Silver Dollar City

Original Silver Dollar City Staff - Circa 1960.

In 1960, the Herschends opened the village they called Silver Dollar City, named for the promotional idea of giving visitors silver dollars as change. While little was spent on advertising, publicist Don Richardson's idea of giving silver dollars as change to park visitors led to tremendous word-of-mouth exposure. When vacationers returning home would pay for their gas and other purchases with silver dollars, people would ask where they got the coins, and the vacationers would describe the park and their Silver Dollar City adventure.

The town square had a blacksmith shop, a general store, an ice cream parlor, a doll shop, and two 1800s authentic log structures which had been relocated and restored, the McHaffie homestead and the Wilderness Church. For entertainment, a small troupe of Silver Dollar City "citizens" dressed in 1880s costumes performed street theater, presenting humorous feuds between the Hatfields and the McCoys. The staff, including Herschends, was about 17 people.

The first year, Silver Dollar City drew more than 125,000 people, four times more visitors than the number that toured Marvel Cave. "We discovered we were in the theme park business," Pete Herschend said.

In 1969, Silver Dollar City drew national attention when producer Paul Henning brought the cast and crew of the popular Beverly Hillbillies television show to the park to film five episodes.

Silver Dollar City continued to grow, adding stagecoach rides and a steam train. Ingenuity in handling challenges led to some of the park's long-standing traditions. When the steam train needed a stop to build up enough steam to make the final run up a hill to get back to the station, the rest period was turned into interactive theater. Comedic train robbers would come out of the woods to hold up the passengers while the boilers churned up the necessary steam to complete the ride.

The first craft festival held at the park in 1963 had

native craftsmen demonstrating 19 crafts including woodcarving, tie hacking, shingle splitting, blacksmithing, weaving, lye soap making and candlemaking. Visitors were so interested in the demonstrations that more resident craftsmen were added, including a glass blower, a weaver, a potter and a silversmith. That year 500,000 people visited the park and Silver Dollar City became Missouri's number one tourist attraction. By 1998, visitors were topping two million.

Silver Dollar City now encompasses more than 100 acres, showcasing America's heritage crafts with a demonstrating colony of 100 resident craftsmen - woodcarvers, glassblowers, potters, basket makers, leather crafters, candle makers, knife makers and more.

The vision of the Herschends nearly five decades ago to showcase the natural beauty of the Ozarks and to bring to life the colorful history and heritage of the area led to the development of a theme park which is today an industry leader. Silver Dollar City won worldwide recognition with the 1999-2000 Applause Award, the theme park industry’s top award of excellence based on management, operations, creativity and ingenuity. The park was also the 2001 recipient of the prestigious Thea Classic Award, recognizing worldwide excellence and outstanding achievement in themed entertainment from the Themed Entertainment Association. In 2009, Silver Dollar City won the Golden Ticket award as the “Friendliest Park” in the entire theme park industry. In 2013, the park’s new wood coaster Outlaw Run won the Golden Ticket Award for ‘Best New Ride’ in the theme park industry worldwide and the park was voted in the top ten Best Parks in the world.

The park has seen 71 million guests since it opened on May 1, 1960, contributed over $100 million to the state economy, and has employed 35,000 people over the years, including the nearly 2,000 Herschend Family Entertainment employees who work in the Branson area. A Congressional Proclamation recognized the 1880s Theme Park as “The Home of American Craftsmanship,” and Missouri Governor Jay Nixon described the park as “the Hope Diamond of Missouri tourism.”