Where was Ghost Town money going?

Vicki Hyatt, The Mountaineer, Waynesville, N.C.
·2 min read

Nov. 27—The latest court filings in McClure vs. Ghost Town in the Sky and Maggie Valley RV Park document a trail of both unpaid bills and checks written personally to South Carolina developer Frankie Wood.

Wood has provided no accounting on how the funds have been spent, contending Jill McClure, the niece of the late-Ghost Town in the Sky owner Alaska Presley holds only an economic interest and isn't entitled to financial records.

Wood and Presley were co-equal members in both corporations. An operating agreement stipulated that Jill McClure, Presley's niece, was to assume her interests up her death.

Presley passed away in April at the age of 98.

A significant portion of McClure's affidavit, filed on Nov. 17, documents numerous checks her aunt made out to Wood — checks that weren't deposited into the corporations' accounts but were cashed by Wood. The brief states McClure is not alleging fraud "in the current version of the complaint," but said there are "suspicious circumstances."

Copies of 13 checks or certified funds made out to Wood were included in the affidavit.

In all, the documents showed Presley paid Wood $74,000 in increments ranging from $1,500 to $10,000 between May 2020 and May 2021. In addition, there were other checks written during the same period to "Cash" with memo lines referring to Ghost Town or Moody Farms, the affidavit states.

McClure's affidavit indicated none of the funds appeared to have been deposited into a corporate account, and all but one were endorsed individually by Wood.

"I asked Frankie Wood multiple times if he had set up a bank account for MVRV or Ghost Town, and he said no. He told me he would put my name on the account when he set one up," McClure alleges. Meanwhile, there has been no "accounting of how these funds benefitted either MVRV or Ghost Town," the court filing states.

The bills McClure uncovered that are yet unpaid include:

—An invoice from Caroline-A-Contracting LLC, for work performed at Maggie Valley RV Park with an outstanding balance of $8,100;

—An invoice from Cornerstone Engineering, Inc., for work on a cross at Ghost Town with an unpaid balance of $600.

McClure's affidavit included copies of the actual checks her aunt made out to Wood, as well as documentation of the nearly $50,000 in property taxes she or Presley paid for the properties in the corporations in 2021-22.

The document also included copies of the 2022 property taxes unpaid and due on Jan. 5, 2023, totaling nearly $30,000.