Pigeon Forge, Tennessee Pigeon Forge, Tennessee Location of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee Location of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee Named for 19th-century iron forge along the Little Pigeon River Pigeon Forge is a mountain resort town/city in Sevier County, Tennessee, positioned in the southeastern United States.
Situated just five miles (8 km) north of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Pigeon Forge is a tourist destination that caters primarily to Southern culture and nation music fans.
Monument honoring Samuel Wear in Pigeon Forge City Park The name "Pigeon Forge" comes from an iron forge assembled by Isaac Love (1783 1854) sometime around 1820.
The name of this forge referred to its locale along the Little Pigeon River, in the vicinity of what is now the Old Mill.
For centuries, the Cherokee used the valley where Pigeon Forge is now positioned as a hunting ground.
A Cherokee footpath known as the "Indian Gap Trail" crossed the Great Smokies from North Carolina, and passed through the Pigeon Forge valley en route to its junction with the Great Indian Warpath in undivided Sevierville (US-441 closely alongsides this ancient trail, although it crests the mountain peaks at Newfound Gap clean water Indian Gap).
The Indian Gap Trail brought the first Europeans to the Pigeon Forge region in the early 18th century.
Along with hunters and trappers from North Carolina, traders from Virginia had passed through the valley before 1750. Sometime after 1783, Colonel Samuel Wear became one of the first permanent Euro-American pioneer in the Pigeon Forge area.
Wear, a veteran of the American Revolution, erected a stockade near the confluence of Walden Creek and the Little Pigeon River (what is now Pigeon Forge City Park) in 1792.
In 1785, the Cherokee signed the Treaty of Dumplin Creek, ceding much of what is now Sevier County to the United States. Among the first to take favor of this was Robert Shields (1740 1802), who received a survey for a tract of territory in the Pigeon Forge region from the Watauga Land Office in 1786.
One notable incident occurred in 1802, Tavenor Runyan (1787-1802), the son of Isaac Barefoot Runyan (1749 1845) and Margaret Rambo (who had settled near the heart of undivided Pigeon Forge), was killed by a Cherokee warrior.
Like many Appalachian communities, religion played a primary part in the early history of Pigeon Forge.
On October 20, 1808, Bishop Francis Asbury bringed a sermon at what is now Shiloh Memorial Cemetery in the northern half of Pigeon Forge, where a crude log church had been erected. Among the first "tourists" to visit Pigeon Forge came for the extended revivals that were held in the Middle Creek region (on the grounds of what is now Middle Creek Methodist Church) as early as 1822.
In 1810, Revolutionary War veteran Mordecai Lewis obtained a 151-acre (61 ha) territory grant along the Little Pigeon River near the heart of what is now Pigeon Forge.
In 1817, Lewis's son-in-law, Isaac Love (1783 1854), established the iron forge for which the town/city was eventually named.
Love erected the Pigeon Forge Mill in 1830, and on May 29, 1841, Love's son William established a postal service which he titled "Pigeon Forge" for the foundry and the small improve that had advanced in its vicinity.
Local businessman John Sevier Trotter (1807 1884) purchased the foundry and furnace in 1849, and later made various modifications, including the addition of a sawmill. While the iron furnace was sold and relocated in the 1880s, the Pigeon Forge Mill usually called the "Old Mill" still stands, and has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In the 1870s, a community resort was established in Pigeon Forge at Henderson Springs, adjoining to the Wear's Fort site on the town's north side. It was common amid this reconstructionfor the inhabitants of large urban areas to visit mountain springs, the waters of which were thought to have health-restoring qualities.
In the early 20th century, Pigeon Forge was an isolated mountain hamlet with no primary roads.
When the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was opened in 1934, the Tennessee Valley Authority reported that there were no tourism-oriented businesses in Pigeon Forge.
During this period, however, two factors in close-by Gatlinburg would lead to the commercial boom Pigeon Forge would experience in the latter half of the 20th century.
Pigeon Forge, being just north of Gatlinburg along US-441, was the obvious target.
In 1961, shortly after Pigeon Forge officially incorporated, North Carolina brothers Grover and Harry Robbins opened Rebel Railroad in the town's Middle Creek area.
In 1969, after Pigeon Forge issued a zoning plan assigning the entire strip along US-441 for tourism use, Art Modell (owner of the Cleveland Browns) purchased Goldrush Junction.
The Herschends retitled the park Silver Dollar City after their prosperous infamous park in Branson. The Ozark mountain infamous of the Branson locale was easily reapplied as an Appalachian infamous in Pigeon Forge, and the park's attendance began to climb.
In 1982, hoping the capitalize on the publicity generated by the Knoxville World's Fair, Pigeon Forge initiated an aggressive economic plan that centered around infamous parks, supply malls, and live music venues.
By 1987, there were four supply malls in Pigeon Forge, and by the early 1990s, supply malls provided 44% of the town's gross revenue. The increasing number of tourist attractions brought competition for Silver Dollar City and its chief competitor in Pigeon Forge, Magic World, which had constructed a infamous park on the slopes of Pine Mountain in the city's south section.
While the commercial boom in Pigeon Forge vastly increased the town's revenue, it had a several undesirable effects.
