During our October 2018
visit to Gatlinburg, we took the time to also visit Pigeon Forge, a mountain resort
city 7 miles north of Gatlinburg and 5 miles north of the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park. Pigeon Forge is a tourist destination that caters primarily to
Southern culture and country music fans. The city’s attractions include Dollywood
(Dolly Parton’s Appalachian-themed park, water park, and museum), numerous gift
shops, outlet malls, amusement rides, and musical theaters such as the Smokey
Mountain Opry.
Named for an iron forge
built around 1820 along the Little Pigeon River, Pigeon Forge has come a long
way from its humble beginnings as an isolated mountain hamlet with no major
roads, bridges a rarity, and the nearest railroad station 7 miles away in Sevierville.
With the advent of National Park in 1934, improvements to the freeways, and the
need to accommodate the tourism industry beyond Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge became
a target for expansion.
In 1982, hoping to capitalize
on the publicity generated by the Knoxville World’s Fair, Pigeon Forge
initiated an aggressive economic plan that centered around theme parks, outlet
malls, and live music venues. Although the commercial boom in Pigeon Forge
vastly increased the town’s revenue, it had several undesirable effects. As
land value increased, many farmers could no longer afford the accompanying high
property taxes and were forced to sell their land. The high cost of living in
Pigeon Forge is difficult to offset with the low wage jobs that accompany the
tourist industry.
Although we didn’t go
into Dollywood, or any of the other major attractions, we spent a couple of
hours walking through the town and marveling at the elaborate constructs of
this overtly tourist-themed town.
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