Dolly Parton Tour of Sevierville TN - Tennessee Mountain Home & Family Gravesite / First Performance
Dolly Patron History in Sevierville
Transcript
0:03
welcome everyone Adam the woo here has a
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recording of this Friday November 4th
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2022 behind me well over my shoulder I
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should say is a sculpture
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of Dolly Parton this is her hometown
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Sevierville Tennessee just on the
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outskirts of Pigeon Forge in Gatlinburg
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all three of those communities are all
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kind of combined in a roundabout way but
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this is her stomping ground
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this was placed here in 1987 and has an
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interesting backstory as well the fact
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there's some photos of Dolly standing
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right here next to herself in front of
0:33
the County Courthouse Sevier County
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Courthouse
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now I have dived into a lot of the
0:39
history of this area and Dolly in the
0:42
past but one place I have not been to is
0:44
her Tennessee Mountain Home which I
0:46
tried to find many years ago and a bear
0:48
that was in the woods I did not see with
0:50
my eyes but I could hear kind of
0:52
thwarted that attempt today I'm going to
0:55
try to rectify that as well as go to a
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couple other spots that I have not been
1:00
to I'm inviting you to join me
1:04
here's one of the photos from that day
1:07
her with the microphone possibly even
1:09
singing something or at least giving
1:12
her thanks for
1:14
having this placed here she was
1:17
definitely all about her family her mom
1:19
and dad were very important to her
1:21
also down here
1:22
the statue of Dolly was erected to the
1:25
generosity of the people of Sevier
1:27
County dedicated on May 3rd
1:29
1987. and one of the folklore stories
1:32
about this even Dolly has stated it that
1:35
her father notice she's not wearing any
1:36
shoes here
1:42
and the butterfly butterfly is kind of a
1:42
symbol of Dolly when you go to Dollywood
1:44
and places like that they use the
1:46
butterfly I don't say as their mascot
1:48
but you see a lot of butterflies
1:51
you know in the story of
1:53
of Dolly here
1:59
but it is sad you never know if their
1:59
stories are true or not
2:00
but it is legend that her father for the
2:04
first couple years with this sculpture
2:06
was sitting here which show up under the
2:08
shroud of Nightfall you know after
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everyone had kind of gone home and got
2:11
there
2:12
got their photos and whatnot and he
2:14
would clean off
2:16
this to clean this off he would show up
2:18
with a pail
2:20
and a wash rag soap and water
2:23
and
2:24
clean his daughter off which is really
2:27
cute if you think about it now I am
2:28
going to go buy quite a few spots
2:30
including a little bit of family history
2:31
as well but just reading a little more
2:33
detail on here Dolly Rebecca Partners
2:35
Warren January 19 1946 of Locust Ridge
2:38
I'm gonna go up to Locust Ridge in rural
2:40
severe County the fourth of 12 12
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children she had 11 brothers and sisters
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this is such a great time to be in this
2:48
area mostly because you know the weather
2:50
is nice the leaves are changing very
2:52
beautifully you can see the leaves are
2:53
kind of already starting to fall and the
2:55
and the leaves are changing colors kind
2:58
of like the song that she wrote the coat
2:59
of many colors
3:01
that her mama made for her I'm gonna
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also show some mom and dad
3:06
history as well and talk about them a
3:08
little bit but the courthouse there in
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the distance it's just about 15 minutes
3:12
till 1 pm
3:14
I'm kind of noticing
3:16
Town either coincidentally Embraces it
3:20
or
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I don't know you decided so it says
3:23
jolene's on Bruce Street take a look at
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this of course the one of the most
3:28
famous songs is Jolene
3:39
coincident or
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who knows another notable name in this
3:41
area is the auggles it's the Ogle
3:43
building
3:45
kind of founding family if you will now
3:48
I have covered a lot of Dolly stuff
3:50
in my days and you know 10 years I've
3:52
been coming to this area
3:53
but the spots I'll be going to today
3:55
I've never really gone to I tried
4:02
today it's going to happen
4:02
I like all the information they kind of
4:04
have around here I'm just kind of
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showing a lot of the history of
4:06
Sevierville
4:13
oh look at this there's FDR enjoying a
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motorcade through town
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interesting oh yeah that's when he did
4:18
the
4:19
the dedication to Great Smoky Mountains
4:21
right there
4:22
this is kind of interesting historic
4:25
jail bars dating back to 1856
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quite an interesting story here
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but they now use
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the jail bars as storm drain covers
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there's only two that remain
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look at this
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oh my goodness
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I walked over here to show this
5:00
Red's Cafe
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the sun is kind of
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kind of bleaching it out just a little
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bit
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but Red's Cafe was a spot
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that Dolly as as a youth
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would go and get a hamburger as this
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artistic representation shows
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that's a young Dolly right there now a
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lot of this has been covered in great
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detail with websites different posts
5:21
things online and videos of other people
5:24
have done in fact my friend Jordan the
5:26
lion give a shout out to him a couple
5:28
years ago he went to a couple of the
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spots that I'm going to be going to and
