers are the only thing picking up the slack, but they are being ignored as a viable tourism sector by the TDA, said Carol Burrell, owner of Maggie Valley Creekside Lodge. Speakers attributed the increase in motorcycle business to the opening of Wheels Through Time, a nationally famous motorcycle museum run as a non-profit by Dale Walksler. Walksler is on the TDA and has attempted to steer the TDA toward the biker sector over the past year as well, but was accused of using his position on the board for promoting his own self-interest. So lodging owners came to Walksler’s defense.

“At least 85 percent of our business this year has been motorcycle individuals, couples and groups,” said Natalie Nelson, owner of a hotel outside town near Soco Gap. “This business is crucial for us to stay alive.”

The Maggie Valley Lodging Association adopted a formal statement asking the TDA to do more to court motorcycles, like advertising in national biker magazines.

What a racket

Some residents and seasonal vacationers are less than thrilled about the prospect of turning Maggie Valley into a motorcycle town.

Roscoe Smith, 83, spends six months of the year at Kamp-n-Kountry, a residential style campground in Maggie Valley.

“There’s too many of them. I hear them at night going vroom, vroom,” Smith said. Smith said he gets nervous driving around them.

“If one comes by you better watch out because there’s 10 more behind him,” Smith said.

Louise Brown, who spends six months of the year at Stonebridge RV Campground, said she has seen a large increase in bikers in the seven years she’s been coming to Maggie Valley.

“We have what you call Rally in the Valley and, oh Lord, you don’t want to be around then,” Brown said. Brown said other types of tourists could fall off if Maggie becomes a national motorcycle playground.

“You don’t get no sleep, especially when they really push down on it,” Brown said.

Jean Edwards was picking up mail for her 77-year-old mother at the Maggie Valley Post Office Monday evening. Her mom is a long-time resident of Maggie Valley and doesn’t like the increase in bikes.

“The noise really bothers her. She’s really upset about it,” Edwards said.

Bron Hardman, who was also picking up mail at the Maggie Valley post office Monday, said there is “definitely a controversy around it.”

When he used to worked at Jonathan Creek Inn, bikes would pack the house and it was great for business. But residents across the creek would complain about the bikes revving up and would ask the hotel to keep the noise down.

Hardman said some bikers are very wealthy, but not all.

“Some aren’t really contributing, but they are making a bunch of noise,” Hardman said. Hardman said it would be beneficial to single out the affluent motorcycle crowd and target them rather than all bikers.

But as baby boomers trend toward biking and the hobby continues to move up the socioeconomic scale, the mom-and-pop hotels might once again get left behind, or be left with the lower class of bikers. Especially as women increasingly join their husbands on bikes, the more affluent bikers could start opting for bed and breakfasts and country inns rather than $35 a night motels along a five-lane highway.

Bruce Farrell, a carpenter who recently moved to Maggie, said the bikes don’t bother him at all.

“The motorcycles bring the people to the town and they are some of the nicest people,” Farrell said. “If that’s what it takes to get this town started, I’m for it.”

Farrell is a self-described motorcycle enthusiast. Farrell has a monster jeep, which wins reciprocal admiration from the bikers.

“They give me the thumbs up and I give them the hell yeah. We smile at each other going down the road,” Farrell said. “I appreciate them a whole lot, from my heart. I hope they keep on coming.”

Shelia Bean, the manager of Stone Bridge Campground, also said bring on the bikes. She said motorcycles are compatible with other kinds of tourists like campers. She said bikers are the friendliest sort of tourist she has. They feed other campers and pick up all their trash, unlike many campers. She said her older campers love to watch them ride around.