4 Hidden Secrets in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Where To Find Them

Local lists most interesting links to Pigeon Forge history that can still be found around town

Coming to Pigeon Forge for a long weekend or a full vacation doesn’t really require a lot of planning. You can spend a day in the National Park, a day at Dollywood, a day exploring Gatlinburg and a day shopping the outlets around The Island. Throw in a golf day or a pool day and you’ve pretty well got that vacation knocked out. But Pigeon Forge is so much more than the big-ticket attractions. Pigeon Forge’s history is built on the out-of-the-way places, the attractions that grabbed attention even when they shouldn’t have. As popular as Pigeon Forge is today, it remains a place of hidden secrets.

 

In a town where everyone is vying for attention, several attractions somehow remain under the radar. In this article, we’ll talk about some of the hidden secrets of Pigeon Forge. Whether it’s pieces of an old attraction being integrated into a new one, with the case of the former Magic World, or parts of an old train linking to modern-day Dollywood, these links to the history of Pigeon Forge may surprise you.

1. The Gatlinburg train at the Dollywood ticket center

In 1910, a passenger railway known as the Slow Poke and Easy connected Knoxville and Pigeon Forge with plans on expanding the line to Gatlinburg. However, the advent of the automobile lessened demand. By 1940, the McCookville line proved useful in hauling material for Douglas Dam. But after the war, the demand plummeted. By 1961 the thing shut down altogether. The timing was fortunate, however, because that was the same year that Rebel Railroad – the precursor to Silver Dollar City and later Dollywood – was born.

 

The Rebel Railroad needed real trains and it just happened that the closing of the Slow Poke and Easy provided the amusement park with access to Southern Railway 107, a steamer engine built in 1887 and put into service in East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia. The train was put on display in 1961 and remains in that service today, parked at the Dollywood Parkway Building which is formerly the ticketing center.