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I also stumbled on another
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YouTuber by the name of dream poet
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and he did a video at some of the stuff
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I'm going to be showing
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and he was really passionate about what
5:42
he was showing it
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I learned a couple things that I would
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not have known
5:48
by watching his stuff I think a year or
5:49
so ago he did some of these spots too
5:51
but this is a lot of this stuff
5:54
has been shown many many times but I
5:55
just wanted to put my own spin on it I
5:57
like the reflection here Red's Cafe
5:59
Brad's Cafe here is the town post office
6:04
as the Clock Tower
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just rang behind me briefly
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train track is the originally
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originally laid among Bruce Street in
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1916 these tracks were Unearthed in 2020
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the section was reconstructed and
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dedicated in 2020 why attribute to the
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historic railroad that ran right through
6:27
here and I really like that hardware
6:28
store over there cash Hardware traffic's
6:31
a little backed up but I gotta get the
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idea of
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the hardware store Small Town Hardware
6:38
across the street there I really like
6:39
this sign too Kelvinator is Butler radio
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store
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off to the side over there this building
6:47
here at Butler species see the sign says
6:49
Kelvinator Butler radio Electric
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yeah just love the vibe down here
6:57
it's a barbershop now all right
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dolly
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I think this is supposed to be Dolly got
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the cowboy boots on down there
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got the guitar
7:09
got the blonde hair
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I'm gonna say this is supposed to be
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Dolly Parton this is a
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representation of Dolly what if I just
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went through the corn there corn is now
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obscuring dolly
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yeah I think that's Dolly this stretch
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of road here has a couple of closed
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businesses one of former cleaners
7:32
something else over there
7:32
very unique building here
7:35
and next to the Auto Refinishing this
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road is Joy Street
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which should be the location of a
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historic Theater which is long gone
7:52
was on Joy Street now here is a photo of
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the Pines I think this photo was taken
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in the 30s this is a little bit before
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Dolly performed in there at the age of
8:02
10
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which is stated to be her first paid
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performance that she ever did
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of course went on to be one of the
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biggest country stars
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of all time with her first paying gig
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was right over here and they're
8:19
renovating the building and there are
8:22
it's like a mural with some other
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artists on the side I'll walk over there
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too but you can definitely tell that the
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top of this looks the same and the
8:30
awning was right there I think that
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might be a young Dolly on the side
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painted over there and just to give a
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little correlation there's the
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courthouse
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and where Dolly's sculpture is and here
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was the Pines
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yeah the awning was right there so you
8:47
could definitely tell that even though
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it's been renovated the roof still looks
8:50
the same here and then the awning
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to the Pines would have been right here
8:55
that's shown in that photo pretty cool
8:57
that they're restoring it so when
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they're finished with it be able to go
9:00
inside at some point return and go
9:02
inside where Dolly Parton had her first
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paid singing gig and she was not the
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only notable name that played here you
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know it was an active open theater
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here in town I'm kind of wondering is
9:16
this supposed to represent her at a
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young age
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kind of does look like
9:22
the other mural with the hamburger at
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the diner
9:33
this mural was placed here
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by the artist s Bishop back in 2022
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could have been when they started
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renovating the building
9:45
now where the mark he was so in that
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photo I showed up here you can even see
9:48
the little indentations in the in the
9:50
brick and everything and it'll like top
9:52
of the roof still looks the same but
9:54
this looks like it would have been I
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don't know if it's the original tile
9:56
work but kind of where the tile goes on
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and then the little indentation here and
