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36-408: 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. Origins of Tweetsie Railroad The theme park's history can be traced back to the late 19th Century, when narrow-gauge railroads began to access

72-478: A chairlift and amusement ride area was constructed on the central mountain inside the rail loop, and over the decades the park has been expanded with additional rides, attractions, shops, zoo and restaurants. In 1961, Grover and Harry Robbins built another theme park called "Rebel Railroad" in the Smoky Mountains near Pigeon Forge, Tennessee . Originally featuring a Civil War theme in connection with

108-558: A physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland , West Virginia , Virginia , North Carolina , South Carolina , Tennessee , and Georgia . The province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. To

144-468: A massive texture and missed the main episode of Mesoproterozoic compression. At the time of their emergence, the Blue Ridge were among the highest mountains in the world and reached heights comparable to the much younger Alps . Weathering , erosion , and mass wasting over hundreds of millions of years has resulted in much shorter peaks. At the foot of the Blue Ridge, various tribes including

180-613: A part-owner with the Herschends and the theme park became today's Dollywood . The railroad continues to run as the Dollywood Express . Tweetsie Railroad is located on US 321 between Boone and Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Tweetsie Railroad's Wild West-themed operating season is from April to October. The park is open on weekends in the spring and autumn, and Thursdays through Mondays (closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays) from Memorial Day weekend until mid-August. In addition,

216-422: A professor and geologist at George Washington University , provide greater insight into the petrologic and geochronologic history of the Blue Ridge basement suites. Modern studies have found that the basement geology of the Blue Ridge is made of compositionally unique gneisses and granitoids , including orthopyroxene-bearing charnockites. Analysis of zircon minerals in the granite completed by John Aleinikoff at

252-714: The Fourth of July , and Railroad Heritage Weekend in August, which focuses on the history of Tweetsie Railroad's narrow-gauge locomotives. In addition to the Wild West train adventure and the amusement rides, Tweetsie Railroad has a variety of live entertainment shows. The park hosts numerous special events each season, including Letterland -themed days in May for school groups, a week-long "Day Out With Thomas" event in June featuring Thomas

288-478: The New York–New Jersey Highlands . The petrologic and geochronologic data suggest that the Blue Ridge basement is a composite orogenic crust that was emplaced during several episodes from a crustal magma source. Field relationships further illustrate that rocks emplaced prior to 1.078–1.064 billion years ago preserve deformational features. Those emplaced post-1.064 billion years ago generally have

324-763: The Siouan Manahoacs , the Iroquois , and the Shawnee hunted and fished. A German physician-explorer, John Lederer , first reached the crest of the Blue Ridge in 1669 and again the following year; he also recorded the Virginia Siouan name for the Blue Ridge ( Ahkonshuck ). At the Treaty of Albany negotiated by Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood with the Iroquois between 1718 and 1722,

360-505: The U.S. Geological Survey has provided more detailed emplacement ages. Many of the features found in the Blue Ridge and documented by Tollo and others have confirmed that the rocks exhibit many similar features in other North American Grenville-age terranes . The lack of a calc-alkaline affinity and zircon ages less than 1.2 billion years old suggest that the Blue Ridge is distinct from the Adirondacks , Green Mountains, and possibly

396-737: The Blue Ridge Mountains is Roanoke , located in Southwest Virginia , while the largest Metropolitan Statistical Area is the Greenville metropolitan area in Upstate, South Carolina . Other notable cities in the Blue Ridge Mountains include Charlottesville , Frederick , Hagerstown , Chambersburg , Asheville , Johnson City , and Lynchburg . Fred Kirby Frederick Austin Kirby (July 19, 1910 - April 22, 1996)

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432-726: The Blue Ridge: the Brushy Mountains and the South Mountains . In Virginia the Southwest Mountains are an anticlinal range that similarly parallels the Blue Ridge. The Blue Ridge extends as far south as Mount Oglethorpe in Georgia and as far north into Pennsylvania as South Mountain . While South Mountain dwindles to hills between Gettysburg and Harrisburg , the band of ancient rocks that form

