Sevier County Courthouse

The year 1896 was not only the centennial of the State of Tennessee, it was the completion date of Sevier County’s courthouse.

The former courthouse, built in 1856, was considered unsafe in 1892, so members of the county court decided that it would be best to build a new courthouse.  The current site, owned R. B. McMahan and his wife, Sarah, was deeded to Sevier County that year. Due to previous fire, officials wanted the new courthouse to be built in a location away from other buildings in order to keep the courthouse safe.

Kenneth McDonald of Louisville, Kentucky designed the new courthouse and the building was constructed by C. W. Brown of Lenoir City, at a cost of $21,000.

Measuring 85 feet by 70 feet, the courthouse is 3 stories tall, with a foundation made of limestone blocks, 24 to 30 inches thick. Hand-shaped limestone makes up the exterior walls to the first floor. In those days, the blocks were purchased and brought in by horse drawn wagons. Local brick masons made the bricks that make up the walls ab0ve the first floor.

Of course, once you see the courthouse, your eyes go immediately to the tower, which rises 75 feet above the structure. It rises 130 feet from the ground and is made of wood columns 10 inches by 10 inches rising from wood trusses. The tower’s large Seth Thomas clock carried a price tag of $1,353.45. Once manually wound, today it’s electric and is struck every hour. George G. M. Nichols, aka Sevierville’s “Tinner”, constructed the courthouse’s metal dome.

Age and overcrowding became an issue again in the 1960’s with some voicing a desire to tear it down and build a newer, more modern building. County historian Joe Sharp spearheaded the effort to preserve the current structure and won by a vote of 13-11.

However, the building did take on remodeling work in August of 1971. Complete demolition of the interior of the existing building, a reworking of the clock tower, installation of an elevator to serve three floors, cleaning and patching the exterior walls, and a complete new plumbing and electrical system were a few of the major renovation items. Still, the exterior character of the building was left intact, but renovations provided for the necessary modern needs the insides required in order for it to serve a modern world. It was officially dedicated in April of 1975 and cost nearly $1.4 million.

In 1976, the National Register of Historic Places recognized the Sevier County Courthouse. It was the first courthouse in Tennessee placed on the register.

An annex was added in 1990 at a cost of $1.4 million followed a passing vote and dedicated in 1993.  The dome and clock tower were also restored that year.

Douglas Lake

To really get out and enjoy the great outdoors in Sevierville, don’t just believe that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the be all, end all. Far from it. Just a quick drive down the road is Douglas Lake and all the fun that comes along with a summer spent on a Tennessee lake.

Douglas Lake, or Douglas Reservoir for those of you who prefer exact lake lingo, is known statistically for its large shoreline (550 miles) and the 44 square miles its liquidity takes up in eastern Tennessee. At full pool, it’s said to cover a surface area greater than 30,000 acres. Douglas Lake reaches a maximum depth of 140 feet in the summer, and retains its water due to a watershed totaling 4,541 square miles. Annual water fluctuation is about 54 feet. The French Broad River and Nolichucky River feed into Douglas Lake. The French Broad and Nolichucky each derive from the Tennessee and North Carolina Smoky Mountains.

Private property makes up most of the shoreline of Douglas Lake. Visitors can find recreational facilities provided by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) at Douglas Dam. A campground is located just above the dam. Campers can use its hookups, showers, picnic area, boat ramp, and swimming beach. For more information call 1-800-TVA-LAND.

My fishermen and women make Douglas Lake a yearly destination because of its Large Mouth Bass and Crappie populations. Between those two popular sport fish as well as White Bass, Sauger, Black Crappie, Striped Bass, Spotted Bass, Walleye, Blue Cat, Flat Head Catfish, Channel Catfish, Red Horse, Red Breast Sunfish and Bluegill, Douglas Lake is an angler’s paradise. It’s consistently rated as one of the top 5 Crappie fishing lakes in the United State, as well as a top 10 location for Large Mouth Bass fishing in the country. Be sure to bring your rod and reel if you’re coming to the lake in the spring or fall – the two preferred lake fishing seasons on Douglas.

Sevierville Trolley Info

Want to have some fun on your Sevierville vacation without having to worry about driving, or trying to find a parking spot in town? Take a trolley!

Sevierville trolleys run from 8:30am until 12 midnight from early March through October. During November and December trolleys run daily 10am – 10pm with the exception of Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, on which they do not operate.

So where can you pick up a trolley? Some of the more convenient and popular trolley stops are located at Governor’s Crossing, the Sevierville Events Center, River Place Shopping Center, Sevierville Municipal Complex, Sevier County Courthouse, Wal-Mart, Tanger Five Oaks Factory Outlet Center and the Apple Barn as well as several other spots along the Parkway.