10:00
then the Marquee
10:02
have been right up there
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that's just so dang awesome to think
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about and good that this is not sitting
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here empty they're gonna they're gonna
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do a restaurant or they are doing a
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restoration on it
10:15
one more quick little look at the front
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of it there where the Marquee is check
10:17
out these windows over here
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those windows are still there so the
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Marquee ran parallel with where those
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windows are the windows I'm referring to
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are the ones right up here
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I still have like the little slats and
10:28
everything right there
10:30
the market would have been kind of
10:31
adjacent to that in that spot yeah go
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back to my rental car now and do a
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little driving kind of out in the middle
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of nowhere well not really in the middle
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I mean it is somewhere but compared to
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you know the downtown area it will be
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kind of on the outskirts of town if you
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will
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time to take a commute
10:51
walking one by one of the stores here in
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downtown take a look at this Earth the
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queen of hearts
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it's Dolly Parton herself
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while I've been driving today I've been
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listening to the Dolly Parton album my
11:12
Tennessee Mountain Home
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which really does put everything I'm
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showing in perspective it's all about
11:18
this area and where she lived and some
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of the spots
11:22
that I'm going to be showing today and
11:24
have shown today it's a great album I
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love it as I'm driving to the next spot
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notice this old gas station here the gas
11:31
pumps out front
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as the regular
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unleaded
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but there are a lot of family lineage
11:41
around here as well in fact this store
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looks to have been owned
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by one of the family you see where it
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says part and market right there Parton
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with an O
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p-a-r-t-o-n just like Dolly spell you
11:55
know Dolly's last name is spelled
11:59
the RC Cola
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as well
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pretty fascinating
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how much part in history there is around
12:09
here catton's Chapel
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it's the name of this property
12:18
it's kind of up a steep incline drove
12:18
the car up here
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you can just see
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how big the family is
12:59
and the maiden name
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of her mother is Owens
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notice the quote here
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I will always love you just like
13:07
just like one of her songs
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but a really great name dicey Jane
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Parton
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not sure if that was a nickname or
14:15
real first name dicey Jane
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now over here on the back side of this
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fence it's also a little church steeple
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down a little church building
14:50
are her parents
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and from what I was kind of reading
14:57
online it is common opinion and common
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thoughts
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that dolly
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will be laid to rest here
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and this is going to be
15:06
her little Memorial
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whenever that day comes in fact if you
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look at that right there the blue dot is
15:12
where I'm at
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this little parking area that's kind of
15:15
blocked off
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but look over here across the way where
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those houses are
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Dolly's Drive
15:30
so you got the parking area here
15:30
which looks to be for a future
15:33
parking section down the road
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there's some painted butterflies on
15:40
these rocks here
15:54
up here he can walk right through from
15:54
the main property
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into this other section
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which would make sense the speculation
16:11
and thoughts that
16:13
this could be
16:20
her resting place
16:20
here
16:48
this area adjacent
16:48
it's kind of a newer air newer section
16:58
but her mom and dad
16:58
Robert Lee Parton
17:01
and Avy Lee Owens
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her dad in 2000
17:08
and her mom in 2003.
17:12
now on that album I was I was talking
17:14
about
17:16
my Tennessee Mountain Home album
17:18
she pays tribute to her parents even
17:20
before they pass because that album I
17:22
think was in 1973
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which was a year before I was born such
17:28
a
17:29
such a great album a great tribute to
17:31
this area
17:32
and she talks about her love for her
17:34
parents and the family
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12.
17:42
12 well 11 siblings she was the fourth
17:46
out of 12.
