Throughout adolescence my family took several road trips from Ft. Lauderdale to New York. In June 1994 we took a vacation to New York and stopped for a few days in the Great Smoky Mountains. We stayed in a cabin at the Cherokee/Great Smokies KOA campground. We owned a pop-up camper but didn’t take it with us this trip. On the day of this video my journal says we rented a banana bike at the campground and rode it around. Next we checked our dog Pepper in at the KOA kennel and drove to Gatlinburg. An Aerial Tramway took us up Mt. Harrison to Ober Gatlinburg and my sister and I rode the Alpine Slide down the mountain. After that we visited the animal habitat and rode the Tramway back down. We explored Gatlinburg and stopped by the Cumberland Gap on the way back to the KOA. That night a shuttle bus took us to a mountainside theater and we saw “Unto These Hills” which dramatically illustrated the history of the Cherokees.
Ober Gatlinburg. The Gatlinburg Ski Resort opened in 1962 featuring ski slopes, a lodge, and an ice skating rink. Real estate developer Claude Anders built the Aerial Tramway and mall area in 1972, so people could ride up to the mountain, see Gatlinburg, and go skiing. The ski resort and tramway were two separate companies until the resort had financial trouble in the mid 70’s. It was bought by Anders and combined with the tramway to become Ober Gatlinburg. Ober is a German word for “upper” or “top of”, so the name means “Upper Gatlinburg” or “Top of Gatlinburg”. The Anders family expanded the ski resort from four slopes to ten slopes. To make it a year round destination they also added an Alpine Slide in the 1970s, indoor ice skating rink, and animal habitat. After I visited in the 1990s, other attractions were added like a tubing slope (2008) and a 3,750-foot mountain coaster (2015).
Aerial Tramway. Eager skiers traveling to the Gatlinburg Ski Resort had to drive up snowy Mount Harrison to get there. Construction of the Aerial Tramway began in 1972 and opened on August 5, 1973. With convenient parking in downtown Gatlinburg, this became an easy option for getting to the resort. The tramway was designed and built by the Transportation Division of Von Roll, LTD, the company that built the Skyway at Disneyland, Disney World, and Tokyo Disneyland. It rises 1,300 feet into the mountains and back for a 2.1 mile trip. Each cabin can hold up to 120 guests for a 10 minute ride. It has a jig-back system powered by a 1200 HP DC hoist motor, so the tram going down pulls the other counter-balanced tram up. Both trams travel at 23 mph. Its 44 mm cable can hold 410,000 pounds, three times the maximum load, but I still think it’s going to snap every time. The lower mall station is at 1,340 feet above sea level and the upper mall is 2,675 feet. In 2007 the two passenger cabins were replaced with ones bought from Doppelmayr. The track ropes were replaced in 2021 along with other upgrades.
Black Bear Habitat. During our 1994 visit we went to the wildlife habitat because I think it was included free with something we bought. I only filmed the black bears in this video and two of them were mating, so that was nice. Today, the Wildlife Habitat still features their famous black bears, river otters, bobcats, foxes, and birds of prey. Their Nocturnal House can occupy raccoons, skunks, flying squirrels, non-flying turtles, and snakes. The habitat is licensed by the U.S.D.A. All their animals are either rescued or transferred from other licensed zoos.
Ober Mountain Adventure Park & Ski Area. In 2022 Ober Gatlinburg was sold to new owners and was renamed Ober Mountain. Current activities available at the park, as of 2024 are: Aerial Tramway, Alpine Slide, wildlife habitat, Tennessee Flyer Mountain Coaster, rock climbing wall, swing ride, carousel, indoor ice skating, arcade, tubing, chair swing ride, jump pillows, and a scenic chairlift with a bluegrass band at the lookout point.
REFERENCE:
Ski South East: “History of Ski | Ober Gatlinburg”; Matt Laws; 10/24/2017 www.skisouthea...
Ober Mountain: “What is Ober Gatlinburg” obergatlinburg...
Official Website: obermountain.com/
obermountain.c...
Негізгі бет Ober Gatlinburg - June 29, 1994 - Gatlinburg, Tennessee - Ober Mountain
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