The city of Sevierville currently offers two trolley routes (North Parkway Route and Court House Route), which originate at Patriot Park in Pigeon Forge and extend into Sevierville. The routes currently operate from 10am – 10pm, 7 days a week (fall schedule). Trolleys will be scheduled to operate at approximate intervals of 30 minutes. Heavy traffic and rider numbers may affect this schedule.

Each trolley stop location will be marked with a sign (including a black bear at the top) and route map. 

NORTH PARKWAY ROUTE stops in Sevierville are as follows:

  • Wal Mart (1414 Parkway)
  • Oak Tree Lodge (1620 Parkway)
  • Apple Barn (230 Apple Valley Road)
  • McDonalds (1831 Parkway)
  • Tanger Five Oaks (Between Chop House and Conner’s Restaurant)
  • Nascar Speedpark (1545 Parkway, Near Entrance To Mini Golf)
  • Books-A-Million (In Governor’s Crossing)
  • BB&T Bank (Collier Drive in Governor’s Crossing)
  • Fairfield Resorts (320 Collier Drive at end of Governor’s Crossing)
  • Governor’s Palace (179 Collier Drive in Governor’s Crossing)

 

COURTHOUSE ROUTE stops in Sevierville are as follows:

NORTHBOUND:

 

SOUTHBOUND:

  • K-Mart Shopping Center
  • Landmark Inn/Riverview Inn
  • River Place Shopping Center
  • Parkway at South Blvd. Way
  • Wal Mart Supercenter
  • Tanger Five Oaks (Between Chop House and Conner’s Restaurant)

The trolley fare is $0.50/person. Trolley drivers will accept exact fare only.

For additional trolley service information (including maps), please call Pigeon Forge Fun Time Trolley at 865-453-6444 or click here to link to the Fun Time Trolley website.

A Sevierville Valentine’s

People come to Sevierville to celebrate all kinds of occasions from holidays to family reunions, to even romance. For the month of February, and Valentine’s Day in particular, Sevierville is the place to be for you and your special someone.

Women love chocolate, and in Sevierville there is plenty to be found. We’re talking about specialty chocolate here. Businesses like The Chocolate Ladies is a local, custom chocolate business owned and operated by Rita and Susan Key.

“If you’re looking for a unique gift, you can order our fresh, hand-dipped chocolate strawberries,” Rita Key said. “We get our biggest, most flavorful berries from Florida and the price we pay to get them depends on the weather and the available crop each year. We’ll have the berries available in half-dozen (in a red tin) or a dozen in a glossy box. Prices will likely range between $12 and $20, depending on how many you order.”

The Chocolate Ladies business has over 2,000 different molds in which they can prepare their homemade chocolates. It’s almost like a different style chocolate for each order. Those interested in sending some of their specialty chocolate for Valentine’s Day can visit their web site at www.thechocolateladies.com to view some of their delicious work. With as much chocolate as they can whip up, you’re likely to be eating their treats well after Valentine’s Day has come and gone.

Nothing says romance than a cozy fire overlooking the Smokies in a luxurious Sevierville cabin rental. Places like Sugar Maple Cabins and Majestic Mountain Vacations offer romantic Valentine’s cabins with everything from stone fireplaces to heart-shaped jacuzzis.

Sevierville cabin rental companies like Sugar Maple Cabins and Majestic Mountain Vacations have been the setting for many a romantic Smoky Mountain getaway, especially for couples searching for that perfect Valentine’s Day cabin nestled on a ridge overlooked the stars and the national park.

Visit www.sugarmaplecabins.com or www.majesticmountainvacations.com to make your reservation.

What says romance more than a candlelit meal for two? How bout a little ’60s fun to go along with it? Consider THE DINER’s annual Valentine’s Dinner on February 14 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Their special menu includes wild-caught fresh Atlantic salmon, prime rib, ribeye steak or beef tips and special shared Valentine desserts for $39 per couple. Enjoy a booth or table with the lights dimmed, Elvis’ Love Me Tender on the jukebox, plus all the ladies receive their own flowers. For reservations, call 865-908-1904 or visit www.thediner.biz.

If that’s not enough, how about a tour of the Rocky Top Wine Trail. The Rocky Top Wine Trail takes it’s passengers on a tour of local wineries where they can enjoy a free tasting of award-winning wines at each stop. Once you finish the trail and get your “passport” stamped, you can receive a free wine glass marking the occasion.

Start off at any of the trail locales: Mountain Valley Winery (Traffic Light No. 1 in Pigeon Forge) , Apple Barn Winery (Traffic Light 12.6 in Sevierville), or Hillside Winery (Collier Drive in Sevierville). (Though not on the trail, you can also visit Sugarland Cellars in Gatlinburg and Eagle Springs Winery at Exit 407.)

