CHATTANOOGA
Rock City celebrates its 75th anniversary in May 2007 with events planned the entire year including Fairytale Festival, Summer Concert Series, Roctoberfest, Enchanted Gardens of Light, and more.  Just in time for the celebration, Starbucks plans to open its new coffeehouse at Rock City in the spring. This location will have unique significance to the area as it will be in Cornerstone Station, the original Fairyland Community Fire Station. www.seerockcity.com

ELKTON
The Matt Gardner Homestead Museum opens in 2007.  The Matt Gardner Homestead was listed on the National Registry of Historical Places for its significance in African-American ethnic heritage, agriculture, commerce and architecture from1870-1942.

GATLINBURG
Replete with festivals and events, Gatlinburg’s Bicentennial celebrations will only add to the on-going activities that are this destination’s main-stay. The anniversary officially began on Nov. 27, 2006 and will continue throughout the year. www.gatlinburg-tennessee.com/events/bicentennial.html

JACKSON
The Discovery Museum, a family museum featuring historical exhibit programming, will open in Spring of 2007. The facility will include a hands-on children's museum focusing on history, technology and science. The new museum will be located at 312 E. Lafayette St. West Tennessee Healthcare Sportsplex will open in March 2007. This new baseball and softball facility encompasses approximately 70 acres adjacent to Pringles Park, home of Jackson's minor league Chicago Cubs affiliate, the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx. Facilities include a total of 17 fields used for regional and national baseball and softball tournaments. www.jacksontn.com/ www.jacksontn.com/living_jackson/parks_recreation/sportsplex.html

JOHNSON CITY
East Tennessee State University Museum of Natural History and Gray Fossil Site is expected to open in June of 2007 in Gray, Tennessee. The fossil discovery in Gray is one of the most significant archaeological finds in recent history, identifying animal fossils more than 5 million years old including rare red pandas, sabertooth cats and elephants in East Tennessee. The museum will feature inter-active as well as permanent exhibits and is the only museum of its kind to feature both Miocene and Pliocene period artifacts. 
www.etsu.edu/grayfossilsite/ 

LENOIR CITY
Lenoir City will commemorate its centennial with many events, including a street festival in May 2007. Chattanooga’s, Rock City, one of Tennessee's tourism icons, honors its 75th anniversary in May. Preparations for Dollywood’s 20th anniversary of the Dixie Stampede are underway in Pigeon Forge as well.
www.lenoircitygov.com/ ; www.seerockcity.com ; www.mypigeonforge.com  

MEMPHIS
2007 marks the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death. Elvis Presley Enterprises anticipates one of the largest convergences of fans ever to descend on Graceland for Elvis Week.  The celebration, held August 11-19, is a remembrance of the music, magic and memories associated with the legacy of Elvis. For more information, visit online at www.elvis.com.

Ground Zero Blues Club Memphis, the famed blues club that originated in Clarksdale, Mississippi, will open its second home in Memphis in early 2007. Ground Zero Blues Club will be located in the Lee’s Landing Garage entertainment and retail facility, adjacent to historic Beale Street. The venue will feature authentic Delta blues and celebrate the area’s rich southern heritage. www.groundzerobluesclub.com

Memphis Zoo will bring back a great exhibit, opening in April 2007.  Butterflies: In Living Color will immerse visitors in a world of beautiful-winged butterflies. The Zoo's butterfly exhibit will feature 35 species that are native to the state of Tennessee.
www.memphiszoo.org

The Stax Museum of American Soul Music and Stax Music Academy will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Stax Records and 50 years of soul music in 2007, with a number of events exhibits and programs. Events will include a January-April exhibit of photographs taken in African-American churches in Memphis, as well as other cities throughout the United States; a special exhibit in May in conjunction with the Memphis In May International Festival's salute to Spain; and photography exhibits featuring famous Stax Records album cover photographs and current photographs of former Stax Records artists. The museum will also host panel discussions with former Stax artists and employees slated for March, June and October, covering such topics as behind the scenes at Stax with writers and engineers, the Stax/Volt 1967 European Tour with former Stax artists and employees and the life of Otis Redding. www.soulsvilleusa.com/ 

Westin Beale Street Hotel, a Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide property, will unveil their new $40-million, 203-room hotel in 2007. Located directly across from the FedExForum, home of the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA and the University of Memphis Tigers basketball team, the Westin Beale Street Hotel will be Tennessee’s first Westin and the first upper-upscale branded hotel to be built in the Memphis metro area in more than twenty years. www.starwoodhotels.com

NASHVILLE
The Belle Meade Plantation will celebrate its bicentennial with a variety of special events during 2007. A 30-acre historic site representing 200 years of Tennessee history the Belle Meade Plantation features an antebellum mansion, frontier log cabin and seven outbuildings. www.bellemeadeplantation.com/ 

