After our Thanksgiving 2015 trip to Cave City, Kentucky. We kinda got to missing the place. We were only in town for about 14 hours, ten of which were spent sleeping/freezing in a tee pee! But still, good times!
We decided to have a themed fam party night to kinda extend our stay, when we got back home.
Of course we had Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner. Love the Colonel!
We also made our own mini Wigwam Village for dessert.
The tee pees are waffle cones coated in white almond bark. We then each decorated two wigwams with red icing. PB pulled out some of his old hot wheels and we parked them around. We stayed in wigwam #10 and drove the Batmobile! Atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed!
Because it was amazingly cold when we stayed at Wigwam Village we decided to add some coconut snow to the ground even if it really wasn't there. We also ate the wigwams with a scoop of vanilla ice cream under them.
We didn't pair this Fam night with a movie or another activity like we normally do but now thinking about it...We could have watched an old scary movie about a haunted house, like "Screaming Skull" referencing to the Haunted Hotel at Funtown Mountain. But let's make it quirky and do the MST3K version !
Here are the other posts in the series about our trip to Cave City:
Let me tell you a little story...no, it's not about a man named Jed. But it does involve a mountain.
Somehow I stumbled on this new awesome place called Guntown/Funtown Mountain. Guntown Mountain is located in the same Cave City, Kentucky as Wigwam Village. No sooner did I discover that this most amazing place existed...it didn't any more..it is like the website says:
The greatest place you've never seen.
Relive the Old West
Originally Funtown Mountain was known as Guntown Mountain. It was built in 1970
and had all of the stuff you would expect from the old west: can can girls, gunfights, country music shows, actors falling off roofs and brawling in the streets. They also had an old timey photo booth where you could dress up all westernish with shotguns and empty liquior bottles. For the little buckaroos there was a petting zoo and a magic show. For a dollar you could pay the sheriff to lock someone up for you for 5 minutes in jail. There was a chairlift that would take folks up to the mountain top where the old west town was. After several decades of reliving the old west Guntown Mountain went up for sale because of declining visitors.
Revive the Old West
In steps a visionary, named Will Russell. He is known to many as the founder of the Lebowski fest and owning two quirky Kentucky themed shops in Louisville called Why Louisville?. He envisioned taking the guns out of the roadside attraction but being a admirer of vintage and quirkiness, was going to maintain the general feel. It would become Funtown Mountain, a carnival and pop culture road side attraction. His plans included a pop culture museum, a forested area with sculptures by a local Kentucky artist, a children's park with a treetop village similar to the ewoks in Star Wars..among other things. Amazing and fun things here....Pee-wee Herman collectibles for your viewing pleasure, vintage fun stuff for sale in the gift shop, Show Biz pizza animatronics performing band The Wolf Pack 5, outside movie screenings such as Pee-wee's Big Adventure, a Kentucky themed glow putt putt golf course, neat little odd things around every corner ( coin operated chicken laying machine, side show banners, velvet Elvis paintings, vintage pin ball machines, and a Snak Shak featuring FUNyuns displayed in a vintage metal Sunbeam Cakes display rack..to name only a few.)
He was able to raise the money for the down payment and was scheduled to open the summer of 2016. To get people aware of the upcoming Funtown Mountain he toured several states in a vintage argosy motor home stopping at other roadside attractions presenting a concert, a side show, an art show, and a promotional video for the new park.
He also decided to open the attraction an entire year early, on June 19, 2015, The day was called the Grand Awesoming and it sounded like it did not disappoint! We're talking 'Mascot Head Noodle Fights' where pool noodle bouts went down while opponents wore huge stuffed animal heads, bounce houses and slides, an animatronic hillbilly band performing songs from "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?", free cotton candy, a human fire breather side show performer, a roller skating clown, snowballs (I heard tale of Butter Beer flavor!), and a grand finale of a couple of brothers who perform together as Elvis and Meatloaf impersonators!! Along with this, there were a few other preexisting structures to experience on the premises.
And speaking of what is on the premises!!!! Look off to the left...
Oh..my...god. Is this real?! Yes...it is...was. The Haunted Hotel is part of the property for Guntown Mountain. It was built in 1972 and is/was the oldest operational walk thru dark house in the country.
