Country superstar Dolly Parton will be attending the rededication of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Read more about the story plus see photos and video of Dolly here.
Dolly Parton will be on hand for the 75th Anniversary Rededication of Great Smoky Mountains National Park on September 2nd, joining Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue and several other dignitaries.
The public can attend the event, but it is based on a first come basis. Reportedly a maximum of 2,000 people can attend, and each person will be taken to the ceremony at Newfound Gap (on the Tennessee/North Carolina border) via charter bus from Cherokee or Pigeon Forge. Newfound Gap is where the original ceremony was held in 1940, after the park opened seven years prior. President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke at the event and called it “the people’s park”.
If you would like to attend, shoot off an email to GRSMComments@nps.gov with your name (person ordering the tix), how many guests (you are only allowed a max of 4 tickets), your mailing address, phone number, departure city (Cherokee or Pigeon Forge), how many vehicles will be used in your party and if anyone requires a wheelchair accessible bus.
Dolly serves as Ambassador for the Park’s 75th Anniversary. She is a Sevierville, Tennessee native and donated the first year profits from her album, Sha-Kon-O-Hey (Land of Blue Smoke) to the organization, “Friends of the Smokies”.
Photos: Joseph Marzullo/Wenn.com, www.wenn.com