On Monday, June 17, 1985, we spent the day at Silver Dollar City, in Pigeon Forge, about five miles from Gatlinburg, like the Silver Dollar City in the Ozarks that we had visited in 1979. This amusement park originally opened in 1961 as a small tourist attraction owned by the Robbins brothers named “Rebel Railroad,” inspired by the centennial of the American Civil War. The train ride let visitors experience “attacks” by Union soldiers, train robbers, and Native Americans, protected by Confederate soldiers. In 1964, the park was renamed “Goldrush Junction.” In 1970, Art Modell, who also owned the NFL Cleveland Browns, bought Goldrush Junction, and added an outdoor theater and a chapel. In 1976, Jack and Pete Herschend bought Goldrush Junction and renamed it “Silver Dollar City, Tennessee,” a sister park to their original Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. Thus, we were familiar with this park from our 1979 experience in Branson. In 1986, the following year, Dolly Parton, who grew up in the area, bought an interest in Silver Dollar City. As part of the deal, the park reopened for the 1986 season as “Dollywood.” Today, Dollywood is jointly owned by Herschend Family Entertainment, the people who own Silver Dollar City in Branson, and the country singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. Dollywood has nearly three million guests annually, the biggest ticketed tourist attraction in Tennessee. That Monday in June, 1985, Pigeon Forge Silver Dollar City had three main sections, Craftsmen’s Valley, Village Square, and Fun Country. Craftsmen’s Valley had fifty different shops or houses with various crafts, including a chapel and fast-food places. Village Square had about twelve different shops and stops for the train that ran around the perimeter of this city. In Fun Country, there were about twenty different rides, games, food snacks, and a large Barnwood Theater, for music shows. It was not as big as Opryland, and maybe a little less interesting than the Silver Dollar City in Branson. However, Joy, who was eleven, probably enjoyed it as much as Opryland in Nashville. We headed back to our hotel in Gatlinburg just a few miles away to do some swimming in the pool. Have you ever been to a Silver Dollar Amusement Park?
Gatlinburg, Tennessee
That Sunday afternoon, we headed to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, from Chattanooga, 154 miles, about a three-hour drive. We were going to stay three nights at the Quality Inn in Gatlinburg, which is still there near the entrance to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, Sunday night, June 16, Monday, June 17, and Tuesday, June 18, 1985. They had a nice swimming pool. Gatlinburg is a city in Sevier County, Tennessee, with a small population of 3,577 on 10 square miles, but it is a popular mountain resort town. For centuries, Cherokee hunters, as well as other Native American hunters before them, used a footpath known as the Indian Gap Trail to access the abundant game in the forests and coves of the Smokies. In 1856, a post office was established in the general store of Radford Gatlin (1798–1880), giving the town its name of Gatlinburg. On the eve of the U.S. Civil War, Gatlin, who became a Confederate sympathizer, was at odds with the residents of the flats, who were mostly pro-Union, so that he was forced out in 1859. Despite its anti-slavery sentiments, Gatlinburg, like most Smoky communities, tried to remain neutral during the war. In the 1880s, the invention of the bandsaw and the logging railroad led to a boom in the lumber industry. Andrew Jackson Huff (1878–1949) was a pivotal figure in Gatlinburg at that time. He erected a sawmill in Gatlinburg in 1900. Extensive logging in the early 1900s led to increased calls by conservationists for federal action, and in 1911, Congress passed the Weeks Act to allow for the purchase of land for national forests. With the purchase of 76,000 acres in the Little River Lumber Company tract in 1926, the movement quickly became a reality. Andrew Huff spearheaded the movement in the Gatlinburg area, and he opened the first hotel in Gatlinburg, the Mountain View Hotel in 1916. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park opened in 1934 that radically changed Gatlinburg. In 1934, the first year the park was open, an estimated 40,000 visitors passed through the city. Within a year, this number had increased over twelvefold to 500,000. From 1940 to 1950, the cost per acre of land in Gatlinburg increased from $50 to $8,000. While the park’s arrival benefited Gatlinburg and made many of the town’s residents wealthy, the tourism explosion led to problems with air quality and urban sprawl. There were two major fires in Gatlinburg, 1992 and 2016, both after we were there in 1985. U.S. Route 441 is the main traffic artery in Gatlinburg, running through the center of town from north to south. The population is 75% White, 18% Hispanic, 2% Asian, but less than 1% African American. As the gateway community for Great Smoky Mountains National Park, many man-made attractions have developed. The Gatlinburg Trolley caters to area tourists. The Gatlinburg Sky Lift takes visitors up 1,800 feet to the top of Crockett Mountain. Ober Mountain is the only ski resort in the state, that also provides views of the Smoky Mountains in the summertime. We were going to spend three nights in Gatlinburg. Have you ever been to Gatlinburg?
