Boyne Forever Foundation Resort Spotlight Series: Gatlinburg SkyPark

In 1954, a set of yellow chairlifts began carrying riders up Crockett Mountain for the very first time. It was the first scenic chairlift built in the American South — and on opening day, no one could have guessed they were witnessing the start of something that would endure for seven decades.

The mountain has seen a lot since then. What follows is its story: the disaster that nearly ended it, the community that refused to let it go, and the landmark that announced a new chapter to the world.

The Night the Mountain Burned

On November 28, 2016, after a prolonged drought and fierce winds pushed a wildfire from Great Smoky Mountain National Park into Gatlinburg, the fire attacked SkyPark from both above and below — burning across the slopes and summit of Crockett Mountain and completely destroying the SkyLift. By December, the fires had claimed 14 lives, burned more than 17,900 acres, and damaged or destroyed more than 2,400 buildings across the region. At least 14,000 people were evacuated. It was one of the largest natural disasters in Tennessee history.

General Manager Randy Watson had sent his employees home earlier that day, hoping to protect them from the ash already falling from the sky. What they returned to find was devastation — the upper terminal, the towers, every piece of wood on the mountain, burned to ash. Helicopter service was required just to remove what was left.

And yet, six months later — on Memorial Day weekend 2017 — the new SkyLift welcomed its first visitors. Ninety-two new three-seat chairs replaced the old two-seaters. The ride was smoother. The views, in a way, were more dramatic than ever: 90 percent of the trees on the mountainside had burned in the wildfires, opening up sightlines that hadn't existed before. Inside the SkyCenter today, photographs and a tattered American flag retrieved from the ashes mark what this mountain survived.

Gatlinburg rebuilt. SkyPark rebuilt with it.

A Bridge That Changed Everything

In May 2019, the Gatlinburg SkyBridge opened — the longest pedestrian cable bridge in North America at 680 feet, stretching across a deep Smoky Mountain valley with glass floor panels at its midpoint that let you look straight down into the ravine below. The bridge had been in design long before the wildfires. That it opened on the other side of them felt fitting.

News outlets around the world covered the opening. Visitors arrived from every state and dozens of countries. A mountain that had been brought to its knees three years earlier suddenly had a new way of introducing itself to the world.

A Flag, a Troop, and a Mountain Tradition

Every year during patriotic holidays, something remarkable happens on the SkyBridge. A massive 30x60-foot American flag unfurls from the span — visible for miles, framed by ridgeline and open sky — as part of SkyPark's Festival of Flags, a summer tradition that brings locals and visitors together in celebration.

After three years of flying above the valley, that flag reached the end of its life in the way flags honoring their service eventually must. Rather than simply folding it away, SkyPark reached out to Scouting America Troop 111 of Gatlinburg — a troop supported by the Gatlinburg Elks, the American Legion, and chartered by the Gatlinburg Rotary Club.

Scoutmaster Mark Walbolt led his scouts up the mountain first, so they could see where the flag had flown. Then they retired it with full ceremony: burned with reverence, the ashes buried at Mynatt Park, where the troop calls home. It was a moment that belonged entirely to this community — and a reminder of what it looks like when a business is genuinely rooted in the place it calls home.

Giving Back to Sevier County

In January 2026, Randy Watson and the SkyPark team presented a $5,000 donation to Sevier County Food Ministries — a nonprofit that has served families experiencing food shortages since 1992. In 2025 alone, the ministry recorded over 52,000 neighbor visits. During a typical visit, families receive bread, produce, non-perishables, meat, and eggs. The $5,000 contribution helps ensure those shelves stay stocked.

"We're thankful to be part of the Sevier County community, and supporting organizations like Sevier County Food Ministries is an important way we give back. The work they do to serve families in need is vital to our community's wellbeing." — Randy Watson, General Manager, Gatlinburg SkyPark

Neighbors In Need – Beyond the Shelves

SkyPark's commitment to Sevier County runs deeper than a single donation. For years, the park has been an annual supporter of the Boys & Girls Club of the Smoky Mountains, funding after-school programming for local kids — who would make the trip up the mountain each year when SkyPark presented the check, turning a giving moment into a small celebration.

When Hurricane Helene tore through the mountains to the east in 2024, the SkyPark team didn't wait to be asked. Management helped prepare meals for displaced residents in Del Rio and spent time in a distribution warehouse sorting donations headed to families in need. When the community hurt, the mountain showed up.

Caring for the Mountain Itself

SkyPark's sense of stewardship extends to the land it calls home. Each year, the team participates in a cleanup day in Great Smoky Mountains National Park — picking up trail by trail, what the crowds leave behind. Back at the park, a staff recycling program runs twice a week, collecting cardboard, bottles, and paper from employee buildings and dropping them off at the city facility. It's unglamorous work. It's also exactly the kind of work that matters.

What the Locals Know

SkyPark sits at the heart of one of America's most-visited destinations — the Great Smoky Mountains welcome more visitors annually than any other national park in the country. But SkyPark's identity has never been just about the numbers. It is tethered to Gatlinburg itself: to its recovery, its people, its future.

Here's what the locals know: the best time on the mountain is early morning, before the crowds arrive, when the mist is still sitting in the valleys and the Smokies look like they're breathing. The SkyBridge at that hour — light coming in low and golden — is something that stays with you.

Faces of the Mountain

Behind every ticket window and trail marker is a person with a story. Take Liz, who joined the SkyLift team in January 2022 as a nighttime ticket seller. She'd been coming to Gatlinburg since childhood — her family knew these mountains well — and when she eventually moved here from New Orleans to be near her sisters, the SkyLift felt like a natural home.

In the ticket booth, Liz fields all kinds of questions from guests. One comes up more than any other: Where are you from? She turns it around. "I ask, where do you think I'm from? And they think New York City. When I say I'm from New Orleans they say how much they love New Orleans."

What she loves most, though, is the team. "I love everyone that I work with. We are like a family. We work with people from all over the country — a big mix of different people." Her managers, she's quick to add, make sure she knows she's valued. In Gatlinburg, that's not nothing.

A Story Still Being Written

Seventy years on, Crockett Mountain is still surprising people. The yellow chairs that started it all are long gone, but the instinct behind them — to bring people up, give them a view, and connect them to something larger than the ordinary — that part hasn't changed.Some of the stories that stay with the team aren't the big ones. Three years ago, a family arrived at the park with a son in a wheelchair. The team brought them in early, arranged special parking at the summit, and made sure he could experience the SkyBridge. "It was pure joy," one team member recalled, "to give this opportunity to someone who might not have the chance." That's the mountain at its best.

Gatlinburg SkyPark is part of the Boyne family. And through the Boyne Forever Foundation, we're proud to help tell its story — and make sure the community work happening here gets the recognition it deserves.