468-457: The ET&;WNC's 66-mile (106.2 km) route from Johnson City, Tennessee to Boone, North Carolina . The name "Tweetsie" was given to the original ET&WNC by area residents as a verbal acronym of its initials, but also referred to the "tweet" of the locomotive whistles that echoed through the mountains. The nickname stuck with the railroad and its trains and became more identifiable than

504-712: The Iroquois ceded lands they had conquered south of the Potomac River and east of the Blue Ridge to the Virginia Colony . This treaty made the Blue Ridge the new demarcation point between the areas and tribes subject to the Six Nations, and those tributaries to the colony. When colonists began to disregard this by crossing the Blue Ridge and settling in the Shenandoah Valley in the 1730s, the Iroquois began to object, finally selling their rights to

540-638: The Tank Engine and a nighttime "Ghost Train" Halloween event in October. Tweetsie Railroad has its own locomotive workshop to maintain its two locomotives as well as providing repair, parts and overhaul services for other narrow-gauge steam locomotives from several different theme parks such as Walt Disney World , Busch Gardens , Six Flags and Dollywood . Additionally, Tweetsie Railroad also currently handles parts, restoration and service of steam locomotives built by Crown Metal Products , having purchased

576-655: The US Army, the USATC S118 Class 2-8-2 engine was part of an 11-locomotive fleet of "MacArthur" 2-8-2s originally constructed for the US Army for use overseas. During World War II , the locomotives were sent to Alaska for use on the White Pass and Yukon. Tweetsie Railroad became a popular tourist attraction, and quickly evolved into the first theme park in North Carolina — and one of the first in

612-636: The core of the Blue Ridge continues northeast through the New Jersey and Hudson River highlands, eventually reaching the Berkshires of Massachusetts and the Green Mountains of Vermont . The Blue Ridge contains the highest mountains in eastern North America south of Baffin Island . About 125 peaks exceed 5,000 feet (1,500 m) in elevation. The highest peak in the Blue Ridge (and in

648-610: The entire Appalachian chain) is Mount Mitchell in North Carolina at 6,684 feet (2,037 m). There are 39 peaks in North Carolina and Tennessee higher than 6,000 feet (1,800 m); by comparison, in the northern portion of the Appalachian chain only New Hampshire 's Mount Washington rises above 6,000 feet (1,800 m). Southern Sixers is a term used by peak baggers for this group of mountains. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs 469 miles (755 km) along crests of

684-501: The locomotive's availability, and purchased Autry's option for one dollar. Robbins then paid the $ 17,000 purchase price to the Shenandoah Central operators in August, 1955. Robbins' plan was to bring the locomotive and rolling stock back to its original home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, initially as an excursion railroad. Robbins obtained a suitable site midway between the towns of Boone and Blowing Rock, and one mile of track

720-763: The mountains and their perceived color. Within the Blue Ridge province are two major national parks: the Shenandoah National Park in the northern section and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the southern section. The Blue Ridge Parkway , a 469-mile (755 km) long scenic highway, connects the two parks and runs along the ridge crest-lines, as does the Appalachian Trail . Eight national forests include George Washington and Jefferson , Cherokee , Pisgah , Nantahala and Chattahoochee . Although

756-475: The nation. A western town and saloon were built around the original depot area. A train robbery and cowboy-and-Indian show were added to the train ride, playing off the Wild West theme that was very popular at the time on television and in motion pictures. The theme was enhanced by regular visits from singing cowboy Fred Kirby , who hosted a popular children's television show on Charlotte NC's WBTV . In 1961,

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792-548: The necessary tooling, jigs, inventory and rights in 2004. Rides at Tweetsie Railroad include: Other attractions at Tweetsie Railroad include the Tweetsie Palace Saloon and Diamond Lil's Can-Can Revue, other live shows, gold panning and gem mining, the Deer Park zoo, a variety of specialty shops and food service locations, and a game arcade . Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are

828-399: The park is open on Friday and Saturday nights from late September through the month of October for the popular "Ghost Train" Halloween event. The park then closes for daytime operations, then re-opens on select evenings after Thanksgiving for "Tweetsie Christmas", which runs through the month of December. Other special events are held throughout the season, including a large fireworks display on

864-489: The railroad's official ET&WNC name. Two years after the narrow-gauge portion of the ET&WNC ceased operations in 1950, the locomotive was purchased by a group of railroad enthusiasts and taken to Penn Laird, Virginia to operate as the Shenandoah Central Railroad, which opened in May 1953. Rains from Hurricane Hazel washed out the Shenandoah Central in October, 1954, and Locomotive No. 12

