CAVE CITY — A week before the auction of the former Guntown Mountain roadside theme park, potential buyers got a chance Wednesday to inspect the property. 

Ed Durnil, an auctioneer and broker with Tranzon, a nationwide auction company, who is helping conduct the court-ordered master commissioner’s sale April 20, said a total of 42 contacts have shown serious interest in purchasing Guntown Mountain, more than half of which come from out of state. 

“They’re from all over,” he said, adding that people and groups from Nashville, Texas, Oklahoma and even Canada have communicated a desire to own the property.   

Tranzon was on-site with a Chevrolet Suburban to take interested buyers up to the top of Guntown Mountain, where a gravel trail led guests between two rows of Wild West-style buildings. 

On the outside, the buildings’ paint was chipping away and their porches were warped in places. The insides were strewn with trash, abandoned parts of former attractions, like mannequins and old signs, and discarded pieces of Americana, including a painted bust of Elvis.  

Will Russell, a Louisville businessman who co-founded Lebowski Fest, purchased Guntown Mountain in 2015 and changed its name to Funtown Mountain. He set about his goal of revitalizing the attraction with a $250,000 loan from the Kentucky Tourism Development Loan Program, a loan from South Central Bank and $26,323 raised through a Kickstarter campaign.

Cave City officials closed the park down for multiple code violations in September, days before Russell defaulted on his loans.

Russell’s company, Land of Tomorrow Productions LLC, still owns the property, Durnil said. “Through the laws of the state, the creditors have received the right to sell it,” he said.

Because Russell purchased the property with two separate loans, the Guntown Mountain site is made up of two parcels: one that contains the top of the “mountain” and one that includes the parking lot, leading up to the where the ski lift lets off on the peak.  

The former property is 16.2 acres, according to a legal notice, and the latter is 9.44 acres. 

This division of the land, which could allow for two groups to own the different parts of the property, was a con for some potential buyers. 

David Gray, co-owner of Kentucky Down Under, said he wants to set up a “totally separate” attraction at Guntown Mountain, but is worried that, because the top of the mountain is difficult to access and contains no parking, it would functionally require ownership of the other parcel of the land.  

He also has some concerns with the ski lift, which he anticipates would be expensive to repair.

Gray said he was unlikely to purchase any part of the property, though he said he would attend the auction. 

“It’s going to require a huge amount of money, vision and effort to bring this place back to its former glory,” he said.

David Froggett, owner of Edmonton-based radio station 99.1 the Hoss, was more confident about the likelihood of pursuing his prospective project on the mountain.

He and his wife Vikki are partnering with a Chicago property development firm to buy and renovate both parcels of the property. 

Froggett has a “resort park-nature park combination” in mind for the site and is considering installing a rock climbing school, a water park, a zipline and horseback riding, he said.

“We’ve got a really solid group of local people who are going to be involved,” he said, adding that he was not at liberty to say who he was working with. 

Froggett said he anticipates getting Guntown Mountain back up and running will cost around $5 million.

Barren County residents who spoke with the Daily News said they were excited about Guntown Mountain reopening.  

Emily Moss, the operations manager of Jellystone Park, a camping park less than a mile from the mountain, said there’s a demand for the park’s reopening. 

In recent months, while attending RV shows in Louisville and Nashville, numerous people asked if the theme park would reopen after finding out she was from Cave City.

“It’s going to be good for Cave City,” she said. “It’s going to bring people in from all over.” 

Nancy Logsdon, who owns the Glasgow Junction Flea Market in Park City, said she’s worried the town might see a repeat of what happened when Russell tried to reopen the theme park, but thinks serious buyers are likely aware of Russell’s mistakes and would probably not repeat them.

“We’re all rooting for it to reopen,” she said, adding that Guntown Mountain would be a boon to the local economy because it brings tourists to other parts of the county as well. 

“We could all benefit from that,” she said.  

Roughly halfway through the inspection, which lasted from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Durnil said he was satisfied with the number of potential buyers that attended. “Frankly, I was not expecting as many purchasers as showed up,” Durnil said, adding that the inspection of similar properties usually draws one or two interested parties.

He said he doesn’t anticipate interest to dampen due to the site being separated into two properties.   

“It’s going to be very interesting what shakes out next Wednesday,” he said. 

— Follow Daily News reporter Jackson French on Twitter @Jackson_French or visit bgdailynews.com.