Chattanooga Choo-Choo
Chattanooga was a crucial city during the American Civil War due to the multiple railroads that converged there. After the war, these railroads allowed for the city to grow into one of the Southeastern USA’s largest heavy industrial hubs. By the 1930s, Chattanooga was known as the “Dynamo of Dixie,” inspiring the 1941 Glenn Miller big-band swing song “Chattanooga Choo-Choo.” In the downtown area is the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel, housed in the renovated Terminal Station, where we went to have lunch on June 16, 1985. Trains have a pride of place in Chattanooga’s former Terminal Station, as I have three postcards from there. The 1941 Glenn Miller song that catapulted Chattanooga to international fame, “Chattanooga Choo-Choo,” was first performed in the 1941 film Sun Valley Serenade, featuring the Glen Miller Orchestra. This song was written by Mack Gordon and composed by Harry Warren, and then recorded as a big band/swing tune by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra. It became the first song to receive a gold record for sales of 1.2 million copies, the number one song for nine weeks on the Billboard Best Sellers chart. The opening verses, after a big train introduction were,
“Pardon me, boy, is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?”
“Yes, yes, Track 29!”
“Boy, you can give me a shine.”
“Can you afford to board the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?”
“I’ve got my fare, and just a trifle to spare.”
This song won the Academy Award in 1941 for the Best Song from a movie. In 1996, the 1941 recording of “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. This song has been recorded by numerous artists, including the Andrews Sisters, Ray Anthony, Asleep at the Wheel, Willie Nelson, the BBC Big Band, George Benson, John Bunch, Caravelli, Regina Carter, Ray Charles, Harry Connick Jr., Ray Conniff, John Denver, Ernie Fields, Stephane Grappelli, Marc Fosset, the Harmonizing Four, Harmony Grass, Ted Heath, Betty Johnson, Susannah McCorkle, Ray McKinley, the Muppets, Oscar Peterson, Spike Robinson, Harry Roy, Jan Savitt, Hank Snow, Teddy Stauffer, Dave Taylor, Claude Thornhill, the Tornados, Vox, Cab Calloway, Carmen Miranda, Bill Haley & His Comets, Floyd Cramer, the Shadows, and Tuxedo Junction. The reputation given to the city by this song also has lent itself to making Chattanooga the home of the National Model Railroad Association since 1982. Have you ever been on a train to Chattanooga?
Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, Tennessee
On Sunday morning, June 16, 1985, we said good-bye to Nashville as we headed further east to Chattanooga, 134 miles away. However, before we left Nashville, we went to the 8:30 Mass at St. Edward’s Church at 188 Thompson Lane, that is still going today. We went east on I-24 to Chattanooga, the county seat in Hamilton County, located along the Tennessee River, with the border of Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 on 145 square miles, this city anchors the Chattanooga metropolitan area, as well as a larger three-state area that includes southeastern Tennessee, northwestern Georgia, and northeastern Alabama, since it is 118 miles northwest of Atlanta, Georgia, 112 miles southwest of Knoxville, Tennessee, and 102 miles east-northeast of Huntsville, Alabama. Divided by the Tennessee River, Chattanooga is at the transition between the ridge-and-valley Appalachians and the Cumberland Plateau, part of the larger Appalachian Mountains. Its official nickname is the “Scenic City,” alluding to the surrounding mountains, ridges, and valleys. In 1839, the community of Ross’s Landing incorporated as the city of Chattanooga, derived from an Indian word that meant rock rising to a point, which is speculated to be a reference to Lookout Mountain, where we stopped. We took the Lookout Mountain 73% Incline Railway, the steepest passenger funicular railway in the world, that rises from the St. Elmo Historic District, with free parking, to the top of the mountain, a scenic overlook of the Tennessee River. Lookout Mountain is a mountain ridge along the southeastern Tennessee state line. From there, you can see seven states, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. We also saw Ruby Falls with its large 145-foot waterfall in an underground cave. Craven’s House, the oldest surviving structure on Lookout Mountain was a major focal point during the Civil War. It was all very pleasant. I liked the railroad incline up and the waterfalls. The city of Chattanooga has been referred to numerous times over the decades, in pop culture, including books, documentaries, films, and TV shows. Have you ever been to Lookout Mountain?
