When you walk through Dollywood and scream on a roller coaster or indulge in fresh-baked cinnamon bread, you’re not getting the typical theme park experience. You’re feeling the joyous spirit of Dolly Parton and the love she had for the Great Smoky Mountains and for her people.
Parton - who died Aug. 25 at age 80 - developed the Pigeon Forge theme park to honor her parents and all the people who live in the Smokies. But since its opening in 1986, it’s also become a place that honors her – from her music and fashion to her family, faith and so much more.
Here are just a few of the ways Dollywood preserves Parton’s legacy and heart.
The Dolly Parton Experience
When Dolly Parton first walked through the completed Dolly Parton Experience in 2024, the country legend couldn’t hold
back her emotions.
“They started showing all the footage, especially when my mom and dad and my family started talking, I just broke down,” she said at the attraction's opening. “So, hopefully, you will be moved by it. There’s a lot of great stories and things about the family.”
The Dolly Parton Experience is an expansive interactive museum that celebrates Parton’s life, career and outrageous fashions. Each of the three exhibits that make up the “experience” is housed in its own building.
- Songteller explores Parton’s life in lyrics, tracing her roots from Sevier County to the bus she boarded to Nashville to follow her country music dreams.
- Behind the Seams is a curated selection of Parton’s looks and the creative inspiration behind them.
- Precious Memories features the “Heidi Parton’s Kin & Friends” show and has a section dedicated to the importance of faith, friends and family.
Parton spent years carefully designing and curating the Dollywood attraction. “It stirs a lot of emotion in me,” she told Knox News in 2024. “I've lived it and I've done it, but it just brings back a lot of memories to me.”
Behind the Seams
Because Parton’s signature style - the wigs, the rhinestones, the heels, and every shade of pink – is just as legendary as her music, the Behind the Seams section is worth a special mention. The exhibit brings to life Parton’s fashion motto: “If it’s too tight, take it in a little more.”
Fans can see her stage outfits, shoes and hair up close, with items rotated seasonally by archivist (and Parton’s niece) Rebecca Seaver. The exhibit honors the designers who helped create Parton’s clothes, including Robért Behar, Tony Chase, Konnie Kittrell, Steve Summers and Patric Taylor-Reeves.
Dolly Parton’s Tennessee Mountain Home
Parton grew up in a two-room cabin in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, not far from Dollywood. A replica of her childhood cabin at Dollywood and gives guests a glimpse of where it all began.
Though the original home didn’t have electricity or running water, it was full of love and music. Many of items in the Dollywood replica are original Parton family treasures, according to Visit My Smokies.
Robert F. Thomas Chapel
This one-room church at Dollywood pays homage to churches in Appalachia in the 1800s. Though it was built in 1973 when the park operated as Goldrush Junction, it now symbolizes Parton’s faith and spiritual roots. Parton’s grandfather Jake Owens was a preacher and musician. It was his church where Parton first began singing.
The Robert F. Thomas Chapel is named in honor of the doctor who delivered Dolly Parton and is a gathering place of worship for guests and neighbors.
Sunday services are a part of the Dollywood experience.
Parton family shows
Music runs deep in the Parton family, and Dollywood keeps that tradition alive through family-led performances. Dolly’s niece starred in “Heidi Parton’s Kin and Friends," which was one of Dolly’s favorite shows at the theme park.
Other shows and entertainment offerings at Dollywood honor Dolly’s life, family, career and hit songs. And other relatives have graced Dollywood stages over the years, too, including siblings Randy, Freida and Stella, and Uncle Floyd.
Imagination Playhouse
The Imagination Playhouse became a permanent fixture at Dollywood in 2025 for the park’s 40th season. From March through the end of September, the theater features plays based on books from Parton’s childhood literacy program, Imagination Library. Character meet-and-greets are available during the summer festival.
Dolly Parton’s tour bus
Parton’s 1994 Prevost tour bus, in which she wrote songs and traveled the country, is on display just outside The Dolly Parton Experience at Dollywood. Guests are welcome to go inside and take a look around.
Fans wanting a more intimate experience of what Parton’s life on the road was like can book the “Dolly Suite 1986,” a separate luxury tour bus at Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort. A two-night stay on the bus costs $10,000 but proceeds benefit the Dollywood Foundation.
The tour bus inside Dollywood is the bus Parton had prior to the one that is at DreamMore. Parton's last headlining tour was in 2016.
Country kitchens
Southern comfort food is a key part of the Dollywood experience. Restaurants like Aunt Granny’s, Front Porch Café and Granny Ogle’s Ham ‘n’ Beans serve dishes that are Parton’s favorites or inspired by Parton’s family recipes, such as Stone Soup.
Beautiful butterflies
Images and representations of butterflies are everywhere you look at Dollywood. One is even incorporated into the company’s logo. The colorful insect has long been a symbol for Parton, representing freedom, transformation and joy.
As a child, she often got in trouble for wandering off to chase butterflies. “Butterflies don’t sting, they don’t bite, and they are so beautiful. And I just kind of related to them with my own personality,” Parton told W magazine in 2021.
Putting wings to Dolly Parton’s dreams
Parton’s lilting but powerful voice reverberates throughout Dollywood. Not just through her music and famous “Dolly-isms,” but her magic touch is felt in every part of the park, from rides and attractions to festivals and hotels, and everything in between.
“I think she’s always going to be our Dreamer-in-Chief,” Dollywood President Eugene Naughton told Knox News in 2025.
“We’re always thinking of ways that we’re going to be able to make sure that 50 years from today, everyone is going to understand who she was and what she did for her hometown and what she did for the world,” he added.
Devarrick Turner is a trending news reporter. Email devarrick.turner@knoxnews.com.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How Dollywood keeps Dolly Parton’s legacy alive, from butterflies to buses