Inside the Haunted Hotel are/were several of the original attraction gags produced by Funni-Frite industries. A company that specialized in carnival dark rides and amusement park fun houses.
Greeting the approaching thrill seekers is Charmin' Charles, the honkey tonkin' paino playing skeleton!
Accompanying Charles inside the house are 7 other original Funni-Frite gags along with various spooky stuff around every tight narrow halled passageway.
Here I am creeping in front of the Haunted Hotel.
The doors are not boarded up for effect. This is when our mountain story goes wrong.
By September 2015, just 3 months after it's opening Funtown Mountain is closed, abandoned, vandalized, in bankruptcy, and is going up for auction in the near future.
What happened? The Ouija shack says....Will Russell.
He has apparently been battling mental illness most of his life along with drug issues. They all came back into play after many years of dormancy and brought Funtown Mountain and Cave City down with him. Russell was arrested several times during July-Sept 2015 for public intoxication, drug possession, disorderly conduct, setting fires in his apartment, bribery of police when he promised to put them in his next movie if they let him go, and toting around a child's 'Clash of the Titans' lunch box with an array of assorted pills inside. If all of that isn't bad enough the worse thing he did was promoting and partaking in destroying Funtown Mountain.
He took it upon himself to show up on the property during business hours and sling yellow paint all over the parking lot. He also smeared it on the tram, his car, and the front doors of the Souvenir Shack with a big smiley face and the word "OK" which he told police it was '' artwork as part of his therapy''. He then put images of his destruction on Funtown Mountain's social media accounts. He announced on these sites that people could "Take what you like and leave the rest to be their best. Thunder?"
You can image what happened. Definitely a storm.
That is why I have been saying "was/were" about different aspects of the park throughout this post. Just about everything that was original to the park along with the 'awesoming' additions have been stolen or destroyed now.
It's all very sad. Funtown Mountain could have become the Disneyland for the quirky folks.
As to not leave this post on a depressing note here is an extremely happy commercial for Showbiz pizza as an ode to Funtown Mountain.
On the way out of town after staying at the Wigwam Village, we snapped a few images of other neat stuff in the area.
Love this Holiday Motel sign..hate the retarded dot com on it though.
Wait! This is better:
This is a scanned image from my trip in 2001. I would rather see it's neon beckoning offering of T.V. and wall to wall carpets then it's lame dot com weak signage it totes now.
We came across this super cool looking souvenir shop, Tom's Tee-Pee. Next door was another store called 'Wild Wonderful Gifts".
We took a quick spin through it and saw 'New Old Stock' items in their original habitat.
4 bucks is a bit steep for me. I guess it is for a lot of folks considering the barrel of these they still have.
Naughty kid stuff.
If I had this style of camper I would have blessed it with this decorative plate.
We stopped at the Watermill Restaurant, the place to eat, while in Cave City, Kentucky.
The place has a great local hometown, slightly run down feel to it..Which is what I look for in any place that I dine at.
I am generally not a red meat kinda person but I decided to get their special called 'The Manhattan" because it had a fun name. It is a big plate of mashed potatoes, gravy, roast beef, gravy, toast, and more gravy. It was so good I contemplate jumping in my car and driving the 8 hours to get it again right now.
Hubs had a hamburger. That's how he bases his entire judgement of a restaurant's quality and menu, by how good their hamburgers are. I think it is safe to say he would he grabbing the car keys for me so we could start that 8 hour journey. He is still talking about that hamburger. PB had a plain hot dog which is pretty hard to get wrong. So everyone was happy.
The only issue I have with the place is they still have a smoking and non-smoking area. What the ?! I didn't even know that backwoods business was still around but it apparently is in Kentucky. The other issues that arise from this fault is that you have to walk through the smoking area to get to the non-smoking area...WHAT THE?! And the Watermill is known for their buffet...but guess what? It's in the nasty smoking area!! WHAT THE?!
I still recommend the place though. Just don't get the cigarette scented buffet, clamp your nose as you come in, and head to the furthermost corner. Truthfully, the day we were there no one was smoking, not even the people in the smoking area.
