🥳 Happy Birthday Dollywood 🥳

Hi Everyone!

Happy Birthday Dollywood!  38 Looks Good On You!

According to Wikipedia... 

On May 3, 1986, Silver Dollar City Tennessee reopened as Dollywood. The new Rivertown Junction area included Smoky Mountain River Rampage, a whitewater rafting ride; Back Porch Theater; Aunt Granny's Dixie Fixins' Restaurant; and Dolly's Tennessee Mountain Home, a replica of the cabin that was Parton's childhood home. Also new was "Rags to Riches: The Dolly Parton Story," a museum displaying articles and mementos from Dolly's life and career. "The Butter Churn" (a Trabant ride) was removed at the end of the season. Park attendance doubled to more than a million guests during the first season as Dollywood.^[11]

 

I have a lot of pictures of Dollywood in my Archives.  Many of which I have swiped off the internet with no idea who to credit the photo with.   Here's a few from very early times at Dollywood.  I'm not positive these are all from 1986, but certainly around that time period.  At the bottom I have a video to share if you would like to see inside Dolly's Apartment - featured in some of the photos below.

A more recent picture of Dolly's Apartment, that was above Apple Jack's Restaurant, and was razed several years ago.

Dolly's Apartment, when it was new to Dollywood.  I read a comment recently from someone who said they lived in ''Dolly's Apartment'' house as a child.  They mentioned Dollywood bought and moved the house to this location.

Again, Dolly's Apartment and Smoky Mountain Rampage under construction.

If you want to see inside Dolly's Apartment, you should watch Graham Norton's Dollywood Special where he takes a look inside.  It's a hoot.  He is a seasoned talk show host in the UK.

Cue up to 5:03 to see the Apartment, or click here.

38 Years - What a great success with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.  For me, in my opinion, Dollywood began it's impressive decades of expansion in 2004 with Thunderhead, which is 20 years old this year.  That was both a major attraction addition, and also the beginning of a whole new area of Dollywood.  It just continued from there with Mystery Mine in 2007.  In 2008 they added another area, Wilderness Pass, to connect to the top of Craftsman's Valley to Timber Canyon.   Then just more explosive growth through today.  

It's a lot of fun for me to Vlog and Blog about it.  I mentioned that in my very first blog post a couple years ago, where I share some nostalgia for Opryland - and also where my obsession? or fascination with theme parks and the mechanics of rides really got going.  That moved over to Dollywood when I moved from Nashville to Knoxville.

Cheers to Dollywood and I look forward to many more years of enjoyment!

Correction!  in my initial post I wrote that Dollywood turned 39, which was incorrect.  I woke up in the middle of the night realizing what I had written, and I have since corrected it to 38.  2024 minus 1986 is 38, but it is Dollywood's 39th Season, which is prob what I was thinking about when I wrote this.