17:47
that they had
17:49
Robert Lee
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and AV or maybe pronounced Abby but Amy
17:55
Lee Owens
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one of the songs on that album talks
17:59
about how hard of a father
18:01
hard worker her father was
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and his boots there's a song about his
18:08
boots
18:09
and even then she was talking about when
18:12
her father goes to heaven
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that he she hopes in heaven
18:16
that he will have some a new pair of
18:19
gold boots waiting for him
18:27
she grew up a very very humble
18:27
beginnings
18:29
only to become you know
18:31
who she is today
18:34
very beloved in this area they very
18:36
beloved all over the world
18:38
it's hard to think of anyone who doesn't
18:40
like dolly
18:41
but definitely in this area she's
18:43
treated this area very well one of the
18:45
biggest employers
18:46
obviously with Dollywood and
18:49
Dixie Stampede and all that all the
18:51
other endeavors that she's gotten around
18:53
here she treated this area very very
18:55
well
19:01
this is
19:01
flown over here
19:13
all right I'm gonna go try to find
19:13
I'm gonna go try to find Tennessee
19:15
Mountain Home
19:16
where her parents lived
19:19
and Dolly lift with her siblings
19:27
you know what's kind of interesting too
19:29
there's no names on this but let's just
19:31
assume for a moment that
19:34
this is where Dolly will be
19:37
Garth Brooks another country singer no
19:39
correlation to Dolly but other than the
19:40
style of music
19:42
Garth is a little newer style than
19:44
dollies
19:46
kind of old old-timey style country
19:49
but Garth Brooks where he is going to be
19:52
laid
19:53
has something similar to this but
19:56
already has his name on it
19:58
which is very interesting
20:03
all right moving on and real quick like
20:03
show a photo of Dolly and her mom and
20:05
dad there
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foreign
20:23
I am now on Locust Ridge Road got some
20:27
cows out here
20:29
hello cows they're just going to get
20:31
some water
20:32
the feeding trough
20:34
don't mind me cows
20:36
okay I'm not sure exactly where I'm
20:38
going
20:40
we have a river over here
20:42
which I've heard the the house was right
20:45
on the river
20:46
this also says Locus Ridge which is
20:50
pretty common knowledge to know that the
20:51
Tennessee Mountain Home was on Locust
20:53
Ridge but then it veers off here at
20:56
Parton Lane
20:57
this says no turnaround so I don't know
21:00
if I should drive down there I'll try to
21:02
look on satellite view and just see
21:05
I could keep going up Locus Ridge maybe
21:07
I'll do that first if I can't find it
21:09
I'll backtrack here
21:11
but it might be smart to check satellite
21:13
and then walk it instead of trying to
21:15
take a vehicle down there very beautiful
21:16
up here but it is definitely
21:20
up here is the key words
21:22
it's like straight up the side of a
21:24
mountain I looked on satellite view in
21:26
that other road that ran
21:28
parallel to the little Pigeon River I
21:30
don't think that was it
21:35
so I'm just traversing down this way
21:36
just gonna see what happens beautiful up
21:37
here but it's just straight up
21:45
not the Paula Abdul song
21:45
take a look over here at this little
21:47
Cabin in the Woods
22:02
even way up here got some wild horses
22:02
hello horses
22:04
any idea where Dolly's no you're not
22:06
interested okay
22:08
carry on sorry
22:15
preoccupied it's crazy all right
22:15
we got a little Shack here
22:24
take a look at this I don't know if this
22:24
was a homestead a tree is falling on the
22:27
roof
22:32
here on the Ridge Road a Ridge Road I
22:33
should say
22:34
can't tell what's in there
22:36
it's like maybe some chicken coops
22:47
okay after about 10 miles of windy road
22:47
I've now approached this sign
22:49
says Evans chapel and Locust Ridge
22:51
wasn't I just on Locust Ridge how many
22:54
years ago five or six years ago I think
22:56
it was during the winter it was during
22:57
the cooler months
22:59
there was some snow what not I was
23:01
trying to find this area
23:03
