The Troubled Civil War Theme Park: Rebel Railroad & The Creation of Dollywood | Expedition Dollywood

today dollywood welcomes millions of visitors each year it's the biggest ticketed tourist attraction in tennessee while the current version of the park opened in 1986 its roots go back decades further a civil war themed theme park a cleveland browns football team theme park and the silver dollar city of the south the path to dollywood was quite the interesting journey [Music] in 1866 legislation granted the east tennessee and western north carolina railroad company permission for the construction of a railroad this railroad which began operations in 1882 traveled through the blue ridge chain of the appalachian mountains that divided the two states the railroad was later given the nickname tweetsie due to the tweet tweet noise that echoed through the hills with a change in economy and the construction of more and more roads the railway track became less and less popular and in 1950 all operations were seized out of 13 locomotives that carried the tweetsy name only one survived the scrapyard the number 12 locomotive that was built in 1917. number 12 moved around the country planned for display or film usage before blowing rock native grover robbins jr and his brothers harry and spencer decided it was time to bring tweetsie back to the mountains grover robbins had worked as a lumber man in north carolina and florida before returning to his hometown to retire he used to ride the tweetsie back in the 30s when the train ran from boone north carolina to johnson city tennessee instead of fully retiring he would attempt to create a tourist attraction one that would aim to preserve the history and character of the region in the summer of 1957 the tweetsie railroad tourist attraction debuted with the iconic number 12 back in the mountains now taking guests on a one mile journey to a picnic area and back the attraction continued to grow from the excursion railroad into the first theme park in north carolina the track was turned into a three mile loop and an authentic western town was built up around the station tweetsie railroad was a huge success and by the 1960s 180 000 passengers were visiting each season if you're ready for a full day of wild west family fun hop on board tweetsie railroad for an exciting trip back in time there's plenty of action on main street but watch out for those indians and outlaws take in the magic show and discover more rip rip-roaring surprises around every bin so come on saddle up and head to the mountains for some old-fashioned family fun at tweetsie railroad it's a blast from the past swedenblast from the past the robin's family decided to expand their operation after the success of tweetsie railroad the obvious choice of where to go was to follow the route of the old railway track and head to east tennessee come home with me to tennessee come visit the home of the king the home of the blues and world record fishing you ought to see the one that got away welcome to tennessee a place that will take you back in time to the days of casey jones the civil war and long before named after an iron forge and the numerous now extinct passenger pigeons in the area pigeon forge tennessee and the nearby gatlinburg became a hub for tourist attractions it wasn't always that way originally the area was full of wheat fields and farmlands with a great smoky mountains for a background the boom came in the early 1960s which saw the area packed full of visitors in the summer looking to ride the incline chair lift and see sidewalk art one of these first tourist attractions in the area opened for business in 1961 just outside the city limits the second location for the robin's family called rebel railroad taking inspiration from tweetsie railroad and operating essentially the same this time with a civil war theme old ware style themed tourist attractions were becoming increasingly popular with locations such as ghost town in the sky six gun territory and silver dollar city all opening within just a few years of each other rebel railroad would cost 1 million dollars to create opening on june 10th 1961 and hope to drive more vacation visitors to the area [Music] in rebel town the shop france looked exactly like stepping back in time the country store displayed wartime goods and guests could find snacks and drinks at the lady gay saloon the strongest of which for sale would be root beer or coffee inside a piano player would take requests and play old time songs visitors could also see their name in the headlines at the newspaper office or purchase a gold horseshoe with their initials on it from the blacksmith one of the other highlights was a water-powered wagon with moving hand-carved figures showing moments in history it was found in storage and put on show for the first time in over 100 years after exploring the village guests hopped on board klondike katie on the rebel railroad with its five miles of narrow gauge track winding about the mountains the locomotive was formerly used on the white pass and yukon railroad in alaska the train was originally used in world war ii as a us army transportation class steam engine inspired by the civil war centennial year the full-sized steam locomotive pulled six open cars led by a colonel explaining that full agony up the line was being attacked and that the train must get supplies and reinforcements through as the train pulls away the main street of rebel town erupts with people waving confederate flags each youngster on board is lined up and then would be inducted into the confederate army and issued a toy rifle to help repel attacks a stop on the journey has a war painted chief on a grand horse states he wants to take all the children on board or his tribe would attack of course the rebels refuse once underway the attacks came from behind burning wagons and in the woods once the fort is reached cannons go off and soldiers run around and charge on horses the tribe attacks on horseback wave in tomahawks and begin climbing all over the cars of the train it was up to the passengers to try and defend it with their toy rifles once the supplies are dropped the journey continues back to rebeltown with more attacks on the way the whole experience would last around 45 minutes and operated around 11 trips a day during peak season each taking up to 300 passengers the action was high energy and people visiting the new park loved it there were many accidents reported for its performers with some even accidentally being set on fire it was quite a realistic recreation of a battle [Music] rebel railroad was just as successful as tweetsie railroad one family reported it was the greatest entertainment they had ever seen there was one issue however guests visit him from the north didn't love the idea of their young children shooting up yankees most places report that rebel railroad was changed into gold rush junction in 1970 when cleveland brown's owner art model purchased the park and while he did the transition came much earlier as early as 1964 newspapers reported the change from rebel railroad to gold rush junction when the park dropped the civil war theme to become more like tweetsie railroad with cowboys and indians instead after multiple successful seasons it was in 1969 that the park was purchased from the robbins family why did art model owner of the cleveland browns by a western amusement park in tennessee many at the time believed he bought