This is my first post in what promises to be a long series about Dollywood. I love amusement parks – Dollywood in particular. I’m partial to Dollywood because of my childhood memories of the park, the theme and atmosphere, and also because it’s the closest major amusement park to where I live.
My parents and grandparents began taking me to the park as a child when it was known as Silver Dollar City. I have fond memories of those trips, and I’ve been in love with the park ever since.
To me, the theme and atmosphere of Dollywood set it apart from other more generic parks. The entire park has a Smoky Mountains theme, featuring entertainment, crafts, and food common to the area. The atmosphere of the park allows visitors to experience what life was like in the Smokies in the general time period of the late 1800s to early 1900s.
Stay tuned for additional installments in my Dollywood series, where I’ll discuss the history of the park, the rides, and much more.
I dont know if you knew this or not, about your beloved theme park, Dollywood. It was once owned by the Cleveland Browns owner at the time, Art Modell, who of course, sold us out and took the team to Baltimore. Also before being called Silver Dollar City, it was called Rebel Railroad and Gold Rush Junction. My brother got to go to both of those parks, but I never did and during the offseason, alot of the Browns players, came to the park to meet fans/sign autographs. It was originally known as Rebel Railroad up until around the early 70s, when it changed to Goldrush Junction. Then around 77/78, it became Silver Dollar City. I remember when I was in 5th grade, we got to take a trip to Dollywood, its very first year of being open, as part of our school field trip. This was a great day in my young life.
Hey Brent, love the Dollywood articles! I am also doing the same thing in writing a series of articles about Dollywood. I am also going to write articles on Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, The Great Smoky Mountains, Dixie Stampede, and other stuff in that area. Like you, I’ve also been going since the early 80s back when it was Silver Dollar City. I think I still have one of the original plastic mugs with the Silver Dollar City logo on it!
Do you remember the Dollywood Jamboree, the show that closed the park every night?! Remember James Rogers? Elwood Smooch aka Billy Baker?! I spoke with James after one of his shows last October and asked if they will ever do a Dollywood Jamboree again and he said he was just talking with management about that recently, so who knows, maybe they’ll do it again if we are lucky!
Now Elwood, he moved out of Pigeon Forge (he always calls it Pigeon Toad) to Chattanooga. Again, last October when I went, I just HAD to stop along the way and see my buddy Elwood, so we drove like 10 or 12 hours from here (South Florida) all the way to see his show that evening. The next morning we headed over to Gatlinburg.
Take a look at my site and tell me what you think! I added lots of high res pictures that I took to my posts. And I did a Dollywood Rides article where I have my pics along with people’s ride videos on YouTube! Leave me some comments and let me know if I am forgetting anything! My site is in my name link, or here at Somewhere In The Mountains.