NEW pictures have revealed the creepy Wild West-themed attraction which was abandoned more than a decade ago - although it could reopen as soon as next year.

Ghost Town in the Sky was originally built by former Disney designer Russell Pearson, and first opened in 1961.

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A theme park in the US has been abandoned for years, resulting in some rather creepy imagesCredit: Mediadrumimages / Abandoned Southeast

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Ghost Town in the Sky was originally a Wild West-themed attractionCredit: Mediadrumimages / Abandoned Southeast

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It closed in 2009 and has been vandalised and left to rotCredit: Mediadrumimages / Abandoned Southeast

The North Carolina theme park reportedly cost around $1m to build, with 40 replica buildings to make up the Western Town theme.

To get to the park passengers had to use a double incline railway to the top of Buck Mountain, with views over the valley.

However, more rides were added over the years, with it originally opening with just a chair lift and the incline railway.

This included the Red Devil, the park's original steel loop roller coaster, kiddie rollercoaster Tumbleweed and attractions including dodgems, carousels and drop towers.

The park once had as many as 620,000 annual visitors, although this had dropped to just 340,000 by 2008.

It eventually closed in 2009, after problems with maintaining the park led to problems that included guests being stranded on the chair lift for hours.

Images of the park, shared by Abandoned Southeast, now reveal many of the abandoned rides being taken over by nature, with trees and weeds growing through them.

The chair lift can be seen broken on the floor, and creepy headless mannequins still in place.

There have been many plans for it to reopen over the years, and was dubbed "Ghost Town Village" due to the various attempts.

However, there is hope for it to reopen next year, after a $200m renovation by the current owners.

This includes a retail area, hotel and theatre arena, as well as modernising the rest of the park.

There are a number of abandoned theme parks in the UK too, including the Camelot theme park which was demolished recently, and Pleasure Island which has been vandalized and left to rot.

Here are some other abandoned attractions which have been taken over by nature.

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The park's chair lift often faced problems when the park was openCredit: Mediadrumimages / Abandoned Southeast

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The park opened in the 60s, but closed down more than a decade agoCredit: Mediadrumimages / Abandoned Southeast

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It eventually expanded to include a number of rides and rollercoastersCredit: Mediadrumimages / Abandoned Southeast

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There is hopes that it will be renovated and reopen next yearCredit: Mediadrumimages / Abandoned Southeast
The incredible true story about one of America's largest abandoned theme park

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