it as a tax writer however the park continued to make money after grover roberts jr sold the park in 1969 he sadly passed away from cancer the following year at the age of 50. his brothers would continue to operate tweetsie railroad and it still operates today and remains in the family 1969 saw the park advertised as the cleveland browns amusement park apparently visitors would be able to experience the same excitement that the cleveland team had always delivered on your visit to the western town you would now be able to get a free photo of your favorite browns player attractions had also started to be added to expand the offering the first major one would be a log blue it was added to the park in 1966 just before the sale the log ride was originally created for the 1964 world's fair in new york and had moved to gold rush juncture one enterprise in the amusement area that's doing very nicely is the log flume ride the logs are made of fiberglass from the mighty fiberglass forests of north america and the price is 95 cents for a three minute ride or 32 cents a minute [Music] it's recommended that you take your ant along on this diversion in which event the ride may be referred to as la fleum de mar tom [Music] the climax is a slide down the last chute which looks as though it would soak you through but actually sends you away only slightly moist and hardly needing a pressing [Music] it remained in the park until 2004. for the 1970 season the cleveland browns football club and its owner would spend around 500.000 the size and amount of attractions at the park a 180 pad rv park was added and it saw the addition of the scamper a wooden wild mouse coaster which had moved from cedar point bringing the total number of attractions in the amusement area to 7. the park was now bringing around 300 000 guests per season all excited to see the train ride ride the log flume and the owners hoped that this would continue to grow additions continue to be added visitors could now see davy crockett and a cherokee chief sign a peace treaty the steam engine that powered the first pencil mill in america built in 1850 would be restored and used at the park to power a woodworking shop a toy museum was added and in 1973 a chapel was built inside gold rush junction they chose to build this as it was seen to be a gift back to the local community many of the materials used to create the chapel were built in the 1800s and donated to complete the 35 000 project they would name it after robert f thomas a well-respected mountain doctor of the area who would travel to remote patients to offer aid another benefit of adding the church was that the sunday laws meant that gold rush junction was not able to open on sundays 1960 main street silver dollar city vacationers heading for the hills of the ozarks are finding a new form of entertainment at marvel cave near branson missouri [Music] on april 8 1976 the park was sold again missouri based theme park entertainment firm silver dollar city inc owned by jack and peter hirschend operators of silver dollar city in branson purchased 384 acres of land and planned to spend 9 million dollars in capital improvements at gold rush junction during the first five years of ownership the tennessee park operated under the former name gold rush for one season before becoming silver dollar city tennessee the price of the sale was not announced at the time other than it was in the seven figure range it was later speculated to have been sold for 17 million dollars they hope they can increase attendance to the park to that of silver dollar cities over a million visitors a year they plan to sell all the carnival type rides at the park and replace them with themed rides similar to those at silver dollar city the first attraction to be copied from missouri to tennessee would be the flooded mine originally opened in 1968. this second version of the indoor boat ride opened in tennessee in 1977 taking riders through a flooded prison mine shaft other attractions would also come from the original park in the following years some of which will get their own expedition the next major addition blazing fury opened in 1978 was the sister coaster to the original park's fire in the hole which had opened in 1972 in just a few years the park size had increased over 30 percent and as more themed attractions were added attendance continued to rise the authentic shops blacksmiths and crafters became a staple of the park with over 75 professional craftsmen demonstrating old-time skills during special festivals throughout the year growth continued throughout the early 80s with the park now firmly moving away from its train ride experience of old to a fully fledged theme park though the train ride that started it all still operates in the park today make sure you look out for klondike kt the silver dollar city of the south was again a hair and the changes were working with over half a million guests visiting each year unknown to everyone the park was about to change one final time [Music] your career is a good place it isn't a good place and and i'm in a good place now but also i want to get in areas of business i have a big dream of building a a center or a city or being involved in a place in east tennessee my hometown up in gatlinburg which is one of the most wonderful places in the world called dollywood usa and this would be like a fantasy city like uh sort of like disneyland but like where it's like a mountain disneyland like a smoky mountain fairyland in 1982 the herschen brothers were listening to a barbara waters interview american singer songwriter an all-around icon dolly parton mentioned the fact that she had a desire to open a theme park in her home state not wanted to compete they reached out to her and suggested a partnership dolly parton already had a connection to the park it was that mountain doctor robert f thomas the one the chapel within the park was named after the very same doctor that had made a house call to deliver dolly rebecca parton on january 19 1946 40 years later on may 3rd 1986 dollywood opened its doors for the first time [Music] thank you so much for watching this episode of expedition dollywood if you enjoyed it make sure you subscribe to join the expedition we have a lot to cover at the tennessee park which ride or attraction would you like to see first on expedition dollywood let me know in the comments below follow us on twitter and instagram for updates on upcoming episodes and a special thank you to our patrons for supporting the channel we will see you next time your trip to the smokies really isn't complete unless you visit dollywood and share a family treat it's a magic place good times for everyone so come on out enjoy a day of smokey mountain fun see your favorite music stars meet my family and discover traditions that it used to be get away to dollywood it's home spun fun in the heart of the smokies five miles north of gatlinburg

Channel: Expedition Theme Park

Views: 144,564

Keywords: expedition theme park, expedition dollywood, dollywood, rebel railroad, goldrush junction, silver dollar city, pigeon forge, gatlinburg tennessee, dolly parton, theme park, history, creation, evooving, guide, dollywood best rides, dollywood food, dollywood rides, 2021, lightning rod, history of, ghost town in the sky, tennessee, dolly, parton, 9 to 5, expedition, theme, park

Id: -EzHGS0RoGM

Length: 17min 31sec (1051 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021