Nashville’s bicentennial celebration was launched on Oct. 1, 2006, exactly 200 years after its incorporation. City-wide festivities continue and the anniversary culminates on July 4th with the Independence Day Concert and Fireworks at Riverfront Park. http://www.nashville.gov/celebrate/

The Bluebird Café will celebrate 25 years of original country and acoustic music in 2007. As the stepping-stone to fame for many artists such as Garth Brooks, the Bluebird continues to be the place to discover tomorrow’s hit-makers and is the premier listening room in Music City. http://www.bluebirdcafe.com/ 

Three major exhibitions will anchor the Frist Center for the Visual Arts’ 2007 schedule, with Matisse, Picasso, and the School of Paris: Masterpieces from the Baltimore Museum of Art (March 2- June 3, 2007); Lyrical Traditions: Four Centuries of Chinese Paintings from the Papp Collection (June 22 - October 7, 2007); and The Societe Anonyme: Modernism for America (October 25, 2007 - February 2008). www.fristcenter.org/ 

Nashville Children's Theatre is celebrating their 75th anniversary as the oldest professional Children's Theatre in the country. The theatre is known for compelling, high-quality performances which form the cornerstone of this professional theatre for young people. www.nashvillechildrenstheatre.org/ 

Historic RCA Studio B will also observe its 50th anniversary in 2007. Once the recording home of music titans like Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, RCA Studio B is now one of the popular cultural attractions in Music City and also serves as a classroom for Nashville-area students. http://www.countrymusichalloffame.com/site/studiob.aspx

OAK RIDGE
The American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge will open a new permanent exhibition, Y-12 and National Defense which will provide an interactive “gate pass,” current audiovisual presentations and an interactive kiosk with a Y-12 quiz, plus an area of artifacts including a model of the first atomic bomb “Little Boy” that helped to end World War II.  The exhibit is expected to open in January 2007. www.amse.org/ 

PARSONS
Parsons Area Historical Museum & Visual Arts Gallery opened in September 2006 but will be fully operational in January 2007. From the earliest days and the first settlers to current times, the Parsons Historical Museum draws from the past to tell future generations the story of our hopes, dreams, progress and achievements.  The museum features exhibits depicting the geological and human history of the region reflecting on the influence of the Tennessee River, the railroads, regional commerce, educational institutions and the people who helped build the diverse culture of the region. The genealogy room, with a computer link to multiple national reference resources, in-house reference library of local history and collection of oral histories gathered from some of Decatur County’s oldest residents, is an incredible storehouse of information. www.decaturcountytennessee.org/ 

PIGEON FORGE
Dollywood's Splash Country unveiled plans for a $2.75 million leisure pool, The Cascades, set to open in 2007.  The new recreation area will offer a unique blend of adventure and tranquility in a lagoon-style, 7,500-sq.-ft., beach entry pool.  In addition to beautiful landscaping, guests will feel the refreshing effects of 20-foot water sprays from a geyser on the pool's edge.  The Cascades' 25 interactive elements include four slides and small coves around the perimeter filled with misters, slides, bubbles and "lily pads”. 

Dollywood announced a new ride for 2007. Mystery Mine, a $17.5 million coaster, is the largest capital investment in the company’s history. The new steel roller coaster brings a one-acre expansion of Dollywood’s Timber Canyon area. Mystery Mine is set in an abandoned coal mine where eight-passenger mine carts immediately plunge riders into darkness before continuing along a 1,811-foot track through the ruins of an early 1900s mine.  During Mystery Mine’s 2.5-minute journey, passengers encounter a 95-degree, 85-foot vertical drop in addition to a weightless inversion known as a “heart-line roll” and a “rollover loop” or double inversion which consists of an upward half-loop and a half-roll. 
www.mypigeonforge.com

TENNESSEE OVERHILL AREA
Offered the first weekend of October 2006 and every weekend in 2007 from May - November, the Hiwassee River Rail Adventures is a series of railroad passenger excursions through the Hiwassee River Gorge and the Hiwassee River through the Cherokee National Forest into an area accessible only by this railroad.  The scenery is spectacular. The route is actually part of the Old Line, a historic railroad line that was built in 1890 and was part of the old Louisville & Nashville Railroad for many years. It was part of the CSX system until 2002 when it was sold to Tennessee Overhill Heritage Association.   The trains will be operated by Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum at Chattanooga through an operating agreement with the Tennessee Overhill Heritage Association. www.hiwassee.tvrail.com/  

WARREN COUNTY
Warren County will also observe its 200 anniversary with a special event every month. The debut event on January 13 is an exhibit of quilts dating back 200 years. www.warrentn.com/ 

WAYNE COUNTY
The new Wayne County Welcome Center is the only Tennessee rest stop on the Natchez Trace Parkway and will serve as the first impression of the state for many visitors. www.waynecountychamber.org/ 

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