By Tim Cable
Anchor / WJHL
Published: April 16, 2007

Fittingly, on Friday the 13th, Dolly Parton debuts her new Mystery Mine.

“When you have as many rhinestones on your clothes as I do you need your own mine”, laughs Dollywood’s Founder.

The Mystery Mine rollercoaster, Dollywood’s new thrill ride, is the park’s biggest expansion investment ever at over 17 million dollars.

“And that’s the mystery”, Dolly adds. “I thought well how can you get all this for only 17 million dollars”.

“It’s the only rollercoaster of its kind in the United States”, says Dollywood Public Relations Manager, Pete Owens. “Certainly the vertical lifts that are on the ride, the vertical drops I mean you drop past 95 degrees at over 55 miles an hour and you go right into a heart line roll and upside down and it’s something that’s going to take your breath away”.

Another unique twist: the Mystery Mine is a rollercoaster wrapped up in a show..call it a “show-ster”.

“We’re putting families right in the middle of a story”, Pete says. “A hundred year old legend about mining and these are really authentic superstitions that miners had miners from right around here had about mining and we kind of wove those into a fun little story”.

But one of the real stories or mysteries on this day was whether or not Dolly was going to ride the Mystery Mine.

“No”, says Dolly emphatically. “I have too much to lose to get on these rides like my hair, my eyelashes, my fingernails, Lord only knows what might spill out if I get on one of these things”.

Moving on to the Celebrity Theatre, Dolly breaks into song. Singing..that’s more Dolly’s speed. You see, it’s another year of the Festival of Nations at Dollywood featuring Ireland’s Rhythm of the Dance.

“I lost my breath watching them”, Dolly says. “I was so tired I thought how do they do that day in and day out the only one I recognized that I thought I could do is the one where they was kicking their own butt”.

“It really made sense for us”, adds Pete. “A lot of folks in this area are Irish by heritage that’s the folks, the Scots, the Irish are the folks that really settled here and it’s something that our guests really like”.

And Irish eyes will be smiling through May 7th at Dollywood. For more on Dollywood’s Mystery Mine and the Festival of Nations, read Joe Tennis’ story in the Thursday April 19 edition of The Bristol Herald Courier.