What year was “Silver Dollar Tennessee” renamed DollyWood?

The park opened in early 1961 as a small tourist attraction by the Robins brothers from Blowing Rock, North Carolina, named "Rebel Railroad", featuring a steam train, general store, blacksmith shop, and saloon. In the spirit of the Civil War, centennial visitors could ride the train and experience an attack by Union soldiers, train robbers, and another attack by Indians. The train and its riders were protected by Confederates who fought off the attacks, thus the name "Rebel Railroad".

The park was modeled after the Robins brothers' first successful theme park, Tweetsie Railroad in Blowing Rock. In 1970, Rebel Railroad was renamed "Goldrush Junction" when it was bought by Art Modell, who also owned the Cleveland Browns football team. In 1976, Jack and Pete Herschend bought Goldrush Junction and renamed it "Goldrush" for the 1976 season. In 1977, they renamed it "Silver Dollar City Tennessee" as a sister park to their original Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri.

In 1986, Dolly Parton, who grew up in the area, bought an interest in Silver Dollar City. As part of the deal, the park reopened for the 1986 season as "Dollywood". In 2010, Parton said she became involved with the operation because she "always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, that I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area."