Where you start and where you end up are all up to you. Visit www.rockytopwineries.com.

Fuel Cost in Sevierville

When planning a trip to Sevierville and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, there are a lot of things to consider. Where are you going to stay? What do you need to pack? And especially, how much is it going to cost to get there?

Over the past 5-6 years gas prices have been all over the map and it’s no different in Sevierville, TN. Currently, gas prices for regular unleaded are just over $3.00 a gallon. Within the past year they’ve fluctuated from just over $2 to near $4 a gallon. And prices seem to go higher the closer it gets to peak travel/vacation season.

A recent sampling of area service stations indicated that there were 14 regular gas price reports in the past 5 days in Sevierville, TN. The average regular gas price in Sevierville, TN was $3.25, which is $0.21 lower than U.S. national average Regular gas price $3.46. The lowest regular gas price was reportedly $3.18 at CITGO, 2060 Pittman Center Rd, Sevierville, TN 37876. Meanwhile, the highest regular gas price was $3.30 at Exxon, 2720 Newport Hwy, Sevierville, TN 37876.

Either way, getting to Sevierville costs less than you may think. The AAA Fuel Cost Calculator is a great tool you can use to estimate the fuel cost of your trip to the Smokies. The calculator  combines regional gasoline averages along with your vehicle’s make, year and model to provide the best possible estimate.

Regional Gas Prices
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Top 5 FREE Things to do in Sevierville

No matter where a summer, winter, fall, or spring vacation takes you, there’s always that part of you looking for a great deal, or even better yet, FREE things to do while you’re out of town. For a place like Sevierville, there’s no lack of FREE attractions to take in once you hit town.

1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park – The most visited national park in the country and the only one that is FREE to enter. Named an International Biosphere Reserve, the park has more than 10,000 discovered species, including 100 species of native trees (more than any other North American national park), 400 flowering plants, more than 4,000 non-flowering plants, more than 200 species of birds, 66 types of mammals, 50 native fish species, 39 varieties of reptiles, and 43 species of amphibians. The entrance is located approximately 12 miles from Sevierville and the park covers approximately 800 square miles in Tennessee and North Carolina. It’s not uncommon for the park to see 10 million visitors come through its gates annually.

2. Dolly Parton Statue – Sevier County’s own, and its favorite daughter. Take a picture at Dolly’s bronze statue at courthouse square in downtown Sevierville. Parton said at one point that the presentation of her statue (in 1987) was her proudest moment. Parton’s Books From Birth has provided FREE books to young children in Tennessee and across the country over the years and the Dollywood Theme Park bears her name in nearby Pigeon Forge.

3. National Knife Museum at Smoky Mountain Knifeworks – Before buying that perfect knife, tour the National Knife Museum and find out the history of the knife from as far back as 6,000 BC to today. See more than 12,000 knives displayed in chronological order. The National Knife Museum at Smoky Mountain Knifeworks is open seven days a week.

4. Sevier County Heritage Museum – Explore Sevier County’s past from Eastern Woodland Indians to the first white settlers and beyond.

5. Smoky Mountain Winterfest – Millions of twinkling lights dot the Great Smoky Mountains area.  Free food, local entertainment, kids’ games and fireworks kick off Winterfest in November.  The evening concludes with the “flipping of the switch” to activate the Winterfest lights.  Pick up a free pair of Winterfest in 3D Glasses at the Sevierville Visitor Center on Hwy 66 while supplies last. These glasses help you see Winterfest in a whole new light as every point of light shifts into a snowflake.  Winterfest take places from the beginning of November through February 28, 2013.

Sevierville’s Lodge Cast Iron Outlet

If your Christmas list calls for frying pans of every shape and for every purpose, Sevierville’s Lodge Cast Iron Outlet might be one place you should visit this holiday season.

Joseph Lodge began Lodge Manufacturing in 1896 and today it is one of the oldest cookware companies in the country. The cast iron is produced in the Lodge foundry in South Pittsburg, Tennessee.

Lodge offers tours of the foundry during the National Cornbread Festival each spring.

Lodge produces a range of cast iron cookware and bakeware, including skillets, grills, kettles, griddles and dutch ovens. The year 2002 saw a development by Lodge for production of pre-seasoned iron cookware. You can also buy Lodge enamel-coated cast iron cookware.

Cast iron cooking has been a kitchen favorite with its even heating, great heat retention and flexibility to go outdoors on the grill or cook over an open fire. The joy of cooking with classic cast iron can be found in chic restaurants to the countless kitchens of avid home cooks. The cookware is vastly popular, and can be seen on the Food Network, in high-end gourmet shops, big-box discounters, upscale department stores and local hardware emporiums.

