History

Attractions, History, News

Who the Heck Is Kenny? Dollywood’s Co-Owners Just Added Another Wood to Their Portfolio… and a Whole Lot More

Herschend Family Entertainment Just Acquired 20 New Parks and Attractions Including Kennywood, Dutch Wonderland and Something Called the Boulder Dash Herschend Family Entertainment just acquired 20 new parks and attractions including Kennywood, Dutch Wonderland and ….Boulder Dash. I’ll admit it. For a second, I let my imagination run away with me. I saw Kennywood – which is a Pittsburgh icon

Editorial, GSMNP, Hidden Gems, History

The Surprising Cherokee History Behind Devil’s Courthouse in NC

A Guide to the Devil’s Courthouse in Transylvania County They say the Lord works in mysterious ways. But so, too, must the Devil.  It stands to reason, right? He’s in Georgia inexcusably losing fiddle contests and in Mississippi luring Blues men to their eternal fate.  But as much as it appears the Devil enjoys having a hand in the music

Gatlinburg, GSMNP, History, Pigeon Forge, Things To Do

The Best Historic Places To Visit on Your Trip to the Smoky Mountains

A Virtual Tour of a Local’s Favorite Historic Places in the Smoky Mountains Traveling is about a lot of things. It’s about getting away from the daily grind and freeing yourself of the responsibilities that come with work. Additionally, it’s about bonding with friends and family. It’s also about seeing other parts of the country and world and absorbing cultures

GSMNP, Hidden Gems, History

The Hidden Smoky Mountains Spot With a Dark, Illegal History

Inside the area that legendary author Horace Kephart once described as “a country of ill fame” In 1904 Horace Kephart, a librarian/outdoorsman who tended the stacks at the Yale University Library and for a while worked for an American rare book collector in Italy, separated from his family and made his way to the Mountains of North Carolina.  Kephart was

Gatlinburg, GSMNP, History, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville

How the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Came Into Existence

Who is responsible for creating the GSMNP? The one-hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park is approaching on the horizon. It’s nearly impossible – or at least for me – to truly understand life in the mountains before the national park. Imagine a time when interested parties across a wide-ranging spectrum of experiences and ideals

History, Things To Do

The Top 10 Smoky Mountain Songs, According to a Local

The Best Smoky Mountain Playlist Building a perfect road trip playlist is part art and part science. But you also need some alchemy. You want the songs to fit around a certain theme to help build the hype. For example, some Beach Boys music for a beach trip. A little Sinatra for New York. Some Disney Magic if you’re heading

photo of displays from rose center about murrell

History, Things To Do

This Tennessee Inventor Flew Decades Before the Wright Brothers

A little-known man by the name of Melville Milton Murrell flew decades before the Wright brothers I’m old enough to remember being taught in school that Christopher Columbus was the first European to “discover” America. Back then, in the medieval times of the early 1980s, there were inklings, whispers and wild rumors that others had arrived in the Americas before

Oak Ridge, TN train trestle over river

History, Things To Do

There’s a Secret City in East TN You’ve Never Heard Of — but It Changed History

Oak Ridge, a secret city, was key to developing technology that ended World War II Gatlinburg was born when flatlanders from South Carolina found their way to a mountain paradise. Knoxville was born as a fort and a handful of cabins at the headwaters of the Tennessee River. Likewise, Chattanooga’s founding can be linked to its location on the Tennessee

archive photos of loyston and butler tn

Editorial, History, Trending

How These 3 Towns in Tennessee Became Sunken Underwater Ghost Towns

The story of those who lost to the Tennessee Valley Authority My home is located in what is known as the Lakeway Area. With tentacles in Hamblen, Jefferson, Grainger, Cocke, Greene, Hawkins, Claiborne and Hancock counties, the Lakeway Area is a relatively modern term. Our communities touch Norris, Douglas and Cherokee lakes. But the truth is, had you arrived here

old structures in the great smoky mountains national park

GSMNP, History, Things To Do

This Smoky Mountain Trail Leads to Lost Ruins, Abandoned Structures

Following the trail to abandoned cabins and forgotten history in the Smokies There is an alternate history of how things might have been different if the National Park had not been created. In the decades before the park, there were a variety of groups that changed the future of the park. Logging companies – to the chagrin of naturalists campaigning