Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee is a city inside Sevier County and is located about five miles north of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The city is a wonderful tourism town with plenty of opportunities for family fun in the Smokies.

Pigeon Forge, Tenn. saw its first white settlers towards the end of the Revolutionary War, around 1781. By the time the early 1800’s rolled around, two mills were built along the Little Pigeon River and Pigeon Forge was born.

In 1820, Isaac Love built and operated a furnace and iron forge near one of the mills. In fact, this is how the city received part of its name. The name Pigeon Forge is a combination of the Little Pigeon River and iron forge. In 1946, a small piece of property was sold and it became the Pigeon Forge Pottery and was the city’s first tourism-related business.

In 1986, Dolly Parton bought part of the former Silver Dollar City attraction and named it Dollywood. Since then, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee has flourished and grown in leaps and bounds to become, “The Center for Fun in the Smokies.”