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Tweetsie Railroad
Tweetsie Railroad is a family-oriented heritage railroad and Wild West amusement park located between Boone and Blowing Rock, North Carolina, United States. The centerpiece of the park is a ride on a train pulled by one of Tweetsie Railroad's two historic narrow-gauge steam locomotives. The park also features a variety of amusement rides, live shows, a zoo and other attractions geared towards families with children. The park also hosts a variety of special events throughout the year including their Halloween and Christmas-themed events. Park history Opened on July 4, 1957, Tweetsie Railroad began as an excursion train ride pulled by coal-fired steam locomotive #12, the only surviving narrow-gauge engine of the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad (ET&WNC). Built in 1917 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, #12 is a narrow gauge coal-fired locomotive that ran from 1918 to 1940 carrying passengers and freight over the ET&WNC's line through the Appalachian Mountai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning style on radio, in films, and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s. Autry was the owner of a television station, several radio stations in Southern California, and the Los Angeles/Anaheim/California Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997. From 1934 to 1953, Autry appeared in 93 films, and between 1950 and 1956 hosted ''The Gene Autry Show'' television series. During the 1930s and 1940s, he personified the straight-shooting hero—honest, brave, and true. Autry was also one of the most important pioneering figures in the history of country music, considered the second major influential artist of the genre's development after Jimmie Rodgers. His singing cowboy films were the first vehicle to car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Branson, Missouri
Branson is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. Most of the city is situated in Taney County, with a small portion in the west extending into Stone County. Branson is in the Ozark Mountains. The community was named after Reuben Branson, postmaster and operator of a general store in the area in the 1880s. The population was 12,638 at the 2020 census. Branson has long been a popular destination for vacationers from Missouri and around the country. The collection of entertainment theaters along 76 Country Boulevard (and to a lesser extent along Shepherd of the Hills Expressway), including Dolly Parton's Stampede, has increased Branson's popularity as a tourist destination. History In 1882, Reuben Branson opened a general store and post office in the area. Branson was formally incorporated on April 1, 1912, and construction of the Powersite Dam nearby on the White River which would form Lake Taneycomo was completed. In 1894, William Henry Lynch bought Marble Cave (renamed " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation
Herschend Family Entertainment (HFE) is a privately owned themed-entertainment company that operates several theme parks and tourist attractions within the United States, and as of 2021, one aquarium in Vancouver, Canada. Founded by Jack and Pete Herschend of Branson, Missouri, in its early years HFE was simply known as Herschend Enterprises. In the 1980s the name was changed to Silver Dollar City Inc., and in 2003, the company gained the current name. HFE is currently headquartered in Peachtree Corners, Georgia. The company's mission is to "Create Memories Worth Repeating” in a manner “consistent with Christian values and ethics.” History HFE traces roots back to Hugo and Mary Herschend from Chicago, Illinois along with sons Jack and Pete. The family vacationed in Missouri's Ozark Mountains region and fell in love with the nature the area offered. In 1951 Hugo obtained a 99-year lease on a Branson, Missouri area attraction called Marvel Cave. Hugo suffered a heart attack ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
Pigeon Forge is a mountain resort city in Sevier County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 6,343. Situated just 5 miles (8 km) north of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Pigeon Forge is a tourist destination that caters primarily to Southern culture and country music fans. The city's attractions include Dollywood and Dollywood's Splash Country as well as numerous gift shops, outlet malls, amusement rides, and musical theaters. History Early history The name "Pigeon Forge" comes from an iron forge built by Isaac Love (1783–1854) some time around 1820. The name of this forge referred to its location along the Little Pigeon River, in the vicinity of what is now the Old Mill. The name of the river comes from the flocks of passenger pigeons that frequented its banks at the time of the first Euro-American settlers' arrival.J.A. Sharp,The Historic Beginnings of Pigeon Forge The Sevier County Library Histor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smoky Mountains
