Pigeon Forge, Tennessee: Rebel Railroad - Goldrush Junction - Silver Dollar City (Closed)

My family and I spent a week in Pigeon Forge in June 1968. At that time Gold Rush Junction was just off the main 4-lane highway that connects Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, which is now the Parkway. We rode the train and witnessed the train robbery and the gunfight; the actors would fall over "dead." At one point the train conductors gave out little rifles to the children so they could join in the fight. My son was one of them. He started to run out there but turned around and came back. I asked him what was the matter and he said breathing, real fast, "I ran out of bullets."

Later, they moved Gold Rush Junction to where Dollywood is now and it was called Silver Dollar City. We went there and another of my sons fed the "Organ Music Peddler's Dancing Monkey" some food, and my daughter helped the blacksmith make a horseshoe, which he let her keep. At that time the only things in Pigeon Forge were a couple of motels and 2 souvenir shops (one with a replica of an old farming community out back called "The Village of 1800"), a restaurant, a drive-in movie theatre, a camping site, and The Old Mill.

I don't know if there was a Gold Rush Junction in Maggie Valley or not, but I do know that there was one in Pigeon Forge. It then became Silver Dollar City and later changed to Dollywood. I know this for sure because my Dad played music there the summer of 1976, and my sister and I went to work with him many, many times. It was supposed to be like an old western town. I used to love riding the train and helping the rainmaker put on his show. But my favorite part was the saloon show. It was really fun. So, tipster SJH obviously doesn't know what he's talking about because it definitely was in the same place that Dollywood is now.

I remember Silver Dollar City very well. I made friends with several of the "train robbers" back in my youth, and to this day miss the park and the whole bunch of "robbers" that made us all laugh. From the Rainmaker to all the rides...especially the Blazing Fury...it is some of the best memories that I have from those family vacations in Pigeon Forge.

When Silver Dollar City became Dollywood, we went to go check it out. Being season-pass holders of Silver Dollar City in years past, we thought maybe the park was even better. We were so wrong. All the old crew was gone, and no one was even friendly among the many employees. They took away the Flooded Mine, and they took away the Inventors Mansion, and inserted Dolly Parton's family junk instead. We looked around, looked at each other, and left. Yes, they gave us our money back, because we were not at all happy. My Dad loved to play skee-ball, and the operators of the game allowed him just one prize...a very tiny, sick-looking stuffed bear. And they told him that was all he was allowed to play.

Yes, I miss Silver Dollar City, the fun times, my old pals, and the laughter.

I was reading about Dollywood and what it was in prior years. I need to correct a "tipster" about Gold Rush Junction being in NC. It was indeed in Pigeon Forge, TN. I know, because as a child I swam for a swim team they had. I was a Goldrush Guppie. Our suits were one piece black and gold stripes.

It was later Silver Dollar City and then Dollywood. I do remember in Goldrush Junction that the train would be stopped and "held up." I have a black and white picture of me sitting behind what are supposed to be jail bars. Many good memories of summer spent in the Smokies. My grandfather owned Trentham's hardware and my uncle Hobie had two restaurants, two hotels and part owner of the Space Needle.

Before it was renamed Dollywood, it was called Silver Dollar City. But before that (in the mid/late 70s), between the incarnations of Rebel Railroad and Silver Dollar City, it was known as Gold Rush Junction. My grandparents lived in the Gatlinburg area and I went to Gold Rush Junction (and the renamed Silver Dollar City) a couple of times as a kid.

There was a train ride that featured an assault (a holdover idea from the Rebel Railroad days?), by a group of park employees pretending to be outlaws holding up the train. They stormed the cars wielding fake(?) guns and threatened to kill everyone on board and take their money and such, and were eventually "overpowered" by the train conductor and crew.