The Grand Old Opry in Nashville
On Saturday, June 15, 1985, we spent our time around the Grand Old Opry. We visited the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the old Ryman Auditorium, before we saw a show at the new Grand Old Opry Theater in the afternoon. Also, the 14th Annual Country Music Fan Fair was going on from June 10-16, 1985, where we got our tickets for our Grand Ole Opry Show. The Grand Ole Opry is still going today as a regular live country-music radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM, that began on November 28, 1925, with George D. Hay as the WSM Barn Dance. Its current name began in 1927, now the longest-running radio broadcast in USA history, as in 1925, they celebrated their 100th anniversary. Dedicated to honoring country music and its history, the Opry showcases a mix of famous singers and contemporary chart-toppers performing country, bluegrass, Americana, folk, and gospel music as well as comedic performances and skits. In the 1930s, WSM made this program a Saturday night radio musical tradition in nearly 30 states. In 1939, it debuted nationally on NBC Radio. The Opry moved to its most famous former home, the Ryman Auditorium, in 1943. The Grand Ole Opry holds such significance in Nashville that it is included on the welcome signs seen by motorists at the Metro Nashville/Davidson County line. Membership in the Opry remains one of country music’s crowning achievements. Just over 225 acts have been members of the Grand Ole Opry out of the thousands of acts that have existed during the history of country music. New members are invited to join the Opry by other members. Jeannie Seely has made the most appearances on the Grand Ole Opry, inducted as a member in 1967. She has made over 5,000 appearances on the Opry, more than anyone else. The name “Grand Ole Opry,” has important trademark registrations in the USA, and in numerous countries around the world. Since 1974, the show has been broadcast from the Grand Ole Opry House east of downtown Nashville, where we were, near the now defunct Opryland. In addition to the radio programs, performances have been sporadically televised over the years, originally on The Nashville Network, and later CMT, GAC, and Circle. Ryman Auditorium became the “Mother Church of Country Music” from 1943 to 1974, and has seasonally broadcast shows since 1999. To carry on the tradition of the show’s run at the Ryman, a six-foot circle of oak was cut from the corner of the Ryman’s stage and inlaid into center stage at the new venue. The Grand Ole Opry continues to be performed every Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday. We saw a show on Saturday afternoon, June 15, 1985, at 3:00 PM. on the main floor, aisle four, that cost $7.00 each. The Opry celebrated its 100th birthday last year with a concert special, hosted by Blake Shelton, which featured over 50 of the Opry’s living members in attendance that aired on NBC, March 19, 2025. Have you ever been to the Grand Ole Opry?
Opryland, Nashville
The next day, Friday, June 14, 1985, we went to Opryland USA, a theme park in Nashville, a 120-acres park operated from 1972 to 1997. During the late 1980s, nearly 2.5 million people visited the park annually that we were part of. Opryland was built as a complement to the new Grand Ole Opry House. Billed as the “Home of American Music,” the park featured many musical shows along with amusement rides, such as roller coasters. Opryland was closed and demolished following the 1997 season. Instead, on its site Opry Mills was built, an outlet-heavy shopping mall, that opened in 2000. The Grand Ole Opry radio program had been at the Ryman Auditorium since 1943, but was suffering from disrepair along with increasing urban decay in the mid-1960s. Despite these shortcomings, the show’s popularity was increasing as its weekly crowds outgrew the Ryman 3,000-seat venue. The company sought to build a new, air-conditioned auditorium with a larger capacity and ample parking in a then-undeveloped area of Nashville, providing visitors a safer and more enjoyable experience than was possible at the Ryman. This theme park opened to the public in May, 1972, well ahead of the Grand Ole Opry House, which debuted in March, 1974, with a visit from President Richard Nixon. The amusement park was named for WSM disc jockey Grant Turner’s early morning show, “Opryland USA.” However, despite the nominal connection to country music, the park’s theme was American music in general. There was jazz, gospel, bluegrass, Broadway show tunes, pop, and rock and roll-themed attractions with shows, in addition to country music shows. Opryland’s focus was more on its musical productions than its rides and other attractions, which helped attract adults as much as children, the target of other similar venues. As such, it was billed as a “show park,” instead of an “amusement park,” or “theme park.” There were nine different shows the day we were there with a schedule for each show. I think that we went to one or two of those shows. It cost us $13.25 each of the three of us for an all-day ticket. The Grand Ole Opry House and The Roy Acuff Theater were outside the entrance. Inside there were many themed areas with a showplace theater and many rides. Thus, there was the General Jackson area, the Hill Country Area, the New Orleans Area, the Riverside Area, the Lakeside Area, the American West Area, the Do Wah Diddy City, the State Fair Area, and the Grizzly River Rampage. We had a good time. I have seven postcards from Opryland, featuring seven different rides, a couple of water rides, an old car, a steam engine, and some air spinning rides. I assume that we might have ridden on some of these. Of course, there were restaurants and fast-food areas to eat. I know that we had a full day and were tired that night. Do you like themed or amusement parks?
