Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation
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Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation is a privately owned themed-entertainment company that operates several themed attractions within the United States.
Founded by Jack and Pete Herschend of Branson, Missouri, in its early years HFEC was simply known as Herschend Enterprises. In the 1980s the name was changed to Silver Dollar City Inc., and in 2003 the company gained the current name. The company was built around the Herschends' Silver Dollar City theme park, which opened in 1960 at the site of Marvel Cave near Branson, Missouri.
HFEC is currently headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The company's mission is to "Create Memories Worth Repeating."
[edit] Properties
In Branson, Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation directly owns the Silver Dollar City and Celebration City theme parks, the Showboat Branson Belle attraction, the White Water Branson water park, Talking Rocks Cavern, and The Wilderness at Silver Dollar City campground.
Outside of Branson, the company owned the Hawaiian Falls water parks in metro-Dallas, Garland and The Colony, Texas in 2004. HFEC operates Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta, Georgia in conjunction with the state of Georgia. HFEC built the White Water Atlanta water park near Atlanta in 1985. It was sold to Six Flags Inc. in 1999.
Herschend Family Entertainment also built three more White Water water parks in Oklahoma City (1981), Grand Prairie, Texas (1982), Garland, Texas (1982). Over the years all three were sold off to other companies such as Wet 'n Wild and Frontier City.
In addition, HFEC owns Ride The Ducks amphibious tour attractions in Branson, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Memphis.
[edit] The Dollywood Company
Herschend Family Entertainment Corporation is an operating partner with Dolly Parton in the Dollywood Company, which owns the Dollywood theme park and the Dollywood's Splash Country water park, both in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
The Dollywood Company is also the largest shareholder in the Dixie Stampede dinner attraction chain, which has locations in Pigeon Forge, Myrtle Beach, Branson, and Orlando.
