Dolly Parton may have left this worldly arena but her legacy goes on, in song, charity work, and the impact she had on perceptions and the economy of her home state of Tennessee.
As early as 1972, which was already 16 years into her career, Parton released My Tennessee Mountain Home, a track and album that would come to define her love and relationship with the so-called “Volunteer State”.
The song captures summertime on the front porch, surrounded by fireflies and crickets, honeysuckle, songbirds, and eagles—perhaps an ideal image of freedom and nature. It is an immersive, romantic, authentic-feeling image of Tennessee that continues to resonate today and that Parton would identify with all her life, despite growing up there in rural poverty as one of eleven siblings.
In 1986, the song would become the theme tune for Dollywood, a leisure park in the Knoxville area of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, near The Great Smoky Mountains. Featuring thrills and spills such as toboggan mountain rides, nostalgia-soaked candy sweet stores, and Dolly Parton’s own rags to riches story, Dollywood grew to become the biggest employer in its county, with over 50 amusements, like Dollywood’s Splash Country, added in 2001, DreamMore Resort, HeartSong Lodge & Resort, and The Dolly Parton Experience, added in 2024.
Extraordinarily, according to a Tennessee Department of Transportation case study, 23,000 regional jobs can be traced back to the park, with an annual direct economic impact of $1.8 billion.
Voted America’s favourite theme park for the fourth year in a row by the National Amusement Park Historical Association (NAPHA) earlier this year, the attraction is not Parton’s only influence on the visitor economy. There’s a Dolly Parton Stampede dinner spectacle in Pigeon Forge too, serving over one thousand covers per sitting at up to $85. A Parton statue nearby in her native Sevierville is currently adorned with tributes—and no wonder. Local tourism revenue is reported to have seen a 50% uptick during the very first season of Dollywood.
Meanwhile, the Great Smoky National Park credits Dollywood with helping it reach third place in America’s national park ranking, pointing out that the proximity of Parton’s branded attractions has helped to turn the park and region into a multi-day, family-oriented destination.
Parton always insisted that, though she had ventured all around the globe, Tennessee was the best place on Earth. She may not have been wrong. The Smokies are the most biodiverse park in the US, boasting over 19,000 species, the National Park Service says. Around 1,300 km of trails lead to places such as Newfound Gap and Clingmans Dome, offering panoramic Appalachian vistas, mountain waterfalls, and historic cabins. And, of course, the local legend of Dolly … that will live on. In the spirit of showbusiness, despite the news of Parton’s death, Dollywood has remained open this week, as per the star’s wishes, a park statement read.
