For the last several years, business owners and others throughout Haywood County have been bemoaning the closing of Ghost Town. For decades the Wild West theme park brought hundreds of thousands of tourists to Maggie Valley. Families would rent inexpensive rooms in the dozens of privately-owned motels or stay in a log cabin and spend days roaming the mountains — Cataloochee and Clingmans Dome in the park, Cherokee and Waynesville, and even to Asheville and the Biltmore Estate.

But that heydey era is gone. The theme park died a slow death, and it will take nothing short of a miracle to rekindle the bygone days when the mere mention of Maggie Valley brought a smile of recognition from almost anyone in the Southeast. Maggie Valley still bustles at times, and in the winter, Cataloochee Ski Area remains this region’s major drawing card.

The challenge now — for Maggie Valley business owners, residents, and Haywood County leaders — is to figure out how to help Maggie Valley into the future while at the same time maximizing the growing markets in Waynesville and at Lake Junaluska.

One of the suggestions citizens brought to a recent TDA meeting was to look for ways to capitalize on the growing motorcycle tourism sector. In truth this is probably a great idea. With the Blue Ridge Parkway running into town, the famed Dragon’s Tail nearby and a number of other great mountain roads to ride on, it’s easy to see why bikers love the mountains. Baby boomers are riding motorcycles, and they have money and time. Dale Walksler’s decision to open the Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley is even more reason for bikers to come to this region.

But putting resources toward attracting bikers is a double-edged sword. Though they are a viable sector of the tourism market, they are also noisy. Many visitors come here seeking tranquility, which is just the opposite of what you get when a few motorcycles barrel past on the highway.

The up side and down side of motorcycles is just one example of what those on the TDA board have to sift through in order to make their marketing decisions. The point is that if Maggie Valley is to continue to be a major piece of the tourism pie in this region over the next couple of decades, it must find a focal point, or perhaps several.

One of the problems in Maggie Valley, of course, has nothing to do with the TDA. That’s the near constant infighting among Maggie Valley’s town leaders and its business community. These days it’s hard to keep up with whose side people are on. Until Maggie Valley’s leadership and business community can get on the same page, its attempts to resuscitate its only industry will probably not succeed.

So we encourage the TDA to give Maggie Valley some attention as it develops its new campaign, but what the community needs more than anything else are some leaders who can bridge the petty differences between its own warring factions. Until that happens, few businesses in the valley will reach their potential.