The Great Smoky Mountains (, ''Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv'') are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains and the name is commonly shortened to the Smokies. The Great Smokies are best known as the home of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which protects most of the range. The park was established in 1934, and, with over 11 million visits per year, it is the most visited national park in the United States. The Great Smokies are part of an International Biosphere Reserve. The range is home to an estimated of old growth forest, constituting the largest such stand east of the Mississippi River. The cove hardwood forests in the range's lower elevations are among the most diverse ecosystems in North America, and the Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest that coa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amusement Ride
Amusement rides, sometimes called carnival rides, are mechanical devices or structures that move people especially kids to create fun and enjoyment. Rides are often perceived by many as being scary or more dangerous than they actually are. This could be due to the design or from hearing about accidents involving rides that are similar. They are expected at most annual events such as Fair, fairs, traveling carnivals, and Circus, circuses around the world. Sometimes music festivals and concerts also host amusement park rides. Types of rides * Flat rides are usually considered to be those that move their passengers in a plane generally parallel to the ground, such as rides that spin around a vertical axis, like carousels and twist (ride), twists, and ground level rides such as bumper cars and The Whip (ride), The Whip. * Gravity rides are those where gravity is responsible for all or some of the movement, and where any vertical movement is not about a fixed point, such as rolle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chairlift
An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel wire rope loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers, carrying a series of chairs. They are the primary onhill transport at most ski areas (in such cases referred to as 'ski lifts'), but are also found at amusement parks, various tourist attractions, and increasingly in urban transport. Depending on carrier size and loading efficiency, a passenger ropeway can move up to 4000 people per hour, and the fastest lifts achieve operating speeds of up to or . The two-person double chair, which for many years was the workhorse of the ski industry, can move roughly 1200 people per hour at rope speeds of up to . The four person detachable chairlift ("high-speed quad") can transport 2400 people per hour with an average rope speed of . Some bi and tri cable elevated ropeways and reversible tramways achieve much greater operating speeds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Kirby
Frederick Austin Kirby (July 19, 1910 - April 22, 1996) was an American country-and-western recording and performance artist and song writer. Life and work Among Kirby's better-known works are "Atomic Power" (1946) and "When That Hell Bomb Falls" (1950), both inspired by the emergence of nuclear weapons during and after World War II. During that same war, Kirby performed to raise money for the American effort to the extent that he became known as the Victory Cowboy. After the war Kirby was widely known in North and South Carolina for his radio and television work with WBTV in Charlotte, North Carolina. The station aired a program that featured Kirby and his sidekick "Uncle Jim" (played by Jim Patterson). The show was known at various times as "Whistle Stop," "Fred Kirby's Little Rascals," and "Kirby's Corral." Giving the "hi-sign" to his young fans, Kirby was a fixture for many years at the western-themed park Tweetsie Railroad in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Even though h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WBTV
WBTV (channel 3) is a television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Gray Television. The station's studios are located off Morehead Street, just west of Uptown Charlotte, and its transmitter is located in north-central Gaston County. In addition, WBTV's studios continue to house the operations of its former sister radio stations currently owned by Urban One: WBT-AM/ FM and WLNK, as well as WFNZ, which was previously owned by CBS Radio prior to its acquisition by Beasley Broadcast Group in 2014, followed by Entercom (now known as Audacy) in late 2017 and then Urban One in 2020 under a local marketing agreement. History The station first signed on the air on July 15, 1949. When it debuted, WBTV was the 13th television station in the United States and the first in the Carolinas; it is the oldest television station located between Richmond and Atlanta. Veteran Charlotte broadcaster Jim Patterson was the first person seen on the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wild West
The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial settlements in the early 17th century and ended with the admission of the last few western territories as states in 1912 (except Alaska, which was not admitted into the Union until 1959). This era of massive migration and settlement was particularly encouraged by President Thomas Jefferson following the Louisiana Purchase, giving rise to the expansionist attitude known as " Manifest Destiny" and the historians' " Frontier Thesis". The legends, historical events and folklore of the American frontier have embedded themselves into United States culture so much so that the Old West, and the Western genre of media specifically, has become one of the defining periods of American national identity. The archetypical Old West period is generally ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
