“I used my $2 million in life savings to build a fairy-tale village”

When Shannon Moore turned 50, she got divorced, sold her house, and funneled her $2 million in life savings and real estate investments into an abandoned campground in Hayesville, NC. On these wooded 11.55 acres, she built Magical Mountain Resorts, a whimsical village of tiny cottages themed to Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, and other storytime characters. Here’s what inspired this epic adventure, and how she put it together.

What inspired you to create this unique campground of tiny homes? “I owned a real estate brokerage in my home state of Florida. When I turned 50, I sold everything I owned, got divorced, and bought this campground. I saw the listing ‘for sale by owner’ on Zillow. I had never been to Hayesville before, but after seeing the listing, I flew up the next day. A fellow real estate investor flew up with me and said the property was so dilapidated that he wouldn’t offer on it. He felt it needed too much work. [Nonetheless] I put in a full-price offer.”

How much did you spend to purchase it? “I spent $290,000 on 11.55 acres, five tiny homes, a large house, and a pavilion. I brought in an additional tiny home and two double-decker buses. The homes were barely standing, and all the utilities and roads needed renovating, but I took a chance because I had a vision. I wanted an enchanting village with fairy gardens, mushroom statues with polka dots, and twinkling lights in the trees.”

How much did it cost to renovate this camp and bring your vision to life? “I did go quite over budget at around $2 million spent so far. I paid cash from selling my home and investments in Florida. I also downsized my living a lot. I went from a home on the beach in Florida worth around $650K to a vintage flamingo-themed trailer worth $10,000. If I were going to make this work, I had to make sacrifices.”

What challenges did you face? “Oh gosh, there were a lot of challenges. Being a single, out-of-state woman was challenging. I had the entire campground replumbed and wired and had to rip the whole thing out because the contractors used ‘not for pressure’ pipes underground. At this point, I wasn’t in North Carolina supervising; I was still living in Florida. I moved to North Carolina on Sept 29, 2022, the day after Hurricane Ian ripped my town apart. I was tired of the hurricanes, the rising cost of insurance, and the heat.”

What went into designing these tiny houses? “I found a lot of the artists on Etsy. I have several doors that were hand-carved in Turkey in an Alice in Wonderland motif and a candy-themed motif. I keep a list of all the artists in a guidebook that’s placed in each home on the coffee table. I have an old table and chairs that were shipped over from a castle in Scotland. Then there’s the hand-forged rose bathroom door handles made in Russia. I wanted the property to not only be a cool place to stay but somewhat of an art gallery as well. There are over 250 artists from all over the world who have contributed to artwork at the property. There’s even a guy named Mitch Mitton out of Powder Springs, GA, who was a former Disney Imagineer. He made the giant pumpkins in front of the Caretaker's Cabin, the ice cream sandwich bench, the chocolate monster in the Chocolate Swamp, and the icicles in the candy-themed area.”

Done any other upgrades in addition to those cute houses? “In August of 2024, I built a big purple barn and called it Fairytale Farm. I have two mini horses, one mini donkey, two KuneKune pigs, three Nigerian dwarf goats, and two Patagonian maras. I let the guests visit with the animals, feed them, and brush them. That’s been a really neat addition to the campground.”

How did this investment pan out? “I just started my third year open on March 23, 2025. I’m still building the campground out, so I put any profit right back into the project. I’m hoping to add a gnome house on the side of the mountain, a school bus that’s space themed, the Whimsical Wizard Express that’s train themed, then an Atomic Age–themed unit and fairy-tale treehouses up the side of the mountain.”

What did you learn from this experience, and what advice do you have for others who want to take a chance building their own real estate dream from scratch? “I learned to follow your dreams and not wait. I would also advise being on-site while big projects are happening. I lost a lot of money and had to redo a lot of things that I wouldn’t have had to redo had I been onsite or at least close by.”

Any other fond or funny memories that come to mind about putting this place together? “The MidKnight Bus was what started everything. I had that before I even purchased the property. I needed a magical place to put it. It was manufactured in England in 1955, then brought to the US by Walt Disney in 1978 to shuttle people to Disney World. In the early 1990s, it was decommissioned and ended up on Craigslist, which is where I saw it and bought it for $2,000. After I finished renovating the bus into a short-term rental, an influencer shot a video of it that reached 10 million people. I was booked solid for months. One family who stayed there once owned the bus and took rides in it with their grandkids. They stayed there for their birthdays and re-created many of the photos that they had in the bus back when they owned it.”

See more pics of Shannon’s magical world below—including Walt Disney’s old bus.