Dollywood to Celebrate Dolly Parton With New Installations & Experiences: ‘We Will Carry Her Dreams Forward’
Dollywood, the Tennessee theme park co-founded by Dolly Parton, has announced a series of permanent installations and experiences to honour the country star following her death on 25 August. Park president Eugene Naughton unveiled the plans at a press conference on 2 September, saying Parton would have wanted the team to keep working and dreaming big, and that the tributes are designed to preserve her legacy for future visitors to Pigeon Forge.
The additions include a cascading mountainside waterfall with a sculpted guitar outside the Robert F. Thomas Chapel, plus new stained-glass windows depicting the changing seasons of the Great Smoky Mountains. Wildwood Grove will gain a new character called the Dream Maker in 2027, inspired by Parton's Imagination Library, which has distributed over 330 million books to children since 1995, along with kiosks for guests to share how she inspired them. Other changes include a reworked finale to the "I Will Always Love You" room in the Songteller experience and a new entrance celebrating her life; nearby Sevierville will also add an 11-marker "In Dolly's Footsteps" walking tour, with most features ready by the park's March 2027 reopening.
In short
- Dollywood is adding permanent tributes to Dolly Parton after her death
- New waterfall, stained-glass chapel windows and a Dream Maker character planned
- Most features open by March 2027; Sevierville adds an 11-marker walking tour
Explained simply
Dollywood is a theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. It was co-founded by Dolly Parton, the country singer and songwriter who grew up in the region and whose music and life have long shaped the park’s identity.
Parton’s Imagination Library, a book-gifting programme she started in 1995, has sent books to children around the world. The park’s Songteller experience also tells the story behind her songs, including “I Will Always Love You”, which she wrote before it became an international hit.
The park is a major visitor attraction in an area closely associated with Parton. Her influence also reaches beyond entertainment through her charitable work, making her legacy part of the region’s cultural and community life.
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