900-456: The range lacks the tree line found at lower elevations in the northern half of the Appalachian range. Statistical modelling predicts that the alpine tree line would exist at above 7,985 feet (2434 m) in the climate zone and latitude of the southern Appalachians. The highest parts of the Blue Ridge are generally vegetated in dense Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forests . The area is host to many animals, including: The largest city located in

936-617: The remote areas of the Blue Ridge Mountains . Coal-fired steam locomotive locomotive No. 12 is 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 , No. 12 is a 3 ft ( 914 mm ) gauge 4-6-0 coal-fired locomotive that ran from 1918 to 1940 carrying passengers and freight over

972-490: The southern Appalachians and links two national parks: Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains . In many places along the parkway, there are metamorphic rocks ( gneiss ) with folded bands of light-and dark-colored minerals, which sometimes look like the folds and swirls in a marble cake. Most of the rocks that form the Blue Ridge Mountains are ancient granitic charnockites , metamorphosed volcanic formations, and sedimentary limestone. Recent studies completed by Richard Tollo,

1008-824: The term "Blue Ridge" is sometimes applied exclusively to the eastern edge or front range of the Appalachian Mountains, the geological definition of the Blue Ridge province extends westward to the Ridge and Valley area, encompassing the Great Smoky Mountains , the Great Balsams , the Roans , the Blacks , and other mountain ranges. In North Carolina, two lower elevation ranges to the east, referred to as foothills , are also often included as "spurs" of

1044-455: The valley, on the west side of the Blue Ridge, at the Treaty of Lancaster in 1744. The Blue Ridge Mountains have stunted oak and oak-hickory forest habitats , which comprise most of the Appalachian slope forests. Flora also includes grass, shrubs, hemlock and mixed-oak pine forests. While the Blue Ridge range includes the highest summits in the eastern United States, the climate is nevertheless too warm to support an alpine zone , and thus

1080-523: 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," "Three-Ring Circus" and "Kirby's Corral." Giving the "hi-sign" to his young fans, Kirby

1116-407: The war's centennial, the park was re-themed in 1966 as the Wild West "Goldrush Junction", very similar to Tweetsie Railroad. The Robbins brothers sold Goldrush Junction in the late 1960s, and it subsequently went through various owners. In 1976, Jack and Pete Herschend of Branson, Missouri bought the park and redeveloped it as " Silver Dollar City ". In 1986, country music star Dolly Parton became

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1152-552: The west of the Blue Ridge, between it and the bulk of the Appalachians, lies the Great Appalachian Valley , bordered on the west by the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachian range. The Blue Ridge Mountains are known for having a bluish color when seen from a distance. Trees put the "blue" in Blue Ridge, from the isoprene released into the atmosphere. This contributes to the characteristic haze on

1188-534: Was an American country-and-western recording and performance artist and song writer. 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

1224-575: Was constructed. After restoration at the Southern Railway shops in Hickory, NC, the No. 12 locomotive and rolling stock were transported up the Blue Ridge Mountains by Charlotte-based Moss-McLeod Trucking Company. The train would soon become the centerpiece of the new "Tweetsie Railroad" tourist attraction. On July 4, 1957, the locomotive made its first public trip over the line. In 1958, the track

1260-658: Was extended to a 3-mile loop around the mountain, and the trains at Tweetsie Railroad have traveled that circuit ever since. Grover Robbins' brothers, Harry and Spencer, were also involved with the operation of Tweetsie Railroad, and the park is still controlled and operated by the Robbins family. In 1960, Tweetsie acquired another coal-fired steam locomotive, the No. 190 "Yukon Queen" from Alaska's White Pass and Yukon Route . Also built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1943 for

1296-438: Was once again put up for sale. Cowboy actor and singer Gene Autry signed an option to purchase the locomotive and train cars for $ 17,000, with the intent to move them to California for use in motion pictures. However, Autry determined that the transportation and restoration costs made his plan impractical and decided to let his purchase option lapse. Grover Robbins, an entrepreneur from Blowing Rock , North Carolina, heard about

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