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Because of a Dream
By Henry Piarrot

"You see things as they are and ask,

Why? I dream things as they never were and ask, Why not?" - George Bernard Shaw.
In the story of a small town, I found the tunnel’s hidden light. Shining into the darkness, making day of the night. There was simply no good reason, for things to remain as they had been. For, where it was dark, there is light now, because of a dream. Shortly after Leon Downey became the director of tourism for Pigeon Forge in 1989, he and local tour operator Steve Ellis, (director of group sales for Dollywood at the time) had a conversation about how to make their community a year-round tourist destination.
Inspired by the creation of what was soon to be Dollywood’s Smoky Mountain Christmas, little did they know, they were planting the seeds of what would soon become one of the world’s most successful winter festivals. Downey’s assistant, Kay Powell was called upon to add to the discussion and lighting displays sounded like a good place to start. Unfortunately, no one around here knew much about the subject. Consequently, Dollywood flew a contingent of representatives from Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg to Wheeling, West Virginia to observe the Oglebay Resort's Winter Festival of Lights. Lasting from November to January, this annual event had grown into the nation's largest holiday light show, attracting over a million visitors per year. Powell knew that Thomas Edison developed the electric light, but at the time, that was the extent of her knowledge on the matter. Her trip to Oglebay began her now extensive education on how to bring the night to life.
Kay Powell and Laura Heydon, whose family owned the Howard Johnson’s, became the Pigeon Forge co-chairs for the first “Smoky Mountain Winterfest.”Before November of 1991, they had 92 lighted snowflakes placed along the streets of Pigeon Forge. Having adopted the snowflake as the official symbol for the new festival, 50 very excited people gathered along the River Road to kick off the inaugural lighting celebration while local musician Tim Keller and his band performed. This event is now held at Patriot Park and thousands of people attend.
The original lighting plan would take three years to implement, culminating in the huge Winterfest signs that are still displayed today. However, the real objective of this effort was to bring more business to the area and they realized early in the process that people did not have to get out of their cars to simply drive through and see the lights. A variety of events would have to be incorporated to accomplish their goal. This could not be done without a bit of persuasion by Downey and his department. In those days, more than half of the properties and almost all of the attractions in Pigeon Forge would shut down for the winter every year. First, they had to be convinced to remain open, as the new visitors would need places to stay and entertainment to fill their time. Then, the prospective customers had to be reassured that they would not come here and get snowed in. Yes, it does snow on the mountain, but there is actually very little bad weather in the valley. In the end, the businesses took the risk, the tourists trusted the weatherman, and the rest is Smoky Mountain history.
The first Wilderness Wildlife, held at the Holiday Inn on the Parkway, was a single afternoon affair that possibly 75 people attended. Today thousands participate and manytravel hundreds of miles to enjoy what is now a week-long event. Over the years, other traditions, such as the Storytelling Festival, Saddle Up and Quiltfest have joined Pigeon Forge’s contribution to Smoky Mountain Winterfest and continue to grow in popularity every year. If you do not quite grasp the impact those first few dreamers have had on our local economy, the receipts for the last winter prior to the first Winterfest; November 9-Fruary ‘90 was 56.4 million dollars. Compare that to the winter of November 2004 – February 2005 with 183.3 million in revenues. God bless imagination and year-round employment.
Henry Piarrot is a hotel manager in Sevier County . Please send all story recommendations to henry@lifeisvoluntary.ws

Published: February 02, 2007

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