The Wigwam Village is from the mind of Frank Redford. He built his first one in 1935 in his hometown of Horse Cave Kentucky. Next came # 2 (where we stayed) in 1937. Over the next decade or so he built/franchised a total of seven villages located in Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Arizona, and California. Three are still functioning being in Cave City, Kentucky and on Route 66 in Holbroke, Arizona and Rialto,California.
We stayed in Teepee 10.
The owners are very nice and even gave us a keychain with # 10 on it for free!
Let's take a tour!
Yes... They still have the original 1930's hickory and cane furniture!
The base of each wigwam is 14 feet wide and the top reaches to 32 feet.
An image showing the wall arching in. I personally think there is a lot of wasted space above the ceiling and thought that it would be fun if there was a small loft and a lookout window up there for kids...and me.
That radiator didn't work, unfortunately. All we were supplied with was a little space heater which had it's work cut out fighting the 29 degree temperatures outside the flaps.
The vanity with it's lovely linen Formica top and aluminum edging! I was going to set the lamp aglow but decided against it when I saw the exposed brittle old wiring showing inside the plug...that would have became a different way of setting everything aglow.
I love the bathroom!
We made construction paper Indian headdresses with personalized names as part of the whole wigwam experience. PB was 'Chief Screaming Chicken', hubs was 'Stumbling Badger', and I was 'Squaw Fussy Britches'.
Pee Wee came along and had his own little headdress too.
He got his pic done in front of the wigwam as well. He is 'Chief I know you are but what am I?'.
The unlit neon during the day.
There is a massive sized wigwam in the front of the village (52 feet tall). It used to serve as the office, a gift shop, and a small restaurant. The larger wigwam was built a little bit before the village and sold gas. Off to either side of the large structure are smaller wigwams that were the bathrooms.
Looking inside there are gift shop kinda stuff visable but it wasn't open...I don't think it is ever open truthfully. The owners live in a house off to the side and that is where we checked in/out.
Here we all are. I guess the boys had the thought of knocking over a few liquor stores while we were in town given those stocking hats on their heads.
Here's something extra fun. I stayed at these wigwams 14 years ago and have a few scanned images of 'before' and 'after'.
BEFORE
Circa 2001. Sitting at the vanity lipsticking.
AFTER
Present Day Lipglossing.
BEFORE
Circa 2001. Window perchin'.
AFTER
Present Day chillin'.
I highly recommend a night in a wigwam if you are into nostaglic roadside attractions and enjoy an adventure. I do not recommend it to those who need working phones (there are no phones) or reliable wi-fi (that's the best part to me! No wi-fi! yes!) or, well, adequate climate control. We just brought extra blankets and slept in a pile together, probably the way the Indians used to!
During the week of thanksgiving 2015, the fam and I were able to swing through Cave City, Kentucky. I put up a couple of posts about it but not all of them. And the posts I did put up wound up getting lost in all the christmas hoopla and quickly shoved to the background. We had such a great time there, even though it was less than 24 hours, I wanted to repost all of it together. So I am going to be pulling the older posts forward, along with adding the soon-to-be-finished ones here as well.
Skelery- Blend Skippy and cottage cheese, stuff celery, garnish with pimiento.
Skucumbers - Top chilled cucumber slices with Skippy.
Skarrots- Top chilled carrot strips with Skippy, cocktail onions.
Skeezers- Spread Skippy between cheddar cheese squares. Fasten with toothpick.
Skandwiches- Blend deviled ham and Skippy, spread in small sandwich rolls.
Skipikkles- Pinwheels with Skippy and pickle relish.
Skibirds- Mix Skippy with chopped chicken, spread on crackers.
Skooties- Blend Skippy with chili sauce, spread on crackers.
Skoopers- Skippy with bacon and stuffed olives on toast strips.
So if you find yourself short on snacks for those unexpected guests stopping by or it just plain slipped your mind it's a new year today, just open your fridge, grab some random junk and slather some peanut butter on it. But the key is to serve it on the exiting new Special Partytime Offer Trio Tray....Please allow 3 weeks for delivery. I guess a paper plate could work too....
