The name Pigeon Forge is a combination of the one of the first businesses in this East Tennessee town, an iron works or forge, and the Little Pigeon River that flows through the town. In the 1700s and early 1800s the river’s banks were lined with beech trees. Beechnuts were a mainstay in the diet of Passenger Pigeons, which made the river a natural stopping point for huge flocks of the now-extinct species.

When the settlers arrived, the area was claimed by North Carolina’s Greene County as part of its territory. However, traders following the Great Indian War Path from Virginia took notice of the bountiful area. The Cherokee and other eastern tribes of American Indians used the area for their hunting grounds.
Colonel Samuel Wear, who fought in the Revolutionary War at the Battle of Kings’ Mountain built a fort at the mouth of Walden’s Creek around 1781, which remains a historical site in Pigeon Forge today. In 1796, the year Tennessee became a state, a large area was ceded to the federal government. That area is now Pigeon Forge and it included all of Sevier County in the Territory South of the Ohio River. The county seat was located in Sevierville at the time, where Colonel Wear served as county court clerk.
Pigeon Forge remained a sleepy rural community for decades. In the early 1800's mail was delivered twice a month from Knoxville to Sevierville. That meant that Pigeon Forge settlers had to go to Sevierville to collect mail. By 1820, Isaac Love had established and was operating a furnace and iron forge near one of the two mills in the area. On May 29, 1841, a post office was established under the name Pigeon Forge.

In 1907, population records show Pigeon Forge with a mere 154 residents. However, the lure of the Smoky Mountains proved to have an irresistible pull, and by the 1930s, visitors began to trickle into town. The now-famous iron forge was still in operation, where daily work revolved around the repair of farm implements. However, the only places the public could stay in Pigeon Forge at this time were private homes. During that time, the main road through town, which ran along the river, became the hub of the community. In 1935, Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established, and as a result, a row of native stone cabins had been built along the river to accommodate guests.

In the early 1980s, with a firmly established city government and a new Department of Tourism operating with a minimal staff, Pigeon Forge began to make its voice heard in an expanding tourism market. A major turning point in the city’s quest for a flourishing tourism industry occurred in 1986, when Dolly Parton applied her name, energy and talents to Dollywood, a theme park on the site of the former Silver Dollar City attractions.

A little more than a quarter of a century ago Pigeon Forge was a small, peaceful community where cornfields were interrupted only by the occasional business venture and two traffic lights along Highway 441. That once two-lane, black-topped Highway 441 is now six lanes wide and known as the Parkway.

From a rather primitive row of stone cabins along the riverbanks, accommodations in Pigeon Forge have undergone a startling change. By mid-2001, hotel and motel rooms numbered more than 8,500. In addition, there are more than 600 cottages, condos, cabins and villas. Many of the hotels and cabins include state-of-the-art luxuries like satellite television and in-room Jacuzzis.

Today Pigeon Forge stands proudly on its history, while also looking forward to the unfolding of its future as a lively, constantly-growing tourism mecca for as long as the Smokies entice visitors to the natural beauty found in their peaks and valleys.