Dollywood: What's New for 2007 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dollywood Intro | Dollywood Smoky Mountain Christmas | Book a hotel near Dollywood! | Dollywood New for 2006 | Festival of Nations | Dolly Parton's Influences |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
The Mystery Mine will be the companion to the Thunderhead, twice named the No. 1 wooden coaster in the world by Amusement Today magazine. Mystery Mine, scheduled to open at Dollywood in spring 2007, is the United States’ first system based on Gerstlauer’s Euro-fighter ride, which combines an intimate guest experience with hair-raising 95-degree drops. Located in Dollywood’s Timber Canyon area, Mystery Mine is themed as a long-abandoned coal mine with an eerie past. Mystery Mine utilizes a state-of-the-art show experience built on special effects, audio and lots of excitement. Here are more facts?
Another Dollywood expansion for 2007 is The Cascades, a $2.8 million project at Dollywood's Splash Country waterpark. The Cascades includes a 7,500-square-foot beach-entry pool, four slides and other interactive elements. Splash Country also will add eight Waterside Retreats, cabana-style rental units with amenities such as cable television and poolside food and beverage service. Dollywood cool facts Dollywood opened May 3, 1986. Except for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Dollywood is the most visited attraction in Tennessee, drawing more than 2.2 million guests last year. Last year the park served up 250,000 pounds of potatoes, 30,000 pounds of hot dogs, 100,000 pounds of hamburgers, and 1,783,000 soft drinks. Dollywood employs approximately 2,200 people in the peak season; fewer than 200 are year round/full time. Dollywood has welcomed more than 30 million guests over its first 19 seasons. Dollywood's Splash Country will welcome its millionth paid guest early this season. The park's landscaping division planted 18,869 10-inch pots of flowering plants last year. The Thunderhead, built last year and named the No. 1 wooden roller coaster on the planet by Thrillride.com, has 700,000 board feet of lumber in its structure. Its structure contains more than 2 million screws, 250,000 bolts, 3,600 yards of concrete and 185,000 feet of rebar steel. All rides are non-destructively tested each year and are brought back on line after a period of testing and training. The 10 new country fair rides will all go through 40 hours of testing without any riders before the first person steps onto a ride. The two Baldwin steam locomotives that pull the Dollywood Express Train, Cinderella and Klondike Katie, were built in 1938 and 1943, respectively. The engines were built for the U.S. Army and used in Alaska during WWII to haul troops and lumber. — Sources: Dollywood Publicity Office Dollywood history The original entertainment park on the site of present-day Dollywood opened in 1961 as Rebel Railroad. The small attraction was run by the Robbins Brothers and featured a coal-fired steam train, Klondike Kate, a general store and a saloon. In 1970, Art Modell, then owner of the NFL's Cleveland Browns, purchased the place and renamed it Goldrush Junction. New attractions were a wood shop and saw mill, an outdoor theater, log cabins, a campground and children's rides. Visitors could pan for gold, the saloon featured live entertainment, and a log flume ride from the New York World's Fair was relocated. In 1976, the park was simply called Goldrush. Then, in 1977, Herschend Enterprises out of Branson, Mo., bought the park and rechristened it Silver Dollar City, Tenn. In 1986, Dolly Parton became a partner with the Herschends, and the park became Dollywood. Since then, $160 million in expansions and additions have boosted the park to greater heights as a popular tourist attraction.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
More thrills are in store at Dollywood, which will add the Mystery Mine, a $17.5 million steel roller coaster, to its ride collection. It is the largest capital investment in the park's history. The coaster, whose theme is an abandoned coal mine, features eight-passenger mine cars that plunge riders into the mine's dark recesses while zooming along an 1,811-foot track.