Music Village, USA, Nashville, Tennessee
Jackson to Nashville was about two hours, on I-40, about 130 miles. After our planation visit, we headed toward our hotel. We stayed three nights at the Holiday Inn at I-24 East, June 13, 14, and 15, 1985, that still exists today as a Holiday Inn Express. That evening, we went to Music Village USA, just north of Nashville in Hendersonville. We visited Twitty City, that country singer Conway Twitty opened in 1982, as it served both as his home and as a country music venue. Harold Lloyd Jenkins (1933–1993), better known as Conway Twitty, was initially part of the 1950s rockabilly scene, but was best known as a country music performer. Harold Jenkins named himself Conway Twitty, after two towns on a map, Conway, Arkansas, and Twitty, Texas. Twitty achieved stardom with hit song in 1970, “Hello Darlin.” In 1971, he released his first hit duet with Loretta Lynn, “After the Fire Is Gone.” He received a string of four consecutive Country Music Association awards (1972–1975) for these duets with Loretta Lynn (1932-2022). He was inducted into both the Country Music and Rockabilly Halls of Fame. Due to his following being compared to a religious revival, he was called “The High Priest of Country Music.” Twitty topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart 40 times in his career, a record that stood for two decades. In 1978, Twitty issued the single, “The Grandest Lady of Them All” honoring the Grand Ole Opry. Somewhat ironically, Twitty was never a member of the Opry during his lifetime. Twitty lived for many years in Hendersonville, Tennessee, just north of Nashville, Tennessee, where he built a country music entertainment complex named Twitty City at a cost of over $3.5 million. Twitty City was a popular tourist stop throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s, when it was shut down after his death in 1993. We walked around his estate at no cost, since he only had concerts on Wednesday night, the night before we were there. In 1984, the year before we were there, Music Village USA opened next to Twitty City. However, it was sold in 1989, five years later, so that it no longer exists. That night, he saw Steve Wariner (1954-) an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. We had a southern style barbeque buffet dinner before we paid $4.00 each for the tickets in row L on the floor of “Showcase of the Stars.” Initially, Wariner was a back-up musician for Dottie West, Bob Luman, and Chet Atkins before he began a solo career in the late 1970s. He released eighteen studio albums and over fifty singles for several different record labels. Ten of Wariner’s singles reached the number-one position on the Hot Country Songs charts. Wariner holds several writing credits for both himself and other artists, and has collaborated with Nicolette Larson, Glen Campbell, Diamond Rio, Brad Paisley, Asleep at the Wheel, and Mark O’Connor, among others. He has also won four Grammy Awards. Thus, we ended out first night in Nashville at a country music concert. Have you ever heard of Conway Twitty or Steve Wariner?
Belle Meade Planation, Nashville
That Thursday afternoon, June 13, 1985, we stopped at the Belle Meade Mansion in Nashville, meaning “beautiful meadow,” a historic farm plantation established in 1807. Five generations built, owned, and controlled this southern planation that had 5,400 acres with 136 enslaved workers. The centerpiece was a Greek revival mansion built in 1853. However, Belle Meade Farm gained a national reputation in the latter half of the 19th century for breeding thoroughbred horses for racing, especially the horse Iroquois. After a financial downturn in 1893 and the later death of the owner and his heir, the estate was dismantled and sold in parcels in 1906. Much of the vast area of the original plantation became incorporated in 1938 as the city of Belle Meade that became an upscale residential area. Since 1953, this plantation mansion has been administered in trust by the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities, a private non-profit corporation. In the 1970s, this mansion was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today, this historic site is now operated as an attraction, museum, and winery with an onsite restaurant together with various outbuildings on the 30 remaining acres of property. This was my first encounter with a southern plantation. I later saw many more plantations, but this first one with slave houses and the big mansion made a big impression on me. Have you ever been to a preserved southern plantation?
