A lawsuit casting blame for a massive landslide in Maggie Valley four years ago is headed to a jury trial in Haywood County this week.

A couple whose home was in the path of the landslide have sued a bevy of parties they claim are responsible.

After passing state inspections, Ghost Town in the Sky opened for the season on the Fourth of the July.  The Maggie Valley amusement park — open Friday through Monday — is reporting an opening weekend attendance total of more than 7,500. 

Rep. Michele Presnell, R-Burnsville, has pulled a bill she introduced last month to de-annex a 3.5-acre property from the town of Maggie Valley following pushback from local leaders. 

Ghost Town in the Sky, the seemingly ever-limping amusement park in Maggie Valley, did not open on June 20 as planned. Delays in running new water lines to the park’s upper levels have stalled the opening.

“See that up there?” asked Alaska Presley as she piloted her Mercedes up a back road to the top of Ghost Town in the Sky. “That’s the drop tower there.” 

A black bear — and possibly one of its cubs — is dead after a run of bird seed raids resulted in a confrontation with a Maggie Valley homeowner’s 12-gauge. 

“Everyone has a right to protect their property, and it was clear to me this individual felt threatened and it was either his life or the bear’s life,” said Sgt. Andrew Helton of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. 

It’s only eight lines long, but a de-annexation bill Rep. Michele Presnell, R-Burnsville, has filed with the General Assembly’s Government Committee is drawing ire from some and cheers from others. The bill would remove a 3.4-acre property owned by Joe Maniscalco, 77, from the town limits of Maggie Valley. 

In the heart of the Smokies lies Maggie Valley, a mountain getaway that rolls out the welcome mat to traveling tourists. 

Memorial Day weekend has come and gone, and Ghost Town in the Sky still appears much as the name implies. The closed gift shop and ticket windows sit watch over an empty parking lot. 

The grassy field is empty and the playground vacant as the sun sheds evening beams across the grounds of Cowee School. But when Susan Ervin looks at the unoccupied asphalt track and pavilion bare of coolers and tablecloths, she sees the busy community scene she’s hoping to experience on the long-awaited May 13. 

It’s the day that will kick off the new Cowee Farmers Market, a goal Ervin and a core group of eight others have been working toward for months. In the empty field of the decommissioned school-turned-community-center, she sees vendors setting up displays of fresh produce, crafts, preserves, meats and plants. She sees a local band playing in the pavilion, tip jar open. She sees children playing on the swing set, teenagers tossing a football around in the field — just people having fun.