The high cost of living in Pigeon Forge is difficult to offset with the low wage jobs that often accompany the tourist industry. An supply mall in Pigeon Forge.
Pigeon Forge with Mount Le Conte in the background.
Pigeon Forge is positioned at 35 47 38 N 83 33 51 W (35.793946, 83.564124) on the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River.
According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 11.6 square miles (30.0 km ), all land.
The West Fork of the Little Pigeon River flows north from its origin high on the slopes of Mount Collins through Sevier County before linking up with the Middle Fork in Sevierville.
Pigeon Forge is situated in a narrow valley along this river between Sevierville and Gatlinburg.
High ridges surround Pigeon Forge on three sides, with Pine Mountain to the west, Shields Mountain to the east, and Cove Mountain to the south.
A bend in the Little Pigeon provides the city's northern border with Sevierville, and a narrow gorge cut by the river between Cove Mountain and Shields Mountain acts as the city's buffer with Gatlinburg.
Route 441, known as "The Parkway", runs through the middle of Pigeon Forge en route to Gatlinburg and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where it crests at Newfound Gap before descending to Cherokee, North Carolina.
The 6-lane strip along 441 contains most of Pigeon Forge's tourist attractions.
Route 321 (known as Wears Valley Road in Pigeon Forge) joins the town with Wears Valley and Townsend to the west.
TN 449 serves as a bypass to both Sevierville and most of Pigeon Forge, plus directly joins with Dollywood.
Climate data for Pigeon Forge, Tennessee The Parkway (US-441) in Pigeon Forge.
Perhaps the most famous attractions in Pigeon Forge are the Dollywood infamous park and the Dixie Stampede theater, both owned by nation music superstar Dolly Parton whose hometown is in Sevierville, just a several miles from Pigeon Forge.
Other theaters and attractions include the Titanic Museum, the Southern Gospel Museum and Hall of Fame, the Country Tonite Theater, the Lumberjack Feud, the Comedy Barn, Wonder - Works children's exhibition, Biblical Times Dinner Theater, Smoky Mountain Opry, the Memories Theatre, Flyaway Indoor Skydiving, NASCAR Speedpark, Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster, Jurassic Jungle Boat Ride, Hollywood Wax Museum Pigeon Forge, The Island in Pigeon Forge (featuring the Great Smoky Mountain Wheel Tribute to Frank Sinatra & The Rat Pack and The Island Show Fountains), and cyclic affairs such as Winterfest.
Pigeon Forge has turn into the southeast mecca for car and truck enthusiasts.
Annual Pigeon Forge Starion/Conquest Meet Pigeon Forge has a Manager-Commission form of Government.
The West Fork of the Little Pigeon River.
Pigeon Forge Public Services employs over 300 citizens . The town/city government has 100 miles (160 km) of water piping, 430 fire hydrants, 8 water tanks and 4 pump stations, 84 miles (135 km) of publicly maintained streets and roads, 65 miles (105 km) of sanitary sewers, and 182 automobiles. Pigeon Forge is served by a mass transit fitness of buses.
The water plant in Pigeon Forge can treat 12,000,000 U.S.
Pigeon Forge Parks and Recreation Department has three parks and 2 miles (3200 m) of Greenways.
Pigeon Forge City Park is an 18-acre (73,000 m2) park.
Unlike neighboring Gatlinburg and Sevierville, Pigeon Forge had remained a dry jurisdiction of the state (Tennessee is dry by default), with a several select premises opting to sell low-alcohol beers and some wines.
Certain sections of Pigeon Forge, including theological leaders, oppose legalized liquor, warning of the civil consequences that may follow, while the rest argue that the town/city is losing tax dollars to neighboring cities.
On March 13, 2013, liquor by the drink passed in Pigeon Forge by a vote of 952 to 798. Sharp, "The Historic Beginnings of Pigeon Forge" The Sevier County Library History Center Website.
Michal Strutin, History Hikes of the Smokies (Gatlinburg: Great Smoky Mountains Association, 2003), 322-323.
Information obtained from Shiloh Memorial Cemetery Association plaque at Shiloh Memorial Cemetery in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
Robbie Jones, The Historic Architecture of Sevier County, Tennessee (Sevierville, Tenn.: Smoky Mountain Historical Society, 1997), pp.
Brenden Martin, "Pigeon Forge, Tennessee," Encyclopedia of Appalachia (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2006), 667.
Beulah Linn, "The West Fork of the Little Pigeon River," Smoky Mountain Historical Society Journal 22, no.
"Monthly Averages for Pigeon Forge, TN (37863)".
Pigeon Forge, TN Pigeon Forge, TN Pigeon Forge, TN a b Pigeon Forge, TN Pigeon Forge, TN Pigeon Forge, TN :: Pigeon Forge / Sevierville Fun Time street car :: a b "Poll worker describes confusion amid Pigeon Forge liquor vote".
"Pigeon Forge Liquor Vote".
"New election only cure for Pigeon Forge vote hangover".
"Judge rules Pigeon Forge liquor vote must be scrapped, orders new election".
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Pigeon Forge.
City of Pigeon Forge municipal website Pigeon Forge Convention Center Pigeon Forge at DMOZ
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Cities in Sevier County, Tennessee - Cities in Tennessee - Communities of the Great Smoky Mountains - Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
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