How Did Cherokee Indian Hunting Grounds Turn into Family-Friendly Resort Town.

Pigeon Forge, located in the eastern portion of Tennessee, is known for its trad
itional Appalachian crafts, music and folklore. Visitors flock to Pigeon Forge e
ach year to enjoy popular tourist attractions, like Dollywood, unsurpassed shopp
ing and some of the best chalets, vacation condos, and cabins in Smoky Mountains
.
But long before it was a popular tourist destination, the Pigeon Forge area was
actually a Cherokee Indian hunting ground. So how did it eventually become a fam
ily-friendly resort community? Here’s a bit of local trivia to add some historic
al perspective to your next visit.
Native American roots. Today’s US-441 closely follows an ancient Cherokee footpa
th called as the Indian Gap Trail, which crossed the Smokey Mountains from North
Carolina through the Pigeon Forge valley, eventually connecting with the Great
Indian Warpath near what is today known as Sevierville, Tennessee. The Warpath,
also known as the Great Indian War and Trading Path, was that part of a network
of trails in eastern North America developed and used by Native Americans. Much
of what is now Sevier County was ceded to the United States by the Cherokee in 1
785 with the signing the Treaty of Dumplin.
Settling in. Early Euro-American settlers followed the Indian Gap Trail to the P
igeon Forge area in the early 18th century. Among these pioneers was Colonel Sam
uel Wear who became the area’s the first permanent settler. Wear built a small f
ort near what is now Pigeon Forge City Park to provide a safe stopover for the e
arly pioneers. Unfortunately for Wear, his fort straddled the Indian Gap Trail a
nd ultimately served as a catalyst for tensions, and battles, between the fronti
ersmen and the Cherokees. Wear’s grave is marked today by a monument in Pigeon F
orge City Park.
A “state” of mind. In the late 1700’s the Pigeon Forge area was part of what is
today known as the “lost” State of Franklin an autonomous United States territor
y that later became part of Tennessee. Created near the end of the American Revo
lution, Franklin never officially joined the Union and only existed for four yea
rs.
The name game. In the days of the early settlers, flocks of now-extinct passenge
r pigeons would gather on the banks of the area’s river, which was therefore dub
bed The Little Pigeon River. In the early 1800s, Issac Love would build a iron f
orge along that same river and a small community soon grew nearby. The town was
named Pigeon Forge in tribute to Love’s ironworks complex and the rich diversity
of frontier wildlife that once lived along the river.
The birth of tourism. Tourists began visiting Pigeon Forge in the 1870s with the
opening of a health resort at Henderson Springs. It was common at that time for
urban dwellers to seek out mountain springs thought to have health-restoring qu
alities. The opening of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934 heralded
a new era of tourism for the region, although no tourism-oriented businesses we
re established in the Pigeon Forge area until the latter half of the 20th Centur
y. Rebel Railroad, which offered Civil War reenactments and train rides, opened
in 1961 shortly after the town officially incorporated. The attraction was later
renamed Goldrush Junction and a log flume amusement ride was added. In 1976, th
e it was again rebranded as Silver Dollar City and continued to grow in populari
ty, eventually becoming Dollywood in the mid-1980s when entertainer Dolly Parton
became a partner in the venture.
A shopper’s paradise. In the early 1980s, the town launched an aggressive econom
ic plan to develop theme parks, music venues, and outlet malls in order to incre
ase tourism. By 1987, four outlet malls had launched in Pigeon Forge and by the
early 1990s, such malls accounted for 44% of the town’s gross revenue. Today, sh
oppers from across the nation visit the town’s more than 200 factory outlets and
specialty stores.