The Tennessee product that is both an American icon and one of the hottest trends in the food world: Lodge Cast Iron cookware.

Lodge Cast Iron Outlet
105 Knife Works Lane
Sevierville, TN 37876
(865) 429-1713

Golden Carat

How’s the old saying go? “It’s all in a name.” If that’s the case, then Sevierville’s Golden Carat is pretty well off. Actually, things are as good as gold at the Golden Carat and have been for almost 30 years just outside downtown Sevierville.

All these years the Golden Carat has been specializing in high end jewelry and has generations of clients to prove it. Shoppers stop by to peruse the bracelets, necklaces, and diamond engagement rings. And most tend to leave with a shopping bag marking the store’s name.

Education is also a part of the buying experience over at the Golden Carat. As far as diamonds go, guests are told to look at the “four C’s”: color, cut, clarity, and carat weight, before picking that perfect sparkler.

Diamond rings sold at Golden Carat can range anywhere from $200 to $45,000. Accordingly, weddings are up by about 25 percent based on the current trend of ring sales at Golden Carat.

In addition to remounting rings, Golden Carat offers a variety of other services to their customers such as estate purchases, precious metal purchases, same-day repairs and one-hour ring sizing.

Golden Carat is open from 9:30 a.m to 5 p.m. Monday- Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, and closed Sunday.

Golden Carat, located at 102 Pkwy. in Sevierville.

Hazel Creek

If you’re coming to the Sevierville area this year and plan on spending most of your time here in the great outdoors, it’s likely that you’re one of the many people who enjoy fishing the waters of the Great Smoky Mountains. Around here, one of those bodies that numerous anglers seek out is Hazel Creek, located at the southern end of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

For fishermen, it’s almost like killing two birds with one stone. Not only are there ample opportunities to catch some beautiful Smoky Mountain trout on Hazel Creek, small-mouth are also said to populate this area.

A tributary of the Little Tennessee River, Hazel Creek is found in the southwest portion of the Great Smoky Mountains and is also home to a few backcountry campsites. It’s one of the larger streams in the park and can be accessed from the Hazel Creek Trail – a 14.7 mile hike found at the site of the old town of Proctor.

But enough with the history lesson, etc., what about the fish? There is plenty brown and rainbow trout in this Smoky Mountain creek. Brook can be found in the headwaters, but those are catch and release only. From a casting standpoint, Hazel Creek is not difficult at all and there is plenty of room.

Many regard Hazel Creek as one of the best, if not THE best, streams for trout fishing in the national park. This is partly due to the food supply – Hazel Creek has a large supply of aquatic insects of different genus and species for the trout to eat like Caddis flies and mayflies. The Hazel Creek valley was also once home to several mountain families, as well as a large lumber company at one point. This damaged the stream in many ways but also, at least from a few standpoints, improved the stream insofar as its ability to support non-native species of fish.

The lower reaches of Hazel Creek not only hold trout, but healthy populations of largemouth, smallmouth, and rock bass. This is one of the very few places in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park where largemouth bass can be caught by fly fishermen.

Crossing the lake by boat is perhaps the easiest and most popular way to visit Hazel Creek. For a modest sum, the operators of the Fontana Village Resort Marina provide transportation across the lake by arrangement.

Sevierville Condo Rentals

Sevierville, TN offers some of the finest in lodging in the entire Smoky Mountain region. Included in that category are a number of Smoky Mountain condos that offer the comfort of home while providing a backdrop to some of the most breathtaking scenery you’re likely to find in the eastern half of the country.

An up-scale luxury condo like those at Pinnacle Vista in Sevierville TN is the perfect recipe for a Smoky Mountain vacation. Some of the many amenities found at a Sevierville condominium include an indoor pool, workout facility, and meeting space.

Sevierville Condominiums are also located within a short distance to area attractions such as Dollywood and the Dixie Stampede, fine dining, shopping at Five Oaks Tanger Outlet Mall, and entertainment like Smoky Mountain dinner shows including Lumberjack Feud and the Hatfield & McCoy Dinner show.

Want to get away to Sevierville and the Smoky Mountains? Enjoy a luxury Sevierville condo rental at Pinnacle Vista luxury condominiums. These newly constructed two-bedroom condos are the pinnacle in luxury in the Smokies. Six adults can sleep, eat, and relax comfortably in one of Pinnacle Vista’s units.

Pinnacle Vista condos overlook the Great Smoky Mountains. Our luxury condos are in a great location and offer both great value and luxury. Check out their condominium rental specials before booking. View dozens of photos and search condo availability at Pinnacle Vista.

These luxury condominiums near downtown Sevierville are only minutes from the attractions of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg TN and just 12 minutes from the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.