and eerily reminding me
23:06
of that time because I'm hearing
23:07
something rustling around in the woods
23:09
over here
23:10
there's a lot of bears around here I
23:11
really did not want a bear to come
23:12
charging Out of the Woods
23:14
but when I was here before I believe it
23:15
was up way up at the top of the winding
23:18
road that I was up on there I didn't
23:19
really feel much of it because
23:21
very winding The Ridge Road that's up
23:24
there however I have now found
23:28
the road
23:37
where the Tennessee Mountain Home
23:37
either stood or still stands to this day
23:40
that the album was written about
23:42
where dolly
23:44
one of 12
23:48
Children of the pardons
23:54
and I am looking over here if I did hear
23:54
something rustling but it does kind of
23:55
stopped rustling
23:58
I
24:01
got a hold of my friend Jordan
24:03
who has been here I stated he was here a
24:05
couple years ago
24:07
and he kind of pointed me in the right
24:09
direction I had a general idea that I
24:11
was going the correct way but I just
24:13
wanted to confirm I want to get lost up
24:14
in the woods off that Ridge Road
24:20
this fence looks like it's seen some
24:20
years as well
24:29
and they don't want anybody in fact
24:29
there's some cameras up there obviously
24:55
looks like they put up like a little
24:55
Bridge A Little Rock work through there
25:04
fascinating thing about this is how far
25:04
out of the way and far removed it is
25:06
from everything
25:08
I wonder if Pennywise is down in there
25:10
but on that album Tennessee Mountain
25:13
Home album she immortalizes by name the
25:16
doctor
25:17
who
25:18
gave birth her not you know her mother
25:21
gave birth as a doctor
25:27
who went down this very very steep
25:27
incline here
25:29
it is said that he
25:30
you know birthed thousands of babies he
25:33
was a local doctor and a minister I
25:35
believe
25:37
and came down this very Steep Hill
25:40
and in the Tennessee Mountain Home
25:42
behind here Dolly Parton was born on
25:45
this very property
25:47
and in honor of him
25:53
wrote a song about him that's on the
25:53
Tennessee Mountain Home album
25:56
and to think it all happened here
25:58
well kind of over there
26:00
let's see what I can see over the fence
26:01
very expansive property back there
26:08
obviously they didn't own probably all
26:08
the land they just had
26:10
a cabin that's around the corner
26:26
gosh I can't tell that I guess that's it
26:26
is that the same one from the photos on
26:29
the album I think it might be
26:31
doesn't look like it has any walls
26:33
just the tin roof that Still Remains
26:36
gosh I wonder if that's I guess that's
26:38
it
26:40
there's a photo of Dolly when she
26:42
returned back after she got a little
26:44
Fame came back to the Tennessee Mountain
26:46
Home
26:47
and grabbed her guitar and strumming
26:50
some cords there on the
26:51
the front porch of it
26:53
but just imagine 14 people
26:56
resided in that house
26:58
her and her 11 siblings and mom and dad
27:02
okay a little farther down the fence
27:04
line now
27:16
yeah I can't tell if that's original or
27:16
if that's something they built also on
27:17
the property
27:25
it almost like looks like something that
27:25
was built after the fact but it could be
27:29
and there might be something else up the
27:31
hill
27:33
up there it's tough to tell
27:39
really tough to tell
27:39
it's been two times in my life that I
27:40
have been in very close proximity within
27:42
a couple feet of Dolly Parton both times
27:45
pretty amazing experiences first time I
27:48
just happened to be in town of my aunt
27:50
and uncle coincidentally we're also in
27:52
town we were kind of hanging out doing
27:54
some stuff around Pigeon Forge and we
27:55
got word that dolly was going to be
27:58
doing some sort of press event or
27:59
something at the pirate Dinner Show
28:00
which I think is not even owned by her
28:02
anymore or it's changed names or changed
28:04
hands on the Parkway in Pigeon Forge
28:07
went over there and she was walking out
28:10
and I I didn't even know what to say I
28:12
kind of filmed filmed her she was going
28:14
into her boss and I was like this Dolly
28:16
Parton second time was the opening of a
28:19