Casey Jones Village, Jackson, Tennessee
About 90 miles along I-40 from Memphis to Nashville is the town of Jackson, Tennessee, about an hour and a half away. Thus, on Thursday morning, June 13, 1985, we stopped at Casey Jones Village in Jackson, Tennessee, the county seat of Madison County, Tennessee, with a population of 68,205 on 50 square miles. Beginning in 1851, this city became a hub of railroad systems ultimately connecting to major markets in the north and south, as well as east and west, with the further construction of railroads after the American Civil War. Originally named Alexandria, the city was renamed in 1822 to honor General Andrew Jackson, a hero of the War of 1812, who was to become the sixth President of the USA in 1829. John Luther “Casey” Jones (1864–1900) was an American railroader who was killed when his passenger train collided with a stalled freight train in Vaughan, Mississippi, on April 30, 1900. Jones was a locomotive engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad, noted for his exceptionally punctual schedules. He drove the powerful ten-wheeler Engine Number 382, known as the “Cannonball.” Jones managed to avert a potentially disastrous crash through his exceptional skill at slowing the engine and saved the lives of the passengers at the cost of his own. For this, he was immortalized in a traditional song, “The Ballad of Casey Jones.” However, besides the book of Fred J. Lee, Casey Jones: Epic of the American Railroad, published in 1939, many other musicians have written songs and sang about this thirty-six-year-old Casey Jones, as he has become a folk hero of the steam engine railroads. Casey Jones’s fame is largely attributed to the traditional song, “The Ballad of Casey Jones,” also known as “Casey Jones, the Brave Engineer.” Over 30 musicians have recorded songs about Casey Jones, people like Mississippi John Hurt, Harry McClintock, Furry Lewis, Johnny Cash, Ed McCurdy, the Grateful Dead, The New Christy Minstrels, Kris Kristofferson, Allan Sherman, Josh Ritter, Hank Snow, AC/DC, Joe Hill, Roy Acuff, Connie Francis, and Hank Williams Jr. There have been movies and various references to him in TV and films. In 1956, the city of Jackson purchased the Chester Street home of this famed locomotive engineer, Casey Jones, to turn it into a museum and tourist attraction. This house was then moved to a plot of land next to Interstate 40 in 1978. Jones’s widow, Janie Brady Jones, died in 1958, at the age of 92. I have four postcards from this museum in Jackson, one with a caboose in the air, his steam engine on the ground, his house, and a general store. I was interested in these railroad steam engines, since I grew up on Railroad Avenue in Carteret, NJ, with a railroad track across the street, and heard a lot about Casey Jones. Have you ever heard of Casey Jones?
Memphis Mud Island
On Wednesday, June 12, 1985, we visited Mud Island, a small peninsula in Memphis, bordered by the Mississippi River, 1.2 miles from downtown. Mud Island included a museum, restaurants, an amphitheater, and a residential area. Activities on Mud Island included concerts/performances, kayaking, paddle boarding, and biking, but we did not do any of those things. This park was managed and operated by the Memphis River Parks Partnership with free admission. Mud Island River Park, opened in June, 1982, on the south end of the peninsula, a couple of years before our trip in 1985. The Riverwalk was a replica scale model of the Mississippi River carved in cement, 2,000 feet long with plaques about details of the river’s history. Thus, we were able to walk the Mississippi River. However, the Mississippi River Museum was only on Mud Island from 1982 to 2019, so that it is no longer there. The Mud Island Amphitheater was a concrete outdoor amphitheater built for concerts and shows in 1982 that seats up to 5,000 people. The northern portion of Mud Island included mansions, single-family homes, and apartment complexes with a total population of about 15,000 people in Harbor Town. Mud Island had been formed by a buildup of silt, gravel, and sand by 1899. It was originally referred to as City Island until the 1950s. Mud Island became the location of the Memphis Downtown Airport in 1959 and was used primarily by wealthy businessmen to access Downtown Memphis. However, the airport was shut down in 1970 due to the construction of the Interstate 40 bridge. In 1976, the architect responsible for the Memphis International Airport and Memphis College of Art came up with a project to turn 50 acres of the property owned by the city into a destination designed to attract locals and tourists alike. The proposed name for the park was Volunteer Park, but it was later named Mud Island Park when it was opened on July 4, 1982. I remember later watching the 1993 movie, The Firm, where the climax of a chaotic Tom Cruise chase ended up here on Mud Island. I really liked this, since we had as much time as we wanted to look around. It was very educational about the Mississippi River. Have you ever heard of Mud Island?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 