Escort Notes

During the late 1700s, settlers from the Carolinas followed the Great Indian Path through the Smoky Mountains along the Pigeon River and eventually settled in what is known today as Pigeon Forge. The name Pigeon Forge came from two sources. “Pigeon” referred to the vast number of now-extinct passenger pigeons that stopped to feed along the river. “Forge” referred to the iron forge that early settler Isaac Love built along the river in 1820.

By 1907, our town’s population had grown to a mere 154 residents. But by the 1930s, the beauty of Great Smoky Mountains National Park began to lure visitors to the area. In 1934, when Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established, the first guest cottages were built along the river, and Pigeon Forge’s reputation as a friendly resort town grew from there. In 1982, a tourism boom hit the city, and today more than 11 million guests visit Pigeon Forge each year.

Smoky Mountain Roots

In 1926, Congress authorized Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and a park commission raised nearly $2.5 million to help buy 6,600 tracts of land. North Carolina and Tennessee pitched in the additional $2.5 million needed, including monies raised by local school children.

As the project struggled during the Great Depression, the Rockefeller family donated the $5 million necessary to complete the park with the caveat that the park must remain a free attraction or the donation must be repaid with interest. On September 2, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt officially dedicated Great Smoky Mountains National Park, opening what is today America’s most visited national park.