new land at Dollywood a few years ago
28:23
and also received word that she was
28:25
going to be
28:26
dedicating the new area that's probably
28:29
three or four
28:30
five years ago give or take and went
28:32
over there and we got right up to the
28:34
front where the stage was going to be I
28:36
call a stage it was just like a
28:37
makeshift little platform and was like
28:39
kind of right up front waited a couple
28:41
hours she came out sang a couple songs
28:44
dedicated to the new area
28:46
and it was very interesting because
28:48
where I was standing was almost a couple
28:50
feet in front of the speaker Stacks
28:53
where she was projecting her voice out
28:54
that's how close up I was
28:57
and I could hear her singing without any
29:00
amplification it was just her own voice
29:02
singing and then when she would put the
29:04
microphone down and we kind of talk to
29:06
people on the sides of the stage I was
29:07
just standing right there I thought wow
29:10
this is Dolly Parton there's a living
29:12
legend
29:13
and this is where the Tennessee Mountain
29:15
Home was
29:17
99.999 sure she still owns this property
29:21
and the house is back there somewhere
29:23
I'm not sure if it was the one that I
29:24
showed but
29:25
this is the spot
29:29
very difficult to find and get to but
29:36
now that I know where it is now it's not
29:36
so hard now I mean
29:37
I probably took the long way to get here
29:39
when I probably got here quick could
29:41
have got here a little quicker any
29:42
easier way instead of going up the the
29:44
mountainous Ridge but yeah
29:46
if I come back here again at least I
29:48
know how to get here it is amazing that
29:49
they just built this fence here
29:51
keep anyone from going up in there
29:58
however this road this tree is pretty
29:58
amazing as well but this road is very
30:01
very well and distinct like they
30:04
definitely expect people to drive down
30:05
here like this is definitely a nice Road
30:08
even though it's very you know
30:10
treacherous and Traverse up that
30:12
direction
30:13
it could be in worse conditions than it
30:15
is here so people do come down here
30:19
I've seen a few other people
30:21
make this pilgrimage as well
30:23
all right I was looking at satellite
30:24
view a little closer and I do not think
30:27
that that is the relics of the the old
30:30
Tennessee Mountain home so if you shift
30:32
over this way and up that way are two
30:36
other structures and the farthest one up
30:39
I think is the actual house I think it's
30:42
this way
30:50
over like right up in there
30:50
can't really see much but it is up in
30:53
there I'll show you the satellite view
30:56
so two structures on the property this
30:59
looks like a newer one this looks like
31:01
the one from the photographs
31:04
right here that definitely looks like
31:07
the older cabin that's down there
31:10
at least in my opinion
31:15
all of it's off limits and you can't get
31:15
to but
31:16
at least I got to look through the fence
31:17
I've gotten out of that area now
31:20
and back on a more paved Road
31:31
also should mention
31:31
that the theater where she first
31:33
performed
31:37
and the cabin
31:37
have Beau bent both been recreated
31:41
at Dollywood
31:42
so you can go and see the Tennessee
31:46
a recreation of it inaccurate dimensions
31:49
and how they all live there together at
31:52
Dollywood as well as the theater how it
31:55
looked then
31:57
where she first performed has also been
31:58
recreated in Dollywood so it's pretty
32:00
cool there's some recreations
32:02
and Dollywood they meant so much to her
32:04
that she wanted a to place them there as
32:07
and there's another little cabin down in
32:09
here take a look at this
32:20
another former Homestead that's great
32:20
look at that
32:22
right off the new Road
32:27
full history
32:27
made it back down the mountain
32:30
right here along the river
32:45
hello there
32:45
it's my shadow down there
32:52
I love this area
32:52
and I'm glad I was able to go up to the
32:54
gates
32:56
oh for the Tennessee Mountain Home is
32:59
because a few years ago I was really
33:01
close and then I got startled
33:03
by a bear
33:05
that's gonna do it for today
33:07
I'll see you in the next video the Vlog
33:09
is