Tucked away in the hills of Cave City, Kentucky lies an intriguing roadside tourist attraction with a rocky history. Sharing an exit with Kentucky’s own Dinosaur World (those familiar with the Orlando or Tampa area may find the name familiar, as an incarnation of Dinosaur World exists in Florida, as well) is a lesser-known attraction on the hilltop overlooking Cave City.
Today, while passing the Cave City exit on the interstate, you can catch a glimpse of big blocky letters etched into a white building atop the hillside reading “GUNTOWN MTN”. Should you choose to venture inside, you will be met with a wild west themed town full of cowboys and stunt shows. The park originally opened in 1969 under the same name, but despite the seemingly long run this little roadside attraction has enjoyed, its history tells a slightly different story.
Guntown Mountain opened in a popular tourist destination in Kentucky, hoping to draw in some crowds visiting from the nearby Mammoth Cave. Visitors could enjoy live gunfight shows, visit a haunted hotel, and ride a chairlift up and down the mountainside to reach the other areas of interest the park provided. Guntown enjoyed several uninterrupted decades of success, but by the early 2010s, its popularity had begun to dwindle. The original park finally closed its doors in 2013 after forty four years of shootouts and animal wrangling.
After Guntown’s closure, the property was purchased by a man named Will Russell, an entrepreneur from Louisville. He was endeared by the idea of a wild west themed attraction nestled away on the hilltop, but decided to add his own personal twist to the existing site. Russell decided to rebrand the park as “Funtown Mountain”, pushing a more carnival and circus theme.
For the grand re-opening of the park, Russell attempted to generate some interest in the project by putting together a traveling circus that toured the country. Under the name the “Carnival of Fun Roadshow”, the traveling circus, filled with performers, trained animals, and bizarre oddities, embarked on a journey across twenty states to promote Funtown Mountain.
The tour was disastrous and expensive; Ticket sales consistently underperformed, the band occasionally failed to show, and at one point the wheels even fell off one of the trucks. The tour ended up costing Russell and the Funtown brand thousands of dollars they could not recoup. It seemed all signs were pointing to an unfavorable outcome with the park, but despite the rocky start, Funtown Mountain hosted its “Grand Awesoming” in 2015.
Funtown seemed to have a decent start with consistent visitors throughout the season, but things would soon take a turn for the worse when Russell began acting bizarrely in front of customers and employees. Behind the scenes, Russell was grappling with an intense manic episode. He purchased the property at the start of the episode and things continued to escalate the deeper into the project he got. Following the Funtown kickstarter, Russell relapsed with drug usage and experienced a psychotic break.
During this time, Russell appeared on Funtown’s property and began vandalizing it himself. He splattered paint across the parking lot and invited the Cave City locals to freely take what they wanted from Funtown’s souvenir shops.
Finally, the plug was pulled on Funtown Mountain in September of the same year it opened, following Russell’s arrest and subsequent time spent in jail. After Russell’s very public episode, he spent a lot of time in isolation, grappling with depression and thoughts of suicide. Thankfully, Mr. Russell received the help he needed before he could go through with his plans.
Today, Russell operates the Everything Will Be OK Project, a nonprofit organization aiming to normalize mental illness and bring awareness to the condition he and many others nationwide suffer from. As Russell told the Louisville Public Media in 2018:
“‘It’s not going to get better’ is what I start to believe, and that has never been true, so what I say to people out there is that the way you feel right now is not the way you are going to feel the rest of your life. I guarantee it. Even though you may feel that way, if you keep going, if you just keep going – we’re making a t-shirt that says ‘Just keep going’ – the day will come when you feel better.”
Funtown Mountain operated for less than a year before it was permanently closed and left behind. The park remained in an unkempt state for quite some time. The chairlift that once took guests to the top of the mountain remained inoperable and was deemed too unsafe to use. In fact, the mountain sat abandoned until 2018 when efforts began to revitalize the historic location.
Funtown returned to Guntown once more, and for the first time in years, guests could once again visit the hillside wild west town in Cave City, Kentucky to witness some live gunfights and stunt shows. The park operates seasonally with shuttles taking guests up and down the mountainside. The old chairlift still remains on the property, not dismantled but still beyond repair as a memory of the parks that existed before. Although no one can know for sure what the future holds for the new and improved Guntown Mountain, the history of it is rich and intriguing and full of lessons for anyone to learn from. If you ever have the opportunity to visit this roadside oddity, make sure to keep an eye out for any remnants of what came before.
