More than Dollywood: Remembering Dolly Parton’s lasting impact on themed entertainment
Dolly Parton will be remembered for her music, her unmistakable personality and a career that made her one of the most recognizable entertainers in the world.
But she will also be remembered for her kindness.
Parton spent decades using her success to help others, often with a particular focus on children and the communities of East Tennessee that shaped her. The Dollywood Foundation, established in 1988, grew from those roots. Its best-known program, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, began by providing books to young children in her home of Sevier County, Tennessee, before expanding around the world.
Her generosity also reached her neighbors in moments of crisis. Following the devastating 2016 wildfires in Sevier County, the Dollywood Foundation created the My People Fund, providing financial assistance directly to families who had lost their homes.
Parton didn’t simply lend her name to a theme park. Over four decades, her partnership with Herschend helped Dollywood grow into a major theme park and resort destination while maintaining a connection to the people, culture and landscape of the Great Smoky Mountains.
Her influence can now be found across theme parks, resorts, dinner attractions and other tourism experiences.
In remembrance of Dolly Parton, Dollywood provided this video showing some of Dolly’s appearances at the park over the years.
Before Dollywood, there was ‘Silver Dollar City Tennessee’
Dollywood’s history stretches back decades before Parton’s name appeared on the entrance.
The Pigeon Forge property began as Rebel Railroad in 1961 and later became Goldrush Junction. Jack and Pete Herschend, whose family had developed Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, purchased the Tennessee attraction in 1977.
Photo by Attractions Magazine Staff
After operating it as Goldrush Junction and then Silver Dollar City Tennessee, the Herschends eventually found a partner who could give the Tennessee park an identity rooted even more deeply in the Smoky Mountains.
Parton had grown up just miles away in Sevier County.
She joined the Herschends in the mid-1980s, and on May 3, 1986, Silver Dollar City Tennessee reopened as Dollywood. That piece of history has become especially fascinating to me after traveling to Silver Dollar City in Missouri and learning more about the Herschend family’s history in themed entertainment. Until I started digging deeper, I didn’t know Dollywood had once been ‘Silver Dollar City Tennessee.’
I had previously visited Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Dollywood wasn’t part of that trip. Learning about Silver Dollar City years later gave me a new appreciation for the connection between the two parks — and for just how dramatically Parton’s partnership with the Herschends shaped what the Tennessee property would become.
In our video below you can see Dolly Parton performing at Dollywood three years ago.
Less than two weeks before her death, Parton had been expected at Dollywood on Aug. 14 for the dedication of NightFlight Expedition, the largest single attraction investment in the park’s history. She was unable to attend in person on her doctor’s advice, but still joined the celebration through a prerecorded video message.
Dolly Parton’s attractions grew far beyond Dollywood
Dollywood may be Parton’s best-known contribution to themed entertainment, but it became only one part of a much larger collection of experiences carrying her ideas and personality.
Dolly Parton’s Stampede developed the dinner-show concept into a major tourist attraction, while Pirates Voyage Dinner & Show expanded the formula with elaborate sets, full-size pirate ships, an indoor lagoon, acrobatics and an original musical score Parton helped create. Pirates Voyage now operates in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Pigeon Forge, Tennessee; and Panama City Beach, Florida.
Dollywood itself also grew from a theme park into a resort destination. DreamMore Resort and Spa opened in 2015, followed by HeartSong Lodge & Resort in 2023, extending the storytelling, hospitality and sense of place beyond the park gates.
In June 2026, Parton took her approach to themed hospitality somewhere very different: the side of an interstate. Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop opened June 24 in Cornersville, Tennessee, along Interstate 65 south of Nashville.
The 25,000-square-foot destination reimagined an existing travel center with Parton’s personality throughout, combining the practical needs of motorists and professional drivers with food, merchandise, music and Dolly-themed details.
The Cornersville location was conceived as a proof of concept for potential future locations.
Her next chapter was taking shape in Nashville
Even at 80, Parton wasn’t finished expanding her presence in themed entertainment and tourism. Dolly Parton’s SongTeller Hotel was developed in partnership with Herschend for downtown Nashville, extending a relationship that began with Dollywood four decades earlier.
The 245-room hotel was designed as Parton’s “love letter” to Nashville, incorporating her songwriting and personality throughout its accommodations and public spaces. Plans also called for two original live entertainment venues, Parton’s Live and Jolene’s.
Perhaps even more significant to Parton’s themed entertainment legacy is what shares the building: Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum.
Together, the hotel and museum represented an interesting evolution of the partnership that began at ‘Silver Dollar City Tennessee,’ now Dollywood.
Parton and Herschend had spent 40 years building places where rides, entertainment, hospitality and storytelling could bring people together. Their Nashville project took that philosophy outside the gates of a traditional theme park and into the heart of the city where Parton built her music career.
It also demonstrated just how far the partnership had traveled since 1986. And earlier this year that partnership provided a special moment when Dolly Parton celebrated the opening of Dollywood’s 2026 season.
Dolly Parton never forgot the humble Smoky Mountain roots that shaped her, even as her dreams carried her around the world. Her greatest legacy may be the kindness with which she used that extraordinary success to lift others, especially children and the communities she always called home.
Dollywood issues a statement
Attractions Magazine received the following statement from a Dollywood representative.
Dolly’s heartfelt wish was that Dollywood always remain a place of joy, hope and togetherness—a space where families and friends could honor her memory, not with silence, but with laughter, music and shared dreams.
“The greatest privilege of my life has been helping Dolly bring her dreams to life at Dollywood,” said Eugene Naughton, Dollywood Parks & Resorts President. “Dolly’s heart was as vast as the mountains she cherished, and her compassion knew no bounds. She inspired generations to dream boldly and love deeply. While we grieve her loss, we are honored and committed to carry her light forward. Her legacy will continue to shine in every melody sung, every smile shared and every dream kindled within these gates.”
Dolly’s enduring legacy extends beyond her music and generosity to her remarkable work ethic—an inspiration to people everywhere. In her spirit, Dollywood will be open Wednesday as Dolly wanted, always reminding everyone with her signature sparkle — “the show must go on.” Together, we honor her by carrying forward her message of love, perseverance, and hope.
Those wishing to give in honor of Dolly may consider making a gift to the organization she was so deeply passionate about, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
The featured image of this article includes a photo by Carly Caramanna.
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