Dollywood theme park will add new features, including a waterfall, to honor Dolly Parton

Advertisement

Advertise with us

SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Dolly Parton’s theme park in east Tennessee will unveil new features for fans to honor the life of the “dreamer-in-chief,” Dolly Parton, who died at the age of 80.

Read this article for free:


By clicking the button above, an account will be created and you will begin to receive some of our recommended newsletters. You may opt out of any newsletter by visiting your Email and Communication Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of any email.

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $1.44 a week*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*Billed as $5.77 plus GST every four weeks. After 52 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Dolly Parton’s theme park in east Tennessee will unveil new features for fans to honor the life of the “dreamer-in-chief,” Dolly Parton, who died at the age of 80.

Sevierville, in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, will also be placing markers throughout the city for a self-guided walking tour of places that were important to the singer, actor and philanthropist. She grew up in rural Sevier County and transformed the theme park into the county’s largest employer and a major tourist destination.

In a press conference held Wednesday, park officials announced plans to add a new character to the park called the Dream Maker, inspired by Parton’s Imagination Library, as well as adding a waterfall and stained glass windows to a chapel inside the park to reflect her deep faith.

A memorial wall for Dolly Parton stands outside the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Camden Hall)
A memorial wall for Dolly Parton stands outside the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Camden Hall)

The park will add kiosks for visitors to share their thoughts about Parton and new additions are also coming to The Dolly Parton Experience, a multibuilding section that includes exhibits about her life and career.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Granite Curling Club wants judge to stop work on housing project, review city’s decisions

Erik Pindera 4 minute read Preview

Granite Curling Club wants judge to stop work on housing project, review city’s decisions

Erik Pindera 4 minute read Friday, Oct. 16, 2026

The Granite Curling Club has filed a new court action asking a judge to review and quash City of Winnipeg decisions on a controversial project that would construct a 110-unit housing complex on its parking lot — and to issue an injunction stopping work for now.

The new notice of application, filed in the Court of King’s Bench on Wednesday, comes as a judge mulls his decision on an earlier court application from the club over how the city moved forward on approving the development.

The developer has since begun what it calls “investigative work” at the site, conducting some digging to prepare for a heritage resources impact assessment that will determine whether the area has archeological significance, the chief executive of the University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corp. Inc. 2.0 said earlier this week.

Work at the site prompted the club’s lawyers to file the new application, which will have its first hearing on Oct. 26.

Read
Friday, Oct. 16, 2026

Hurricanes’ pressure too much for Jets

Mike McIntyre 7 minute read Preview

Hurricanes’ pressure too much for Jets

Mike McIntyre 7 minute read Yesterday at 8:13 PM CDT

Oh, how the tables have turned.

Nikolaj Ehlers spent 10 years making a big impact for the Winnipeg Jets, scoring 234 goals along the way. On Saturday, he got his first against his former team.

And it was a doozy.

Ehlers’ power-play tally early in the third period snapped a tie and proved to be the game-winner in a 3-2 victory for the Carolina Hurricanes in front of 14,415 at Canada Life Centre.

Read
Yesterday at 8:13 PM CDT

Women wearing appropriate clothes to gym not asking for men’s opinions

Jen Zoratti 3 minute read Preview

Women wearing appropriate clothes to gym not asking for men’s opinions

Jen Zoratti 3 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Prior to last Saturday, I was the blissful sort of person who could say “who is that, again?” when I heard the name Shane Gillis.

Now, I know him as the comedian who said “women just dress like whores now” at the gym during his opening monologue on Saturday Night Live — a show that fired him in 2019, by the way, for being racist and homophobic on a podcast yet continues to invite him back as a host for some reason.

Gillis also likened women’s short shorts (the kind one might wear to lift weights, say) to neon fishing lures.

“And don’t look. You’re not allowed to look. For real, don’t look, because they are filming,” he said.

Read
Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Team president locked out, day after speaking out on arena’s closure

Morgan Modjeski 5 minute read Preview

Team president locked out, day after speaking out on arena’s closure

Morgan Modjeski 5 minute read Friday, Oct. 16, 2026

A longtime team official in Manitoba’s hockey community says he’s being punished by the City of Winnipeg for speaking out about the poor condition of one of its rinks.

Barry Bonni, president of the River East Royal Knights, has occupied an office at Terry Sawchuk Memorial Arena for more than four decades.

On Friday, he was locked out.

“They’re on the war path,” Bonni said.

Read
Friday, Oct. 16, 2026

A Life's Story: Musician made great contributions, advocated for fellow artists

Conrad Sweatman 7 minute read Preview

A Life's Story: Musician made great contributions, advocated for fellow artists

Conrad Sweatman 7 minute read Yesterday at 6:00 AM CDT

When a University of Manitoba dean came to inform Victor Davies that he was booted from pre-med in the late 1950s, it was — to permit a cliché — music to his ears.

“In his mind, what he heard was much more encouraging. He heard, ‘Follow your own dream. Listen to your own melody. Speak with your own voice,’” says Davies’s daughter, Heather.

Davies, who died at 87 from pancreatic cancer and PLS in late September, was nevertheless about to take a major gamble, one that would eventually earn him an honorary doctorate from the University of Manitoba and a nomination to the Order of Canada.

Few careers are as uncertain as music, and at a time when the composition departments were saying au revoir to tonality, embracing the heavily dissonant styles of France and Germany, Davies was about to go against the grain. He would soon find a new home across the border in Bloomington, Ind., where for four years he studied at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

Read
Yesterday at 6:00 AM CDT

Deaths, injuries as fire hits Alberta military base: McGuinty

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

Deaths, injuries as fire hits Alberta military base: McGuinty

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Updated: 2:17 AM CDT

WAINWRIGHT - Defence Minister David McGuinty says there have been deaths and injuries after a fire broke out Saturday at a military base in Alberta.

Fire crews scrambled late into the night as fierce winds whipped flames beyond CFB Wainwright, a massive military training base located 200 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.

McGuinty, speaking to reporters in Ottawa, confirmed the casualties but had no other details to share, including numbers or what happened.

"I cannot recall such an incident in my short time for sure as a minister, but I cannot recall an incident like this in recent memory,” McGuinty said.

Read
Updated: 2:17 AM CDT